You will be creating a public blog during this course. You will be our "BGI Guide" on a "beat" related to sustainability or some other BGI related topic. This does not have to be a topic you are currently an expert on, but it should be one you are very interested in.
Post in the Professional Learning Journal your ideas about what BGI Guide "beat" you are considering, why you want to write about it, and how broad or narrow your scope will be. If you are still not sure, write up your issues and we can discuss it.
If you have an initial idea about how you wish to name your BGI Guide blog, tell us about that as well, and invite suggestions and commentary.
- After some considerable time pondering what I would like to do for this project, I have decided to stay close to something I am familiar and interested in, but to push the limits in which I understand it. For this project I have decided to focus on environmental building standards and techniques. Specifically, I would like to focus on three overlapping but distinct categories: Net zero energy buildings, Passive Houses, and Living Buildings. A net zero energy building requires the house to produce as much energy as it consumes over a year and is focused primarily on energy efficiency. A passive house is designed in such a way that it utilizes little to no active heat source to heat the home. A Living Building is a Net zero energy building but also has many other requirements such as water usage, site location, air quality, materials used, human equity, and beauty. In this sense it is a holistic building standard. Each standard compliments each other, but are not the same exactly, but all three are considered to be the most challenging building standards created to date.
- I'll call the guide blog (at least for now) "Net-Zero Passive Living."