CARBON (kär'bən)

To follow through with an eco-conscious commitment made at Elliott Workgroup in 2008, we decided to calculate our carbon footprint at the end of 2008. The goal was to create a baseline from which we can move forward and improve. The baseline carbon footprint was 57.8 metric tons of CO2 annually for the company or approximately 4.8 metric tons of CO2 per employee. Of that total, approximately 29.6 metric tons are attributed to employee commuting.

Elliott Workgroup is located in Park City, Utah and the majority of our employees live within the Park City area. Of the twelve employees from 2008, four commuted from the Salt Lake Valley. One of the four employees commuted only three days a week. As a note, we did not credit participation in the Rocky Mountain Power Blue Sky program and airplane business travel in 2008 was limited.

As a review, our energy use, recycled content paper, and recycling program is very efficient and makes a positive statement on our approach. The largest reduction we can make internally as a business deals with employee commuting. We are currently working on how to refine our efficiencies within the office and reduce our commuting.

What is really interesting is that we have a value. 57.8 metric tons of CO2. We know where we can make a difference, commuting. We have an office in the Salt Lake Valley, but the efficiencies do not outweigh the ability to create architecture in a studio atmosphere. The next steps will depend on the entire staff, their actions and on their individual values, not just the company values.

ENERGY (ěn'ər-jē)

The last entry was focused on a possible values based solution to a current economic issue affecting the United States. The following text is forward looking and also solutions based. This entry is long and maybe a bit dated, but the reason is clear. I wrote this as a senior in high school in 1981. After 28 years, these dreams are finally coming true. I am currently able to incorporate into my every day work as an architect the dreams of a young man. I found it amazing to look back and realize the time and energy we have been wasting as a country.

Self-Sufficiency in the Home - Tonganoxie High School - May 10, 1981

Energy and fuel prices have accelerated rapidly in the past few years, and this increase may be attributed to the wasting of our natural resources. Due to this great rise in price and the inverse relationship to the energy reserves that we have in this country, a whole new style of thought has been created for almost every homeowner. It is self-sufficiency.

Before further detail is expounded upon the subject, self-sufficiency must be defined and explained. A self-sufficient person is one who needs not rely on anyone else, or in this case a power company, oil company, or even a natural gas company. A self-sufficient person relies merely on what he possesses or maintains. Also intertwined within this idea must be the term efficiency. For if it is not an efficient operation, the ability of sustaining self-sufficiency would be severely hindered.

This self-sufficiency is even more important to today’s style of living than it has been in the past. Gone are the days of putting up chilly concrete coops and smothering them with oil when the wind blows in the winter.1 Since this statement is becoming so true- -as our reserves diminish- -the most likely, inexpensive and feasible way to heat a home in the winter seems to lie in the harnessing of the sun’s energy.

From earliest times the sun was treated as a diety; the giver and sustainer of life.2 It was not until the fourth century B.C. that the potentialities of southern orientation to provide heat was recorded by the Greek writer Xenophon. His suggestion, in liberal translation: Make the south wall higher than the north, thereby providing a large area to absorb the sun’s heat and warm the house while having a much lower north wall “to keep out the winds.”3 This concept has not been forgotten, bust was merely discarded until Dr. Felix Trombe, a French scientist, incorporated it into his design. Only a few modifications were needed to develop one of the first solar homes.


Trombe’s design, like Xenophon’s, has a small north wall and much larger southern exposed wall. The main difference between the two is that Trombe’s south wall is covered completely by glass and backed by a concrete wall, whereas Xenophon’s was a solid wall. Concrete may not be the most attractive exterior but it suits Trombe’s purpose. When used in a wall one foot thick, it will store the sunshine it receives during the day and release it at night. The price of the storage is nil since the wall has already paid for itself by holding up the house.4 To add to this design’s heating ability, moveable vents are placed at the top of the wall near the ceiling and lower near the floor. The positioning of these vents at the places mentioned produce a natural draft, pulling hot air from between the wall and the window into the room at the top vent; therefore, it creates a vacuum that pulls air from the room into the space between the wall and window to be reheated. All this takes place without the use of a single watt of electricity, it will cut the cost of heating that much more. Cooling for the summer can also be adapted to this design. By simply adding a vent in the north wall and one at the top of the windows on the south wall a natural cooling system will be conceived. This is created by the drawing of cool air from the shaded north wall into the house and in turn the pushing of hot air to the outside. This is only one form of solar heating, another from that is more accepted in this country is the flat-plate solar collector.

