Brooke Ray Smith, shown wearing her bike commuter clothing, and “Blue Steel,” her Jamis Quest road bike. Smith rides Blue Steel everyday to her office at Passerelle Investment Co. in downtown Los Altos.

by Peg Champion, GreenTown Correspondent

While most Silicon Valley commuters dread their daily drive in stop-and-go traffic, Suzanne Ambiel looks forward to her ride to work. “My 15-minute commute is one of the most relaxing parts of my day.” A marketing manager at VMware in Palo Alto, Ambiel is one of many Los Altos residents who commute to work by bicycle.

Reasons to Ride
Besides avoiding the hassles of a car, you have plenty of reasons for taking a ride: personal health, environmental responsibility and that old stand-buy, money. Jim Thurber, fourth-grade teacher at Gardner Bullis Elementary, who commutes daily, says, “I’m a cheapskate. I hate to buy gasoline. I’d also like to put my cardiologist out of business.” Deb Kilpatrick, a senior vice president at a genomic diagnostics company in Palo Alto, agrees, “I like looking at my bike and car odometers in December each year. On average, my bike mileage is about two times that of my car. It’s great to see how much bike commuting lowers my carbon footprint – 15 to 20 percent annually. And it saves on car insurance, too.”

Nationally, only one in 165 Americans rides a bike to work, according to the 2010 US Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS.) But in Silicon Valley, between three to eight times as many ride in some towns. “This is a beautiful place – with great weather – to commute on bike,” says Jim Fenton, a Los Altos resident who combines light rail with his ride to a job at a tech start-up in San Jose. “And, for the most part, the roads around here are bike-friendly.”

Bike Commuter Jim Thurber with his customized “Purple Pocket Rocket” - a folding bike that feels and rides like a full-size bicycle. Capable of fitting under your desk at work or in the overhead rack on Caltrain, the Pocket Rocket is made in the U.S. by Bike Friday, located in Eugene, Oregon.

The combination of public transportation and cycling is increasing in popularity. BART, CalTrain and light rail provide bike cars for commuters. Brooke Ray Smith, a dedicated rider who lives in San Francisco and works in Los Altos, says, “Four days a week I use the Dutch/Danish model: I wear my work clothes, bike at a more leisurely pace and take CalTrain. Once a week, when I want an aerobic workout, I’ll wear my spandex and ride in with a group of fellow cyclists, SF2G (San Francisco to Google.) Or, I might decide on a 30-mile ride from the Millbrae station.” Like many, Smith’s employer provides facilities to shower and change.

The 2011 Drive Less Challenge inspired Tom Fenstermacher to get back on his bike after ankle surgery. He subsequently won the challenge for his combined bike/train commute to San Francisco, logging in 765 miles over the two-week challenge period. His reasoning was simple. “I wanted to spend more time with my family, but I also wanted to get some exercise. By commuting to work this way, I was able to multi-task.”

Ride Results
Fenstermacher says the best thing about bike commuting is “having an opportunity to think and meditate.” Other riders agree that a surprising result of commuting is the mental-health benefit: “I arrive at work refreshed and ready to take on the world,” “I am more productive at work,” “Biking puts me in a good mood,” “Riding gives me an e-break,” and “When I’m pedaling, I have the time to collect my thoughts before and after work.”

Still not convinced? Last year, an analysis by Atlantic journalists Richard Florida and Charlotta Mellander using American Community Survey data found that metros where more people cycle to work are more affluent, better-educated, more creative, more fit – and happier than non-biking places.

Special thanks to bike shop manager Matt McDonald for hosting our “commuter chat” at 359 State Street on a busy Saturday afternoon, and to all the commuters who shared their stories.

Peg Champion is a member of GreenTown Los Altos and the principal of Champion Organic Communications. Her work focuses on communication and education strategies to encourage sustainable behavior. For more information visit http://www.ChampionOrganic.com.

Tail lights on Jim Thurber's "Purple Pocket Rocket" Bike.

