GLOBAL WARMING ADMITTED
LIVING WITH IT AND SLOWING IT IS THE NEXT CHALLENGE
BY PETER B. BRACE
Fifth in a Series

Green is one of eight colors approved by the Historic District Commission.

It is not, however, a hue wholly representative of our collective environmental consciousness when it comes to land development and construction, despite half the island being preserved as open space and the architectural influence of the Historic District Commission.

In the language of money on Nantucket, the provincial dialect seems to be "spare no expense and produce lots of waste." Conventional construction that can squander energy, building materials and land, is the norm that the island's fledgling green movement is striving to adjust.

True green buildings, those certified by the U. S. Green Building Council, do not yet exist on the island, although several are in the works. (See related story on p. 10).

Now widely accepted, climate change, according to 90 percent of the world's scientists who say humans are to blame for global warming, is going to drastically change our lives - even on Nantucket.

The island's ability to embrace a sustainable lifestyle is likely to play a larger role in Nantucketers'lives as the effects of global warming are felt all around the world. Rather than retreat from save-the-planet rhetoric and fears of commune style living and wind turbines dotting the island, eventually, sustainable living advocates feel, it will just make sense for everyone to live simpler lives for the good of the island community.

Chip Webster's house on South Pasture Lane wll have have counters made out of recycled paper. The bathroom counters and shower tiles will me made of recycled aluminum.

Yet this could be tougher than it sounds. Over the last month, the news media exploded with talk of global warming and climate change, including the International Panel on Climate Change's Feb. 2 release of its Fourth Assessment Report and President Bush's State of the Union address on Jan. 23.

Cutting through all the clichés and seeing what Nantucket must do to continue to prosper falls on its citizens, small groups of which are doing what they can to effect proactive change - on the town administration and on our planners who are, surprisingly, not thinking progressively about climate change impacts on the island.

THE GREEN MOVEMENT

Not waiting for a town meeting vote, or for the Board of Selectmen to sign the U. S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, a small but growing number of islanders are driving the island's green movement. Three people in particular - architect Rebecca Anderson and builders Burr Tupper and Ian Konecko - have hatched the island's first multidimensional green building firm.

Called Verde, the Spanish word for green, this trio of C02 busters will soon be offering consulting, design and construction services to Nantucket property owners who want to build environment friendly and energy-efficient structures.

"You can come to us and ask, 'What does it take to build environmentally efficient houses?' If you came to us and wanted a design, I could help you with that. I'll be designing through Milton Rowland & Associates," said Anderson. "We also want to function as design and build."

Verde's founders recently traveled to Boston to take their LEED certification exams and recently got a domain name for Verde's Web site.

Anderson also took her message out to a Nantucket Builders Association meeting last month, discovering many builders who are interested in building green.

LEED, which stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is tied to a rating system for structures designed and built by LEED-certified engineers, architects and builders who adhere to a strict code of standards for sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection, and indoor environmental quality. A structure built by a LEEDcertified builder is rated by a U. S. Green Building Council inspector for its level of greenness, silver, gold or platinum, depending on how many LEED standards it meets.

Currently, the Nantucket preschool Small Friends is in the process of planning a green building but is not sure what level of LEED certification it will shoot for. Having held one of two brainstorming charettes on Feb. 5, with a second planned for Feb. 26, Small Friends is trying to build the most environmentally sound building it can.

"You really need to look at the sustainability of any building on Nantucket, so not to look at it, that is irresponsible," said Small Friends Building Committee Chairman Joan Ottinger at the Feb. 5 charette. "We're an educational organization. Our fourand five-year-olds, they won't forget this, so we really think this is very important for the community as well."

Architect Chip Webster also has that vision, and is currently building his own house at 12 South Pasture Lane to LEED standards, hoping for gold certification when it is complete.

Webster's house will utilize a solarpowered system to heat his water and his house. Aiding this system is his design that uses an advanced framing plan requiring less wood, and fewer places for heat loss. What empty spaces there are will be filled with solid insulation called ismene, said Webster.

The 1,600-square-foot house will have counters made out of recycled paper with recycled aluminum for bathroom counters and shower tiles. Webster plans to use low-energy LED lighting, Energy Star appliances, a heat recovery ventilator to help warm and cool his house, and wool carpeting called Earthweave.

"It's the right thing to do," Webster said. "It's right for the environment. It has a smaller impact. It's a healthier use for its occupants and it will use less energy."

Other examples of green construction around the island include the houses of Evan Marley and Web site designer Malcolm Brooks, along with Sherburne Commons.

Vanessa Noel got going ahead of the green curve in 2005 with her Hotel Green at 33 Centre St. Though not constructed by LEED standards, Noel painted the interior of her building with environmentally sound milk-based paints and outfitted it with recycled lampshades, cardboard chairs, hemp shower curtains, and stocked it with biodegradable cleaning products. She also committed to serving only organic food.

BUYING, HIRING, EATING LOCALLY

Anderson said one of her goals is to start a building parts recycling center so windows, doors, framing lumber, bathroom and kitchen fixtures, and all other reusable building parts removed during demolitions and renovations can be reused instead of being dumped into the landfill. This thinking is in line with Sustainable Nantucket's new Think Local - Buy Local - Hire Local campaign that strives to bring Nantucket closer to self-sufficiency.