The flat-plate solar collector usually consists of a large number of small-diameter tubes that run parallel to each other and follow the pitch of the roof. At each end, these tubes are connected to a larger-diameter tube called a header, which runs parallel to the ridge of the roof. Water is usually pumped from a large storage tank into the lower header at the bottom of the roof and from there it flows upward through the small-diameter tubes to the upper header. It then travels through a supply line to the storage tank. The heat distribution through the house is usually by means of fan-coil unit.5 The heat is transferred from the fan-coil unit by forced air which is produced by a blower that forces air through the coil. While passing through the coil the forced air gathers heat from the sun-heated water flowing inside the tubes of the coil. This heated air is then passed to the rooms of the house through a closed duct system. When the water reaches the collector a second time it is noted that all the heat is not collected by just the tubes; much of the heat is collected by a backing sheet called a plate. This plate is connected to the tubes. Since both the plate and tubes are of a conductive metal, such as copper, heat from the entire collector area is conducted to the water, provided that the bond between the plate and the tubes is also highly conductive. This is very important because the surface of the plate exposed to the sun is much greater than that of the tubes. A loss as much as 1,000 B.T.U.’s per hour may be consumed due to the poor conductivity of a bond.6

The flat-plate solar collector is very ingenious way of transferring solar energy into heat. In fact, by comparing the available heat potential of known fossil fuel reserves with the amount of heat the earth receives from the sun every day, we find that the total fuel reserves amount to three weeks sunshine.7 One drawback in this system is that electricity is required to power the pump and the fan, whereas the Trombe wall does not. Although for the average self-sufficient oriented homeowner the solar flat-plate collector is more easily adapted to existing houses that are yearning for the use of solar energy.

To figure the amount of collector space needed, a broad rule-of-thumb is generally used. It calls for a heat collector unit of approximately the equivalent of forty to sixty percent of the heated floor area of the house. A unit of this size, in most cold-winter home heating situations, is expected to carry fifty to seventy-five percent of the heating load.

One major factor which leads to looking toward the sun for their heating needs is the fact that it is a limitless source of useful, clean and extremely safe energy. Although, that is not the only factor involved. Another is that the sun produces, for every square yard of the earth’s surface, rooftop, or solar converter intercepting the direct rays of the sun, approximately 1,000 watts, or 1 kilowatt, or about 1⅓ horsepower.8 This is a substantial amount of energy, more than enough to heat any house if enough area is used as the converter.

There is only one apparent drawback to these systems, that being the unpredictable visibility of the sun. Since this is the law of nature, a house would need a backup system. Any type of conventional system may be used with a so called Trombe wall, but if self-sufficiency is still desired a wood burning furnace may be installed.

The wood burning furnace is one of the most economical ways of completely heating a large house. A wood furnace operates on the same complete combustion principles as an efficient wood stove, so that wood and most residue is reduced to a minimal amount of ash. Unlike stoves, modern wood furnaces can easily be converted to burn oil, propane, or natural gas. Some will switch fuels automatically so that you have a choice of fuel, and can leave the furnace to run on the alternate fuel that you have chosen for lengthy periods of time. When fueled with wood it will require attention about twice a day.

To disperse the heat from the furnace, air is drawn around the fire box and circulated through ducts in the house just as in a conventional forced air heating system. Many wood furnaces are based upon the hot water distribution principle, in which case the firebox is surrounded by water which is then piped into baseboard radiators or radiant floor systems. An investment in a wood furnace is presently not much more than that of a conventional heating system and appears to be a worthwhile investment.