Resources
Learn more about the GreenTown Los Altos Bike/Walk Los Altos Program

Join us for the First Saturday Family Bike Ride, March 3, 1PM-4PM. More information.

To calculate your “carbon footprint” – how many tons of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases your lifestyle and transportation choices create – try out The Nature Conservancy’s carbon calculator

Read about “Commuter Angst, Dangerous Drivers, and Other Obstacles on the Path to Two-Wheeled Transcendence” in this primer for new commuters, The Enlightened Cyclist. Release date March 7, 2012.

Advice for a New Bike Commuter
“Ride as if the drivers are blind, and you are invisible,” is a common cyclist aphorism. Below is wise counsel from bike commuters interviewed for this article. Use these tips to prepare for the Drive Less Challenge that begins on Earth Day 2012.

• Don’t be afraid to try it – if you’re curious, just give it a try.
• Start when it’s sunny – spring is the perfect time to start!
• Take a practice run – experiment on the weekend when there is less traffic.
• Begin gradually – try a trip once a month, and build up to once a week.
• Ride with a buddy – team up with a friend and enjoy the ride together.
• Get safety training – learn and follow the rules of the road.
• Get the right gear – use a bicycle made for commuting, equipped with lights. You’ll also need a rear-view mirror and a good bike lock.
• Get into a routine – ask yourself, is there any reason I can’t ride today?
• Be aware – stay alert to cars, wildlife and other riders.
• Ride slowly – remember, this isn’t a race!
• Make sure you are visible to cars – use multiple lights and reflective clothing.
• Use tools – check out Google maps for the best bike routes. Use BikeNav, a free iPhone app with elevation maps that can help you get to work without breaking a sweat, and track all your rides with Strava.
• Talk to the experts – ask questions. Other commuters from work and bike-shop managers can help get you started.
• Communicate – use hand signals and other nonverbal techniques, including smiling, to communicate with other riders and drivers on the road.
• Avoid “helmet hair” – part your hair on the opposite side before putting on your helmet.
• Have fun!

In April 2006, we decided we were ready to “Go Solar” at our 2900 square foot Los Altos home.  Our goal was to reduce our eco-footprint by generating our own electricity.  After requesting bids from three different solar companies, we selected Mountain View based Cobalt Power Systems to design and build our rooftop Photovoltaic (PV) system.  Out of our 3 bids, Cobalt’s analysis and proposal was the most complete and personalized to our needs.  Upon reviewing our options, we chose a grid-tied PV system, where we generate and use our own solar power during the day, and use the PG&E power grid for our overnight electrical needs.  Given the high reliability of the power grid in the Bay Area, we could not personally justify the option of installing a battery backup system for overnight power or to cover our power needs during PG&E power outages.  During the day, when we generate more power than we use, the extra power feeds directly into the PG&E grid – and PG&E credits us for that over-generation.  After the sun goes down, we draw electricity from the PG&E grid and pay for it using our daytime credits.  To enable this daytime/nighttime tracking, we converted to PG&E’s Time-Of-Use (TOU) electric meter for our PV system.  Since installation, our electric bill runs about $6/month, simply for rental of this TOU meter.

We chose to size our new PV system at 5.88 kW to fully cover our monthly electric costs.  This is not to say that we generate more kilowatts than we use, but rather, that we earn more kilowatt credits than we spend.  The secret that makes this work is during the May-October (summer) timeframe, PG&E credits us at triple rates during the daytime hours when we are producing excess electricity since this is their peak demand period and they appreciate our extra power generation during that time.  To allow me to monitor our power generation, I also asked Cobalt to install a data link from our PV system to my computer so I could retrieve live and historical power generation data at my desktop.

As an early adopter of PV technology, the net cost of our system after rebates was relatively high.  At our current rate of savings, we are expecting our Return-on-Investment (ROI) on our 25-year system to occur somewhere around 16 years (10 years from now).  For homeowners installing in 2012, the recent leaps in design and efficiency should now produce a much faster 15% to 30% ROI per year (per Cobalt’s website).  Your PV bids should show you your expected ROI timeframe based on your specific system size and electric history.

