Committee on the Environment

  • 1.  A Giant Leap Toward Net Zero

    Posted 05-24-2014 04:42 PM
    I moved to Illinois New Years 2014, in the middle of their worst winter.  I watch plows tear up the roads, salt tear up cars, and all I kept thinking was, "There's got to be a better way."  By April the city (not to mention everyone, in every state, having a bad winter) dipped into hundreds of thousands of emergency funds to put the roadways back to a usable condition.
    I got excited when I went to a seminar on pervious pavers (yeah, old technology, but a start) in March and told them they needed to talk to the powers that be that were about to spend rediculous amounts of money putting roads back into service.  They wanted me to do all of the leg work for them and they would come in for the kill - disappointing! Gotta love big buisness.
    I was sent this video today and thought it was brilliant. I wondered how to get them massive exposure and thought of the AIA.  They are on the right track, but they need to get more people involved in getting their prototype known and getting this massive project moving forward, faster. 
    http://loiter.co/v/why-are-we-not-funding-this-2/
    And went on to find these:
    http://solarroadways.com/news.shtml
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvWTaqUvsfA 
    Yes, I need information on associated upfront costs, and how long it takes to pay for itself, etc.. 
    As a country we managed to mask our world in super freeways in the 70's, with government funding.  I would like to see the pollution that this has caused turned around.
    What I would like learn is, how do we (the AIA) get involved, as a large powerful group, to help thisproject  move forward?

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    Rachelle Freegard AIA
    Project Manager
    Bailey Edward Architecture
    Champaign IL
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