Another problem to be considered when building a self-sufficient house is choosing the proper method of insulating it. The most common method of insulating is the traditional fiberglass insulation or styrofoam. A more innovative method is to build the house underground or surround it with earth embankments. Combining this with fiberglass creates a very well insulated house. By surrounding it with earth the house is often much easier to heat in the winter and cool in the summer. In fact, it is moderately comfortable year round; therefore, cutting the energy input drastically because sixty percent of all energy used in the average house goes into heating it.9

One form of energy that is becoming very popular one again and is also clean and efficient is the wind-electric system of days past. A wind-electric system consists of four basic components; a propeller, a generator, a means of controlling the current output, and usually some means of storing the energy.10 The most efficient form of transfer medium is considered to be the three-bladed propeller. The first reference to propeller type blades for a wind operated machine occurs in Beledor’s work ‘ “L” Architecture Hydraulique,’ written in 1737. By applying modern technology to an existent source, energy can be more easily and readily produced.

Technology is the key to the workings of a good wind-electric system, but to use the technology you must know about the area and conversion factors. To properly and efficiently operate a wind-electric system he must also know the theoretical maximum transfer efficiency from windpower in the swept area of the blades to the rotational power of the shaft and the actual approximation efficiency. The theoretical transfer efficiency has been calculated at 59.3 percent, but in practice the actual efficiency of a well designed machine may reach 40 percent efficiency.11

To produce electricity with this system, a high tip-speed ratio (ratio of the speed of the extremities of the blades to the windspeed) is necessary in order to achieve high torque at high speeds. This theory also maintains that a small are is needed for the blades in comparison to the area that the blades sweep to maintain a high speed-tip ratio.

The power capabilities of the wind are approximately proportional to the cube of the wind velocity. This in more general terms means an average windspeed of seven miles per hour is seldom worth considering for the generating of electricity, but velocities of 10-12 miles per hour can often supply power economically. Wind-electric systems or wind generators, as they are commonly called, are available for 200 watts to 6,000 watts on the commercial market and have a very extravagant price range.

The site for a wind generator must be considered very carefully and the size of the generator depends on how much electricity you use. This amount of electrical use may be calculated in direct proportion to the extravagance of your lifestyle.

The latest design in wind-electric systems, wind generators, or wind chargers, which ever you may choose to use, is the system that does not contain any type of storage medium which is always a problem. Instead of storing the energy, the system is coupled directly to your existing electric lines; therefore, when the generator is not functioning the house continues to be supplied with electrical power.

If the generator produces any surplus amount of electricity the surplus is fed automatically into the transmission lines and the utility company must buy the surplus from the producer.

The windmill is not only a quaint romantic leftover from the past but also an exciting and functioning machine and it must once again assume it’s rightful place in the landscape.12

Self-sufficiency in the home is something that every homeowner is looking toward. By applying the ever increasing technological knowledge of today to the underdeveloped but exciting resources of the past, self-sufficiency could become as accepted as the electricity found within the owner’s home.
1 Daniel Behrman, Solary energy: The Awakening Science (Canada: Little, Brown & Company Limited, 1976), p. 59.
2 D.S. Halacy, Jr., Earth, Water, Wind, and Sun (New York, N.Y.: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1977, p. 148.
3 George Daniels, Solar Homes & Sun Heating (New York, N.Y.: Harper & row, Publishers, 1976) p. 43.
4 Daniel Behrman, p. 58.
5 D.S. Halacy, Jr., p. 169.
6 Peter Clegg, Energy for the Home (Charlotte, Vermont: Garden Way Publishers, 1975), p. 88.
7 Peter Clegg, p. 12.
8 D.S. Halacy, Jr., p. 150.
9 Peter Clegg, p. 12.
10 Peter Clegg, p. 88.
11 Donald E. Carr, Energy and the Earth Machine (W.W. Norton & Company, Incorporated, 1976), p. 147.
12 Peter Clegg, p. 107.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Daniel Behrman, Solar Energy: The Awakening Science, Canada: Little, Brown & Company Limited, 1976.
D.S. Halacy, Jr., Earth, Water, Wind, and Sun, New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1977.
George Daniels, Solar Homes and Sun Heating, New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1976.
Peter Clegg, Energy for the Home, Charlotte, Vermont: Garden Way Publishers, 1975.
Donald E. Carr, Energy and the Earth Machine, New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Incorporated, 1976