Today, our PV system has been running for almost 6 years with zero PV downtime and zero required maintenance.  All I have to do is rinse our rooftop panels about twice a year.  We are very happy we made the leap to Solar.

For more information on solar, and GreenTown’s upcoming solar group purchase program, email energy@greentownlosaltos.org.

Ryan Church of AVA Construction and Steve Schmidt at GreenTown's Energy Upgrade Meeting, 2/1/12

GreenTown Los Altos held a workshop on home energy upgrades on February 1. Two new GreenTown programs and the Energy Upgrade California program were explained to 40 people in attendance.

With the advent of Smart Meters®, it is now possible to analyze a household’s energy use from the comfort of your own home. GreenTown Los Altos, partnering with High Energy Audits, Inc. is offering a detailed online assessment of energy use using a web-based tool that can give you results in about 15 minutes. The tool identifies “hidden energy users,” such as electronics that are turned off but still drawing power, pool pumps, recirculation pumps and many others. The analysis can determine if you are a good candidate for the Energy Upgrade California program, which focuses on home heating and cooling efficiencies (see below). To qualify for the online assessment, you need to live in Los Altos, have lived in your home for at least a year and have a PG&E SmartMeter® . GreenTown is offering $50 online assessments for the first 50 homes in Los Altos that sign up to use this tool. Sign up at energy@greentownlosaltos.org. This tool is already available to Los Altos Hills residents through Acterra’s High Energy Homes project.

Faye Rachford, Energy Upgrade specialist, center, with two attendees

To help you make the shift to renewable electricity, GreenTown Los Altos announced a second new program for homeowners, available both to Los Altos and Los Altos Hills residents. Working with Bay Area Climate Collaborative SunShares program, this effort leverages the buying power of several communities to attract a solar panel vendor with a highly competitive offer. If you have ever considered solar panels – now is the time! Sign up now to add your name to a list of residents interested in high-quality, low-cost solar energy. The contractor will be selected by February 27. We’re expecting attractively priced offers with lease options that can get you started with no money down. Questions? Email energy@GreenTownLosAltos.org.

Our guest speakers, Kurt Wallace Martin and Amy Harcourt, do not own a car and mostly get around by bike, on foot and via public transit. Once in awhile they use ZipCar. Their mission is to make it easy for others to do the same.

Did you know that 40% of the trips in suburbia are less than 2 miles, yet 90% of them are by car!  This statistic was shared by the guest speakers at our “Get Inspired About Biking” event on January 19.  Partners in the consulting firm Bikes Make Life Better shared some inspiring images and stories about a town, a university, and a company that are having success encouraging bicycling instead of driving solo.  We also learned about some very cool technologies that blend GPS, solar, bicycling, mobile phones and the internet to encourage biking.

City Center as Living Room

In the 1970s the town of Groningen, Holland decided to do something about sprawl and traffic congestion.  They developed a vision of a mostly car-free, compact city where the center would be like a “living room.”  It would be a space where citizens would gather and move about freely, enjoying the beautiful architecture and canals without car congestion.  They created a ring road around the city, moved most car parking outside the city center and made the roads bike-friendly and easy for public transit.  There are even certain roads that are one-way for cars but two-way for bikes. And the city installed massive amounts of bike parking.  Today 57% of all trips in town are made by bike.

Copyright 2008, Cyclestreets.net. A street in Groningen, a Dutch town of 180,000 inhabitants where 57% of trips are made by bike.

Bicycle-Friendly University

In 2011, Stanford University earned the first and (so far) only Platinum Level Bicycle Friendly University designation by the League of American Bicyclists.  Stanford has about 13,000 bicyclists on campus daily.  The university has a Commute Club and offers a wide range of options to get to and from campus, including carpool, vanpool, shuttle, ZipCar, bike paths and safety programs.  Now, more than half the commuters to campus choose an alternative to single-occupancy vehicles.  Stanford invests in promoting bicycling, in part because it’s a relatively inexpensive way to avoid paying to upgrade public intersections near the campus – something the university is legally obligated to do if its commuters cause traffic congestion in the surrounding communities.

