More than 50 building trade union chapters nationwide are expected to participate in a campaign to promote the construction of green buildings. They'll be using a DVD of the "Greening of Southie" to promote their cause. We think this is the beginning of a major transformation in the construction and remodeling industry and will benefit single and multi- family home owners.

Green construction has become more than a presidential campaign slogan, because the Obama Administration funded it. The $787 billion stimulus bill signed by President Obama allocates $71 billion in direct green spending and $20 billion in green tax incentives. The building trade unions have faced steep job losses in the economic downturn. So it's not suprising that they are eying the 2 million new green jobs, many of them in the construction industry, that should materialize. These projects include retrofitting buildings with energy- and water-saving technologies, installing solar panels, and building a new energy grid. 

The trailer of the Greening of Southie illustrates this quite well.

What is suprising and encouraging is that many union construction workers are "really starting to get it." They are no longer shrugging off the idea of using sustainable materials and recycling materials. In fact, they may take the lead in a green building movement in the United States. We think this is really good news. It's only when people (contruction workers, architects and design/build firms and home owners) all get on the same page that we will see some genuine savings in energy and money.

In terms of energy, we know that buildings use 40 percent of the energy in the United States for heating and power purposes. We also pointed out that there were tremendous opportunities to construct solar panels and wind turbines on the roofs of buildings. These energy sources would be close to the where the power or heating demand is, not impact most people and make use of a resource that every city has, i.e. large areas of flat roofs.

Lessons Learned from the Greening of Southie
When comes to constructing green buildings, it been hard to document the process and to showcase a viable result. In fact, investors and builders often are reluctant to be the first to do something. Their first question is usually "Who's doing thi?" Director & Editor Ian Cheney and Producer Curt Ellis have answered that question by filming the entire construction of the McCallen Building in South Boston. They also visited countries and sites where th raw materials were coming from and processing sites in Maine. The DVD is entitled "The Greening of Southie." The McCallen Building is a condominium with units ranging from $550,000 to $2.5 million. Over 50 percent of the units have been sold.

This is not your typical construction video. Here there are no actors. Instead you will find hard nosed and skeptical union construction workers. Some initially could not damn about the green construction. The film documents the challenges to constructing a green building. As in all construction, things have a habit of turning out bad. In the McCallan Building it was the cabinets, bamboo floors and the green roof. The plants were dying on them. More important is the experience changed the union work forces' attitude toward green construction. In the end though many of the skeptics have become proponents and believers.

Features of the McCallan Building
The McCallan Building is a luxury building comparable to condos that you would expect to find in most major cities. Being green, the condo owners get some typical green amenities like double-glazed insulated windows, bamboo floors, and natural fiber carpet. That's not such a big deal. The buildig will probably attain a LEED Gold Standard for green and energy efficiency. However the following features really separate the McCallan Building from other condos built by Donald Trump or others:

1) Filtered fresh air is ducted into every unit.
2) 85 percent of the exterior aluminum is recycled.
3) No chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) gases are used in the HVAC system. CFCs are considered an ozone-depleting agent.
4) Copper plumbing avoids the controversial use of polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a potential carcinogen.
5) Nontoxic paints, coatings, adhesives and sealants, volatile organic compounds are eliminated.
6) There's a green roof. This small habitat of plants cools the building in summer and insulates it in winter.
7) Operating expenses and individual energy and water bills should decrease due to an overall 30 percent reduction in energy and wate usage.

The McCallan has other features, but one of the most promising is that 98 percent of the building is recycled steel. Just think of the savings in terms of energy and money as opposed to producing new steel products. The following video talks about this in detail.

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