SAVE (sāv)

With the impact of the economic crisis hitting close to home, I've had the opportunity to think about how a crisis like this can happen. It is clearly a very complex issue, with many different causes, but I believe that there is at least one very interesting comparison. The growth in the economy has occurred in parallel with the expansion of our 401k programs. Is the expansion the cause or the result of this growth? I would speculate that the answer includes a little bit of both.

We employees and employers have been putting our monies into these retirement instruments at incredible rates, literally pouring money into the stock market. The Investment Company Institute projected that 1.4 trillion dollars of 401k assets were in the stock market by years end 2007. That figure doesn't include any other retirement savings plans, not even IRA's.
Why have Americans been investing their savings for retirement into speculative markets? Primarily for two reasons. First, the stock market has historically created more profit and more wealth consistently over a long period of time than almost every other financial vehicle. Second, by taking advantage of the deferred tax allowance in the 401k, greater wealth and profit can be amassed for retirement.

But something is different. The majority of 401k money is mindless money. By that, I mean, the majority of participants in a 401k plan select stocks, bonds, mutual funds and other sources available to invest their future in, without knowledge of what they are doing. Clearly, the majority of participants are unqualified to make these selections and thus are more than speculating, they are gambling. Each year, participants place their bets and each pay period that bet is made over and over again. Making the same bet over and over again is not very bright, but it is what participants are doing. It's mindless.

So, mindless money is going to the market. A giant firehose of money each pay period is going to fund managers and those fund managers are required to buy stocks with that money. At some point, the market becomes saturated and the fund manager has to buy stock at a rate that is higher than the actual value of the company associated with the stock. This is where fear and greed shows up and where values disintegrate and where mindless money damages the markets.

OK, so a problem is defined, what next? If values are changing and we as citizens are working together to share the responsibility to rebuild our country, many options exist that honor that change. There has been recent grumbling at the highest levels of our government about changing our retirement plans to government sponsored retirement accounts and ending the tax breaks. That's ridiculous, but requiring that new investments in 401k or IRA plans be made in Treasury Bonds, Treasury Bills, State, and Local Bonds to keep the tax incentive to save for retirement makes a lot of sense in the current economic state.

Requiring investment in government obligations for a tax break will allow private sector stocks to stabilize and provide the equity necessary to fund the infrastructure that will support sustainable growth in the US economy. At the same time, each pay period, the giant firehose of 401k money would be buying back for the American people the assets currently being held by foreign investors. If this approach is implemented correctly, the investment in infrastructure would include mass transit systems and sustainable alternative energy projects that would ultimately assist in cutting off our dependence on foreign energy. This is consistent with the Progression.

FEAR (fîr)

revised 3-7-09

The one thing that can infiltrate and poison a healthy business is fear. Fear in and of itself is based in the thought of loss. Fear is negative. When you are in fear, you are focused on scarcity. You are afraid of losing something, afraid of being hurt or experiencing pain. Decisions made solely to avoid loss or pain are rarely made with a clear head. Being afraid, often results in the concealment of the truth and when the truth of any situation is hidden, good decisions are hard to come up with.

On the other hand, fear is good. It is an early detection system. A warning of an imbalance in the situation at hand. Fear is a great indicator of potential problems, but is not a foundation or basis for business decisions.

Most businesses that experience fear also have the ability to experience growth. In the US, businesses operate within an economy that is essentially based on Capitalism. Capitalism is exemplified as being a competitive “free” market that contains the mechanism to create growth. Growth in an economy is generally considered good, though in essence it is change, and is neither inherently good or bad. When economies are in a growth cycle, it is usually built on trust. It is built on a collective conscience that believes good things are happening. When participants in growth begin to violate this trust, it is most often the result of greed. This violation inevitably causes trust to be lost and fear is introduced. It is when fear materializes that the system goes astray.