Facebook Likes Bicycles

Facebook’s new Menlo Park campus at the former “East Campus” location of Sun Microsystems currently houses about 2,000 employees and the company is expected to double its population within the next year.  Facebook has set a goal of getting half its employees to work by alternative means – shuttle, bus, rideshare, public transit and bicycle – with a target of 8% bike commuting.  To support this goal, they’ve installed showers and lockers in all buildings, bike racks and secure bike shelters near each building.  And to help employees get around the sizable new campus, Facebook has just added a fleet of 60 bikes.

Social/Mobile Technology Inspires Bicycling

Here in Silicon Valley, some of the hottest trends in consumer technology revolve around “social,” “local” and “mobile” – also known as SoLoMo!  Imagine using your smartphone or iPad to locate, reserve and unlock a GPS-enabled bike to borrow.  Social Bicycles has created this solution.  Because their bikes can be locked to any bike rack and unlocked simply by entering a code on a keypad, they do not require the expensive infrastructure investments that some bike-sharing solutions require (e.g. specialized kiosks).  The GPS and the locking mechanism are powered by battery that is charged by a dynamo that runs when the bike is pedaled.  And there is also a small 2-watt solar panel installed on the back of the bike that provides power in case the bike has not been ridden (i.e. charged) for a couple of days.  Check out this video to see how the system works.

Sobi Bike-Sharing System

Another interesting SoLoMo product for bicycling is Strava. This service tracks your rides, times and achievements and lets you share them with friends.  Once you download the mobile app and sign up for the service, you just grab your smartphone or Garmin GPS system, go for a ride and then sync with Strava.com.  It works anywhere in the world that you can get a GPS signal.

Strava Dashboard

What Inspires You?

In our community, we are blessed with a temperate climate, lots of sunshine and plenty of shopping and recreational opportunities in short biking distances from our homes.  I get inspired to ride my bike when the weather is fine, but I also get a kick out of securing a close-in premium parking space and having a relatively stress-free ride to my nearby destinations. And as a bonus, it just feels good!  What inspires you to ride your bike in Los Altos and Los Altos Hills?

It’s January.

It’s no fun checking your mailbox these days, because holiday bills have taken the place of holiday cards. It’s cold outside, and you’re chilly inside, keeping the thermostat down so your energy bill doesn’t shoot through the roof.

Ryan Church, AVA-Construction contractor, performs a blower door test to determine the amount of air leakage in the house.

The news isn’t all dreary. You can save up to 40 percent on your PG&E bill, help the environment by conserving water and energy, and make your home more comfortable, all at the same time.

But how?

GreenTown Los Altos is offering an evening workshop on Wednesday, Feb. 1, to review several programs that can save you money. The free workshop, led by energy experts, runs from 7:00 – 8:30 p.m. at the Neutra House, 183 Hillview Avenue, Los Altos. Click here to register .

One program, the Energy Upgrade California program, entitles you to substantial energy rebates from your utility – up to $4,000 in incentives with PG&E’s Advanced Upgrade Package. Currently, the rebates are designed for single-family homes.

For a typical California home built before the 1980s, energy efficiency wasn’t part of the equation. “Energy was cheap, and the consequences of producing and using energy were not widely understood,” says Faye Rachford, an energy upgrade specialist with Energy Upgrade California. “Now, however, we look at the home as a system. We recommend that you begin with an energy assessment. As the saying goes, ‘If you can measure it, you can manage it.’” Rachford will present details of the program at the February workshop.

Sit Back and Analyze This

Los Altos Hills residents can analyze their energy use from the comfort of their own home. The High Energy Homes (HEH) program is available through Acterra at no cost to five local communities, including Los Altos Hills. HEH is a web-based software tool that can analyze your energy use in 15 minutes. It identifies “hidden energy users,” such as electronics that are turned off but still drawing power, pool pumps, recirculation pumps and many others. The analysis can determine if you are a good candidate for the energy-upgrade program, which focuses on heating and cooling efficiency.

