GREEN BULIDING QUESTIONS ANSWERED AT ECO BUILD SAN DIEGO

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By Rachel Hutman

(California Center for Sustainable Energy)

April 9, 2009 (San Diego) - The Center for Sustainable Energy (CCSE) hosted the EcoBuild San Diego on Saturday, April 4. Over 350 people attended the free expo to get straight answers about green building. Lauri Walker, Program Manager of the event, observed, “People will visit exhibitors and get a better understanding of green building, and that it is not as expensive as they may think.” A lot of questions were answered throughout the four workshops: Green Building 101, How to Plan and Budget Your New Green Home, Solar for Homeowners, and Fire Survior Panel Discussion: The Decision to Rebuild Green. All can be seen online at www.rebuildcentral.org and will be posted for the next month.

(California Center for Sustainable Energy)

The event was sponsored by SDGE and over 40 vendors were on hand at the expo to explain their products and the benefits of building green. Vendors ranged from solar to cabinetry to roofs to architecture. A listing of vendors is available on the site under “exhibitors.” The vendors were excited to educate the public about the financial incentives available for green building, and improving the public’s awareness. There are many new products available, such as low VOC paint, bio drop clothes, and paint trays that decompose. Many of these products are comparable to the products already on the market, but few consumers know about them.

Many people came to the event for a variety of reasons. Diane Fiy, a real estate agent, came to the expo to “obtain more information about green building and how it could help my clients.” Ernesto Fresquez has “a second house in New Mexico and wanted to learn about Solar and rain Harvesting.” Another San Diego resident, Carol Haynes, wanted to know about “green options and the costs.”

(Rachel Hutman)

Wendy Emerson, a former teacher, was excited to see so many people becoming green. She believes that you have to get people on the moral issue or the monetary issue to get them to buy into protecting the environment. Once we started teaching our children, that’s when we tapped into that moral vein, she divulged.

(California Center for Sustainable Energy)

Learning was the theme of the day at Eco Build San Diego. Many questions were answered and

green myths were busted. The intent of the expo was to replace some of the green building myths with sustainable facts. The next expo, Street Smart San Diego, will be in June and in August there will be a similar expo covering both commercial and residential green building. Any green is better than none, and there are more affordable green options available to homeowners than ever before.

Please visit The Center for Sustainable Energy’s website for more information, www.rebuildcentral.org

Rachel Hutman is a contributing writer for GoodTasteInternational.com and has served as a staff writer for the Grapevine in Washington D.C.. She holds a bachelor’s degree in history with a minor in creative writing from the University of Maryland and is currently an intern with East County Magazine.


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