If fear is an indicator of imbalance, and if fear can be overcome, and if we understand how fear appears, then it is important to know when fear will present itself.

Within business, fear doesn’t start during decline, it first appears when all seems well. It startes in a small area and spreads like poison and infiltrates parts of a buisiness that have no reason to be afraid. One way fear shows up is in the form of paying more for goods and services (including real estate) than the real value of the product or property. This fear grows and causes an acceleration of growth that is not supported by reality. This shift in product value can cause economic acceleration and is an early signal that fear is in the air.
What causes goods and services to be purchased at a price that is more than the real value? Scarcity. Scarcity is fear in the form of not being able to obtain an object or item desired. Fear and scarcity breeds greed. This greed fuels scarcity by spreading fear and benefits those that are inciting fear. Do we really value fear?

The downturn in the economy has given us a great opportunity to reflect. It is an opportunity to discover where we have failed and to change our past actions into a new way of doing business. Ultimately the failure has been in our value system. The solution to this problem is to create a new foundation based on values that not only "do no harm", but are also "intended to do good". This change allows a course to be set to "do good" and is the foundation for the Progression.

SHARE (shâr)

My first job in the world of corporate architecture was at HOK Sport in Kansas City. It was a new office specializing in the design of sports facilities and was also a new addition to the Hellmuth Obata and Kassabaum group of architectural offices across the world. The tools of the trade at the time were, a drafting table and associated drafting equipment, a telephone (that I shared with another employee named Craig), a fax machine, a photocopier, a library full of material supplier information, a blueprint machine and a computer terminal connected to a main frame computer in Saint Louis (the mothership of HOK). There were only a few terminals and it required a significant amount of training to be invested in the employee to understand this new way of drafting.

Today all of the original tools are still available (yes I still draw by hand too), but the terminal is now a desktop computer. The software we use on our computer has changed from drafting to building modeling and the quality of the other software available is vastly improved, but it is not the software that has changed the way we do business. Essentially all the computer did for architects was change the tool they were using to draft with. We became more efficient, maybe more accurate, but it didn't change our business model. It is what the computer is connected to that has created the greatest change in our practice. The internet.

We now use online software (often referred to as web 2.0 or cloud computing) for the majority of our business tools. We use online time tracking and project management, online accounting, online contract administration, and are currently evaluating online office software for word processing and spreadsheet tools. In addition, we use the internet for email communication, online chat communication, electronic fax, and telephone through VOIP. Still yet, this is only a change in the conduit of the same tools. The largest change has come from the ability to access information. The internet has become our library, our source of information. A tool that has replaced an entire room full or sources that we had previously researched and reviewed. We now have access to more information through the internet and we no longer need to act as librarian.

Suppliers of materials and systems used in the construction of buildings have found a great form of communication with architects and builders. They are sharing information about their products, systems and services through the use of websites, emails and advertising on the internet. Not only can an architect find product descriptions, but can also download specifications, computer drawings and even some computer models of these products. This has become an incredibly valuable tool to architects, because the internet makes it extremely easy to share this valuable information.

We as architects (and I suspect other businesses) are relearning the lessons that were so hard to comprehend in Kindergarten. How to share. We have worked hard to learn and gain knowledge. We have competed with each other. We have become more efficient. We worked hard to protect our information and reduce our liabilities. But the reality is that we have only shared our knowledge in an effort to convert our knowledge into cash. After all, that is what a professional, an expert in the field of anything does. But as the world changes and our values change, so changes our practice. The structure of the internet is the inspiration. We are learning to share our knowledge with those that share our values in an effort to improve our world and in the process we are all benefiting. This is an integral part of The Progression.