“I was pleasantly surprised at the detail of information provided by the analysis. It gave us additional information about what upgrade strategies would be cost-effective in a format that was easy for the homeowner to understand … it helped us decide what we’re going to do,” says Keith Burtscher, a general contractor.

There are three qualifications for the HEH program: You’ve lived in your home for at least a year, you have not installed solar, and you have a PG&E SmartMeter^®.  Steve Schmidt, Los Altos Hills resident and the architect of Acterra’s HEH program, will provide a program overview as part of the workshop agenda.

Margie Suozzo, chair of GreenTown Los Altos, invited residents of Los Altos and Los Altos Hills to learn more about the audits and rebates. “GreenTown is offering $50 online assessments by High Energy Audits, Inc., for the first 50 homes in Los Altos that sign up to use this tool to assess their energy use. But don’t take it from me – come hear from the experts at our Feb. 1 workshop or email us at energy@greentownlosaltos.org.”

Peg Champion is a member of GreenTown Los Altos and the principal of Champion Organic Communications. Her work focuses on communication and education strategies to encourage sustainable behavior. For more information visit http://www.ChampionOrganic.com.

Learn More

• Details about GreenTown’s free Home Energy Upgrade Workshop.
• Register for the workshop.
• For a description of Acterra’s High Energy Homes Project.
• For information on PG&E Basic and Advanced Upgrades.
• Subscribe to the newsletter or become a member of GreenTown Los Altos.

Photo credit: Junko Bryant, Acterra

On Saturday, December 10, GreenTown Los Altos and Acterra partnered on building a new native garden at Los Altos’ Redwood Grove Nature Preserve. Here, Acterra Executive Director Michael Closson, left, watches GreenTown volunteers Kevin O’Reilly and Forrest Linebarger place rocks for a bioswale – a stone drainage course planted with native grasses to slow and absorb stormwater runoff.

Linebarger, an architect and principal of Vox Design Group, developed the landscape plans for the site design, including a rainwater catchment and an interpretive walk with signage. The native garden was designed by GreenTown volunteer Vicki Moore, founder of the Living Classroom, Los Altos School District’s garden-based science program. The design builds on the “Slow It, Spread It, Sink It” principles, endorsed by many water districts in California. Acterra, an environmental non-profit serving Silicon Valley, will maintain the site through its Redwood Grove stewardship program.

By Peg Champion, GreenTown Correspondent

Decorated for the holidays: The new bike shop at 359 State Street is one of 150 shops and boutiques throughout the vibrant downtown village of Los Altos.

‘Tis the season…

Between Thanksgiving and New Year in the U.S., there is an increase of more than 25 percent in waste, or about 1 million additional tons per week, according to UseLessStuff.org.

One of the biggest culprits is paper. Paper and cardboard make up 47 percent of the materials Los Altos contributes to our local landfill, a GreenTown Los Altos waste study indicates. The holiday season entices us to spend more and more on beautifully wrapped gifts, starting as early as Black Friday and continuing through post-Christmas sales. This year, Americans will spend a projected $875 billion from November through January on holiday gifts, or an average of $700 per person, according to Deloitte’s retail forecast.

Before getting lost in the consumer madness, think back on some of your happiest holiday memories. It’s likely these memories don’t involve wrapping paper, boxes or expensive gifts. Instead, they usually involve being with family, friends and celebrations with those you love. If we change our focus from the material to what really matters – time spent with family and friends – we can make our holidays more meaningful and friendlier for the environment.

Here are some tips from GreenTown Los Altos to help make your holiday more sustainable:

Buy Less

Start a new holiday tradition of family “Secret Santas” — everyone selects a name out of a hat and buys one gift only for that person. Share personal gifts of time and love — give “gift certificates” of your services, such as babysitting, gardening, cleaning, cooking or teaching. Or make something special – a knitted scarf, baked goods or homemade preserves.

