<< Prev Next >>

Image 1 of 3

Loading images

 Josh Daniels spent his summer trying to survive.  Green Sacramento, his business that specializes in environmentally-sustainable home improvement products, was teetering on the brink of collapse.

"It was a crazy summer," he said. 

The precipitous decline in the regional housing market and the collapse of the global financial system formed a noxious combination that was difficult to overcome.

With community support, however, Daniels persevered and Green Sacramento survived its near-death experience. 

"I got a lot of local support," he said. "People realized that they didn't want to lose [Green Sacramento]." 

Daniels moved his business from H Street to a new location on 20th Street, between I and J streets, and created a 'Green Living Center' that would act as a one-stop shop for those seeking sustainable home improvements.  He brought in a team of independent businesspeople -- an interior designer, a landscape architect and an energy consultant, all of whom specialize in green construction.  

The independent green construction team has been given offices facing a showroom filled with Green Sacramento products.

Standing in the new showroom, surrounded by paint cans, flooring displays and many unboxed items, Daniels explained that the more central location of his days-old Green Living Center already has provided dividends.  "Things definitely have picked up," he said.

The interests of both the curious passer-by and the committed green renovator are served by the center. 

"I'd love it if people just call and ask questions," said Tommy Young of E3 NorCal, who provides home energy consulting for the center.  Laughing, he explained that he often moves customers toward less-expensive but more effective products.  "I've unsold so much stuff," he said.

Although increased efficiency always has been a goal in green technology, in this economic environment more customers are focusing on it to reduce their energy usage.

According to Young, many Sacramentans spend over $1 per square foot to power their homes each year.  "I'm trying to get someone down to 25¢ per square foot [of energy usage]," he said.  For a 2,000-square-foot house, that would represent a savings of $1,500 in annual energy costs.  And savings multiply, Young said, as "energy costs [on average] increase 6 percent per year."

The improvements that the Green Living Center offers, such as solar heating and thermal insulation, do not simply increase efficiency.  "It's just as much about comfort," explained Young.

Conventional heating methods involve 'forced air systems', where machines manufacture hot or cold air and push it into a living space.  "Forced air systems are just not comfortable," Young said.  

Forced air heating and cooling oscillates between activity and inactivity, which creates an environment that is often too hot or too cold.  The radiant systems offered by the Green Living Center, however, employ sunlight and other natural environmental features to provide comfortable home temperatures.

These sustainable renovations often involve a combination of cutting-edge green technology and traditional building techniques.  

"Older homes [in Sacramento] were designed with the delta breeze in mind," said Matthew Piner, the center's architect.  

Piner's business, Piner Works Architecture and Building Group, provides renovation and other construction that best take advantage of Sacramento's unique environment.  Additionally, his company installs radiant heating and cooling systems.  Together, these techniques provide "the best of the old and the best of the new," he said.

Piner and his colleagues at Green Living Center say they hope that concerns about energy prices and sustainability will combine with increased state and federal subsidies to fuel a green construction boom, propelling the center and the region to prosperity.

"That's where the growth in the economy is going to come from, growing into sustainability," Piner said.