ETHICS (ěth'ĭks)

On January 27, 2009, Governor of Utah, Jon M. Huntsman, Jr. stated in the state of the state address :
"... as we have moved into the digital age, I am concerned that some of our time-tested values have been left behind. In the past year, we've seen our nation's financial pillars crumble, and not because we have a deficit of talented people.
I would suggest there is one common thread: a deficit of ethics.
There is a complete disconnect with our nation's best and brightest. They have been taught to be brilliant on Wall Street without concern for their impact on Main Street. Whether in business, politics or community affairs, correcting this deficit of ethics is just as important as overcoming our economic struggles."

This is a profound statement for a governor of any state to make. This statement required insight and foresight and begins to define the problem so that a solution can be created.
Why would an architect be concerned about Wall Street ethics? Besides the curiosity of solving problems, a sizeable portion of large projects designed by architects in the recent past have been financed through means that are not traditional banking. And, most architects have experienced this phenomenon described as a deficit of ethics in the course of day to day business. The reality is that this problem is not only relegated to Wall Street, but is pervasive throughout our culture.

To really get to the heart of the matter, understanding the value of ethics is important.
WordNet® 3.0, © 2006 by Princeton University, defines ethics as:
1. motivation based on ideas of right and wrong [syn: ethical motive]
2. the philosophical study of moral values and rules

The above two definitions of the word ethics are very interesting. The first description is based in motivation and the second is based in philosophy. Both deal with right and wrong, and moral values, but the two definitions set up a potential inherent conflict. Is motivation more important than moral values? Ethics merge our values with our motivations to work as an instrument of checks and balances. Ethics is similar to a conscience for business.

Architects hold a unique position in the design and construction world as representative of the owner, creator of the project, and arbiter of the construction process. This position allows an architect to see many sides of the business world. There are good people in every aspect of business and most follow good ethical practices. In the past few years, by far the largest representation of a deficit of ethics in my business has come from the financial community.

Usually, found hidden within a large contract from a financial institution is a benign clause that asks the architect or contractor to accept responsibility, risk and liability that belongs with the owner or the financier. The intention of this benign clause is to either project fear or sniff out ignorance and allow the financial institution to reduce the risk that is theirs to carry. These types of clauses show up in all kinds of contracts.

Some would say that there is no harm in asking for someone to take on these liabilities. They would say that the architect or general contractor has the right to refuse. The problem is that this approach is just wrong and even the people asking the questions know that it is wrong. Can you ask someone to accept something that you know they should not accept, to accept something that may cause undue harm? This type of question is not much different than extortion and it is common practice in financial and contractual spheres. It is also an indicator of an ethical failure. There is no reason that a person's business ethics should be different than their personal ethics.

The fact that a governor is willing to address this issue as a point in a speech as important as the state of the state, gives me hope. It provides a glimpse into the future. A future where those that have gained great knowledge don't use their knowledge to gain advantage by hurting others, but by helping others. This is the way knowledge will be used through the Progression. The use of knowledge will evolve, as a result of our changing values. The change will occur in the same values that are the basis of our ethics.

PHOTOVOLTAIC (fō'tō-vŏl-tā'ĭk)