Buy Green

Purchase “fair-trade” gifts, and help people in developing countries build sustainable businesses that positively influence their communities. Buy green gifts made from recycled, organic and nontoxic materials – find them at online sites such as Ethical Ocean. Or purchase gifts that give all year long, like a subscription to the community-supported agriculture program at Hidden Villa or theater tickets to the Bus Barn.

Buy Happiness

According to a study from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, donating to charities and helping others lead to the increased happiness and well-being of the giver. So buy yourself some happiness. Donate your time at a local charity in a recipient’s name. Make a contribution, or give gift memberships to local nonprofits and local chapters that support sustainability such as GreenTown Los Altos, Acterra, Slow Food South Bay and the Sierra Club Loma Prieta chapter.

Buy Local

Avoid the mall and the chain and big-box stores. Shop local businesses for unique gifts – and keep the money in your own community. Give gift certificates for spa services, restaurants and bakeries or even auto repair. Check out resale and consignment shops for designer clothes at a fraction of the cost. Bonus: Ride your bike to Main Street, and shed some holiday pounds as well!

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Instead of buying expensive gift paper, schedule an afternoon for a family craft project and create your own. Children can stamp, stencil or draw holiday designs on rolls of recycled brown or white paper. Wrap your gifts in maps, magazine pages or newspaper comics. Reuse and repurpose wrapping paper and cards. Trim last year’s holiday cards to make unique gift tags. Send your holiday greetings online.

If you buy new, choose sustainable cards and wrapping paper. Look for 100 percent recycled chlorine-free paper printed with soy inks – standard petroleum-based inks omit volatile compounds such as dioxin, one of the most deadly chemicals known. Check out Of the Earth for handmade paper with embedded wildflower seeds or Fish Lips Paper Designs for a contemporary look. Or take a workshop, and learn how to make “eco wrap” using repurposed fabric, discarded books, magazines and junk mail at FabMo, in Mountain View.

Check out our resources to make your holiday more sustainable:

Resources

• Take the 2011 Simplify the Holidays Challenge and pledge to “more fun and less stuff”
• Check out the “Story of Stuff,” a humorous 20-minute video that shows the costs – and the effects – of our consumer driven-culture.
• Use Less Stuff tells you how to Trim Your Holiday Wasteline
• “Get good stuff” from Ethical Ocean, World of Good or Ten Thousand Villages, a nonprofit fair trade organization that markets handcrafted products.
• Heifer International provides livestock, seeds or training to a family struggling with hunger or poverty.
• Learn where to shop this holiday season. Good Company ranks the Fortune 100 as employers, sellers, and stewards.
• Visit Of the Earth for handmade paper with embedded wildflower seeds or Fish Lips Paper Designs for a contemporary look.
• FabMo diverts high quality designer materials from the waste stream and holds workshops on how to use them.

Seasons Greenings from GreenTown!

Peg Champion is a member of GreenTown Los Altos and the principal of Champion Organic Communications. Her work focuses on communication and education strategies to encourage sustainable behavior. For more information visit www.ChampionOrganic.com

First off, students in grades Kindergarten through 3rd grade have about the same percentage who walk or wheel to school, roughly about a third of the class. Starting in 4th grade, there is a noticeable increase in students walking and wheeling. With each grade from 4th thru 8th, the jump of walk or wheel students increases by about 10%, with 70% of  7th and 8th grade students walking or wheeling.  As such, our middle schools, Blach and Egan, lead the way.

As for the elementary schools, the top 5 WoW! participation schools all have active WoW! programs with enthusiastic parent volunteers. Hats off to Gardener Bullis, Monteclare, Oak, Santa Rita, and Springer! Surprisingly – the bottom four WoW! participation schools all have students who contend with Foothill Expressway each day. We see those two factors – active WoW! participation and finding alternatives to crossing Foothill Expressway – as the keys to increasing WoW! students for the upcoming year.

