And so begins a month-and-a-half-long series of expositions, lectures, seminars and other assorted events assembled around the subject of "going green."
For the next 40 days, anyone wanting to get involved in reducing their carbon footprint or saving money by cutting energy use at home or at work will have plenty of opportunities. The first in this series of green gatherings will take place at an old cigar factory in West Tampa April 11-13. Called Renew Tampa, it is the brainchild of American Institute of America Tampa Bay. Its goal: "Making preservation greener."
"The real crux of it is that historic buildings are inherently green," said Gus Paras, a Tampa architect who is president-elect of AIA Tampa Bay. Older buildings "have embedded energy. There was energy expended in actually building them. If you tear them down, you lose that energy and expend even more energy putting things into landfills."
The second benefit of preservation, Paras said, is that older buildings (in Tampa that means from about 1880 to 1950) were constructed before air conditioning became widespread and affordable and therefore use energy-efficient and cooling principles that are just now coming back into vogue, he said.
The three-day event will include an exposition of cost-cutting green-building materials and preservation techniques, a preservation tour of Tampa and workshops on how homeowners and small business owners can preserve historic structures, save money and go green at the same time.
Renew Tampa is free to the public (seminar sessions on architectural and owner/contractor case studies, finance, real estate and the law, craftsmen and trade demonstrations cost an additional $10 per class or $50 for the whole day for professionals who want continuing education credits but are free to the public as well) and will be held at the renovated Berriman-Morgan Cigar Factory, 1403 N. Howard Ave. Details are online at renewtampa.org.
Check the "What you can do" section of fixitnowtampabay.com for more information on how you can help solve Tampa Bay's Top 10 civic problems.
This article appears in Apr 2-8, 2008.