Amazing what you can do with the power to run 35, 100 watt incandescent light bulbs. Remember the easy bake oven? 35 cakes in 15 minutes. The heat generated to create the light is the wasted energy. That waste heat can actually be used to cook with. New technology has been developed and is currently being developed that greatly improves the efficiency of a light bulb. For example: A 22 watt Compact Fluorescent (CFL) is the approximate equivalent of a 100 watt incandescent lightbulb. Before CFL's, 25% of the average home energy budget was used just for lighting. New technologies now exist and are improving rapidly. Light Emitting Diode (LED) lights are already available and the pricing is trending downward rapidly. The power requirements of an LED is approximately 4 watts to match a 100 watt incandescent bulb and last 100 times longer.
What does this have to do with anything? Well if you are building a house today, it is possible that you are considering installing a photovoltaic (PV) system. A 3.5 kW PV system will generate enough power roughly equivalent to the power consumption of 35, 100 watt bulbs. How many LED fixtures will it operate? What can you do with the left over power?
As an architect, I am frequently presented with the opportunity to provide advice about building options that are value judgements. Each client has their own set of values, and as an architect, it is not our responsibility to judge, but to provide objective information to subjective questions. We actually have a unique opportunity to provide insights that are commonly lost in everyday life.
So, PV panels or not? If you are making a business decision based solely on money, I can not advise anyone to install PV. The return on investment (ROI) period varies on location, installation and system, but generally it will take 7 to 12 years to pay back. That means it will take that much time until the PV panels produce enough energy to pay for the purchase and installation. Considering the potential life span of these systems, an ROI analysis may not be the right approach. Because these panels are expected to operate for longer than 20 years, a life-cycle cost analysis over the duration of the life of the system will be a more attractive comparison.
There are other reasons to install a PV system, but it requires a value system that finds merit outside of money. I believe that there is a paradigm shift occurring in how we make decisions in this country. We have run the entire course on a value system that is based solely on money and the inevitable result is a failed financial system. The reality is that money is important, but not the sole reason to make any decision.
A good example of a decision that is made using a value system that includes factors in conjunction with money is where to buy or build a house. People rarely build a house in the cheapest location and rarely in a place that is the most expensive. If money was the sole factor in making this decision, there would be only two real options. Why is it not appropriate to consider making the same judgment when deciding whether to install an alternative energy system?
If you want to talk about the financial positives, the PV panels will produce a large chunk of electricity when a house is unoccupied. That production will help to offset the operational costs. The PV system will add another layer of protection to the operations of the house. If the house is lived in more frequently, the operational costs will be reduced. Also, I'll bet that carbon generated energy will be taxed within the next ten years. A carbon tax will ultimately level the playing field on the costs of coal produced electricity and increase consumer costs in many parts of the country, thus making PV more competitive.
Whether or not to install PV panels is not an easy decision to make. It requires reflection. I see it as an opportunity to refine a value system. Our power system in the United States has been controlled by a very few companies. The future will be in distributed power systems. It's much more democratic and certainly plays to the independent nature of the people in this country. This is The Progression.

(R)EVOLUTION ((r)ěv'ə-lōō'shən)

In a recent conversation I had with a friend, he stated that he was surprised that the United States hadn’t experienced a revolution. With the war in Iraq, global warming and other domestic issues, he was surprised that the younger generations had not revolted. I understood where he was coming from, but this isn’t the sixties and the younger generation is only one small aspect of the change that is happening. This change is multi-generational and is more widely accepted than previous changes in our society. Our revolution is more evolution.
We no longer believe that government creates change. We know that people do. All across this nation, people have lost hope in our government being capable of taking care of our people and planet. With the recent presidential election some believe that it is possible again. The reality is that it probably doesn't really matter. People haven't lost hope, instead, they are taking action. Spending money differently. Some are buying products that will not damage the climate, some are buying organic food and healthcare products, and some are buying carbon credits through their utility company programs. This is happening even when those products are more expensive than a comparable traditional product. This represents a different value system.
This evolution is not so different than the revolution of our forefathers. It wasn’t the system that created change, it was the people with a common vision. It required first an intellectual change, born by a recognition of a different value system. Political will followed the transition in values. In this instance the system is irrelevant. The representation in our system of government will be a reflection of the will of the people, the government does not create the will of the people.
The people are collectively making the intellectual change. Their financial actions will lead the way and the government will follow. This is The Progression.