Next year, GreenTown has scheduled bike assemblies at the elementry schools, bike rodeos for all students in March at the middle schools, and “Drive that Bike” for 6th grade students in May. We are focusing on 5th and 6th grade students to increase WoW! participation. As we increase the awareness within those grades, we hope to see an uptick each year in the middle schools as 6th grade awareness becomes a 7th grade habit.

If you are interested in joining the momentum of educating our youth on the fun and benefits of walking or wheeling to school, and making a difference in Los Altos, contact bike@greentownlosaltos.org

January 14-16, 2012, Redwood Grove, Los Altos
Register at: www.acterra.org/stewardship

You are invited to join artist Daniel McCormick in restoring a creek bank using willow and other natural materials to create a beautiful living sculpture January 14-16, 2012. The project will help protect a 25-foot length of Adobe Creek in the Los Altos Redwood Grove where invasive Arundo donax was removed last year, leaving the streambank bare. During this time, the bank has been covered by a tarp to prevent regrowth. The tarp will be removed in mid-December and the site will be prepared for the sculpture made from live willow branches. The branches will eventually take root and grow to provide habitat and stabilize the streambank. Volunteers can sign up to work with the artist during the Martin Luther King weekend. Together they will weave an aesthetic and functional design using natural. This project is in partnership with the Los Altos History Museum Shaped by Water exhibition and Acterra with support from the Santa Clara Valley Water District.

Volunteers will help with tasks such as hauling branches and other materials, cutting, trimming, weaving and securing materials to the creek bank. Training will be provided on-site. Two shifts are available each day from 9:30 – noon and 1 – 4 pm. Volunteers must be able to work the entire shift and be physically capable of the activities described above (ages teen through adult). While there are some youth-appropriate activities this project is not a suitable activity for young children. If you don’t meet the qualifications to volunteer, you are welcome to come watch the installation in progress.

About the artist: Daniel McCormick is an interdisciplinary artist and design professional with integrated skills in the fields of sculptural installation, environmental design and ecological restoration. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including an Artist Grant from the Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation, an Invitational Bridge Residency Award from the Headlands Center for the Arts, a creative development grant from the Blumenthal Foundation, a Creative Capital Award and an Urban Landscape Award from the Friends of the Urban Forest. McCormick’s work has been featured in exhibitions at the Oakland Museum of California, Sonoma Valley Museum of Art, Bolinas Art Museum, Headlands Center for the Arts, Armory Center for the Arts in Pasadena, CA and the McColl Center for Visual Art.

There’s no excuse not to schedule an energy assessment now. Santa Clara County is currently offering 80% off the cost of a home energy assessment (up to $800).

The County’s offer is designed to spur participation in the Energy Upgrade California™ program, a state-wide initiative targeting energy savings in existing homes. Seventy-five percent of homes in California were built before there were any energy codes. Consequently, they are hot, cold, drafty, noisy. They also often don’t last as long as they should and may lose value on resale.

By implementing recommendations from an energy assessment, homeowners can reduce energy use up to 40%, all while making their homes healthier and more comfortable. The Energy Upgrade California™ program offers rebates of up to $4,000 (and more for a limited time) for those who use the findings of the assessment to make home energy improvements. So schedule an energy assessment today. Visit the County’s Energy Upgrade website to find participating contractors in Santa Clara County.

An energy assessment takes around 3 or 4 hours. During the assessment, the contractor measures your home’s performance using equipment such as a blower door, duct blaster, manometer, and infrared thermal imager. Energy Upgrade contractors have employees who are certified by the Building Performance Institute. They understand how to analyze a house as a whole system and cost-effectively fix problems that arise.

Contractors are getting busy, so book your energy assessment now, and remember, through February 2012, Santa Clara County will pay for 80% of your assessment (up to a value of $800). Click here for more details.

Once you have your assessment, we’re guessing that you’ll want to know more about rebates available to upgrade your home. On February 1, 2012, Santa Clara County Energy Upgrade program and GreenTown are co-hosting a workshop to educate residents about next steps. The Energy Upgrade Workshop will be held at the Neutra House, 181 Hillview Avenue, Los Altos from 7:00-8:30pm.