The fewer goods, services and workers that islanders have to bring in from off island, the fewer tons of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases will be pumped into the atmosphere. And the more materials that are reused and recycled, the longer the landfill could last. Convoluted as this sounds, it is actually fairly simple. Nearly everything we need to live requires some sort of energy expenditure, be it food, housing, labor or energy itself. By reducing the distance these staples of island life must move to reach us, and by producing many of these resources ourselves, and we decrease our impact on our environment, which is the root of sustainability.

"We're interested in having people think about where they're buying products, where those products are made, what kind of food they're consuming and where that food comes from," said Christine Silverstein, executive director of Sustainable Nantucket. "We're hoping that we can inspire people to consider the benefits of keeping as much of their consumer activity as possible on Nantucket because it will be good for the economy."

This philosophy can be as easy as buying all your vegetables from island farms, buying clothing from Murray's Toggery and the Nobby Shop, and hiring Nantucketers to help your business.

ON OUR OWN … FOR NOW

Al Gore's global warming bible, "An Inconvenient Truth" is for sale at both island bookstores and islanders can rent the film version at several DVD outlets on Nantucket; Gore's climate change message is out there for those who want it. But Selectman Doug Bennett believes the town needs to hear it, and set an example for the island by taking action.

Bennett proposed at the selectmen's Feb. 7 meeting that the board sign the U. S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement that, in essence, commits the island's government to meeting the goals of the Kyoto Protocol, as yet unratified by President George W. Bush. The agreement, dreamed up by Seattle, Wash. Mayor Greg Nickels in response to President Bush's failure to ratify the protocol, urges municipal governments to adopt the protocol's policies to meet or beat the goal of reducing emissions of greenhouse gases by seven percent below 1990 levels by 2012.

The United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Kyoto, Japan, in 1997 created the protocol in which the major industrial nations pledged to decrease their emissions of greenhouse gases between 2008 and 2012. Nickels' initiative went online Feb. 16 when the Kyoto Protocol became active after 55 percent of the 166 countries that signed the Kyoto Agreement in 1997 ratified the protocol.

As of Feb. 8, 398 U. S. mayors have signed the agreement, 15 of them in Massachusetts.

Nantucket's Board of Selectmen, having only just heard Bennett's proposal, is not ready to answer Nickels' call for action.

"I felt that people responded quite positively to that, but whether we would sign on to that, I can't say at this time, not that I found anything wrong with that," said Selectmen Chairman Whitey Willauer. "We heard, we're listening to it and the response was very positive."

To help jumpstart island municipal green projects, Bennett also wants Provincetown Town Manager Keith Bergman to present Gore's hourlong "Inconvenient Truth" slideshow to the board; Bergman being one of 1,000 people nationwide who Gore trained to spread his message about combating global warming. Meanwhile, the Nantucket Planning & Economic Development Commission is no closer to planning for impacts of global warming or setting any policies.

"It's still controversial," said Planning Director Andrew Vorce. "We have some commission members that will argue about the data. It's just not an issue that's grabbed their attention."

LIVING WITH IT

With no official direction from their leaders, Nantucketers, as evidenced by the blossoming green building movement, purchases of hybrid vehicles, solar panel installations and the sale of compact fluorescent light bulbs, are following Nickels' lead by affecting change on their own.

"Over this past winter, the sales have gone up tremendously," said Marine Home Center Front End Supervisor Doranne Ross on sales of compact fluorescent light bulbs.

However, Nantucket still faces unknowns that are more or less out of its control. Regardless of how hurricanes and northeast storms are generated, insurance companies are pulling out along the state's coast. Past storms and long-term forecasts are driving this trend, along with the re-insurance companies - insurers of the insurance companies - raising their premiums.

"This is not a Massachusetts phenomenon," said Francis Mancini, president of the Massachusetts Association of Insurance Agents. "This is happening all along the East Coast and the Gulf Coast. Companies are withdrawing and making themselves less visible."

In qualifying his statement, Mancini said that the pullout by insurers is not tied to global warming but to catastrophic storm modeling by the reinsurers' insurance rating system that examines impacts on their policyholders collectively known as their book of business.

"The modeling I'm talking about has nothing to do with global warming," he said. "As far as I know, all they're looking at is, is this event is going to happen?"

Similarly, for Nantucket Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Tracy Bakalar, it is still too early to blame global warming for visitors choosing other destinations because of inclement weather. Right now, she points to weeklong forecasts by the meteorologists in Boston whose Monday predictions for bad weekend weather always seem to scare visitors into canceling their trips.

"Absolutely, weather has an influence on visitation to Nantucket, specifically rainy weather, bad weather, especially in the spring," said Bakalar. "It seems that weather can be more unpredictable in the spring. It seems that we've had a few seasons [spring] when rain has specifically influenced travelers."

But Bakalar said island businesses compensate for the spring losses with increasingly stronger sales in the fall right on through Columbus Day Weekend.

"Thankfully, we've had some pretty good fall weather to counteract the bad spring weather," she said.

Next week: Some solutions for living with climate change I