WHY (wī)

After decades of expansion, growth, increase in wealth and being bombarded with “cool stuff”, “exciting activities”, being “overloaded with entertainment”, and “focusing on distractions”, our culture is waking up. We are demanding a deeper meaning to every day life. This demand for meaning is driven by our desire to understand the world around us and to have purpose in our lives. We humans are driven by our brains and our souls, both of which require meaning in order to be happy.
The change is happening in the collective conscience of our culture. It is happening in every part of our every day lives and it is seeping into our global economy. The change is good. It is based on the principle of doing good. Doing good with our every day decisions in how to use money in a selfless way. The change is found in the underlying motivation of our decision making process. It will create a change in our financial systems and it is changing the economy from the inside already.
Individuals are changing their financial habits and are thus changing the economy without the help of our governments, banks or large corporations. Our culture is growing up and the economy is reflecting this growth. The change is not based in fear. It is not based on having more than your neighbor. Day by day, week by week, month by month and year by year the economy is changing. It is changing from a desirous selfish consumption based system to a system that is based on doing good.
What does this mean? It means that an individual’s decision making process reflects the values of the individual. These values collectively create our cultural values and our values are changing. With this change, our decisions, actions, activities and reasons behind our financial decisions are changing in synchronicity. As we change from an era based in self gratification to a time where we learn to be happy without the need to possess massive amounts of material things, so changes the economy. This is The Progression.

CHANGE (chānj)

As a practicing architect, I have frequently experienced resistance to my life’s work by a wide range of people. Included have been government officials, clients, neighbors, concerned citizens and even professional peers. What I have learned is that their concerns are rarely based on whether I had completed my task competently or whether I had created an object of beauty, or even whether the proposed project was of benefit to the community. In actuality those that objected to the work presented were expressing their fear of change. If change is feared, what is change?
The Random House Dictionary defines change as:
1. to make the form, nature, content, future course, etc., of (something) different from what it is or from what it would be if left alone.
As architects, we are trained to solve problems, to synthesize art, science and business into a new form. The result of our work changes an environment. The result definitely creates something different than what would be if left alone. People understand what exists, but struggle with understanding what will exist in the future.
Change is completely misunderstood. This lack of understanding can be scary to those that find comfort in the regimen of the day to day. Change is also powerful. Change requires the mind to grasp the possibilities of what could be. Change requires awareness. Change is natural. In fact, I believe that Change is the only constant.
As a physics equation, it would look like this: k=Δ (where k=constant and Δ=change)
If change is in fact constant, why should we be afraid of it? We are afraid of change because we believe that we have control over things that we don't. In other words, we value control. Control prevents surprise. Control keeps us safe. If we can't control something, it must be bad. Well change isn't always good, but it isn't always bad either. Sometimes, it just is.
The Progression will require change.

PROGRESSION (prə-grěsh'ən)

Have you ever been asked by someone who looks up to you to answer a question that is not easily answered? A question about a subject that you barely comprehend. I was recently asked one of those questions. What is all of this economy, recession, and bailout stuff all about? The question came from my kids who happen to be in junior high. I have a tremendous amount of respect for my kids and generally, I want to speak to them intelligently and not talk down to them, particularly when I sense a hint of fear. So, I went through a cliff’s notes version of mortgages, investments, derivatives, swaps and housing construction. How good ideas were exploited and greed created a profit frenzy that was not sustainable.

Their response was: "None of the money that was made, was real." They got it.

In retrospect, my answer could have done more to describe the real causes. What I described seemed to be the symptoms of a sickness more than the underlying cause of the problems. I've had time to think about the causes and reflect. After looking deeper into the issues and removing the fear associated with a lack of comprehension, I am beginning to see a greater opportunity. Progression.

A Progression in our values. It has been our underlying values that have caused the recent financial collapse. Sure we have a struggling economy and people are losing work at an astronomical rate, but it's ultimately not all bad. We hear over and over each day about a recession and a potential depression. The reality is that we have a great opportunity to change the way we think and act. An opportunity to create new values that raise us out of the hole created by our past value system. We have the opportunity to progress in many ways. What if this change were to become known as "The Progression"?

Random House Dictionary defines progression as:
1. the act of progressing; forward or onward movement.

Isn't that what is really happening? Are we not actually moving forward? Aren't we in reality experiencing the end of greed and fear as the primary engine of our economy? We inherrently know that real value is created with ideas and actions that make things better for others, not through the manipulation of numbers with monetary symbols. We are experiencing the shift in human perception that will re-create the way people think, live and do business. We are experiencing The Progression.