Marin Independent Journal (San
Rafael, CA)
July 22, 2012
Section: News
July 22, 2012
Section: News
Janis Mara | Marin Independent Journal
IF KIKI GOSHAY has a weekend task list, it might go
something like this: Shop for a new dress. Take the kids to the park. Water the
roof.
Water the roof?
The Kentfield resident and passionate environmentalist is a woman who walks her talk, which in this case would mean watering her roof. Among other things, Goshay's home is topped with a luxuriant living roof complete with California poppies, bushes and grasses; heated by fluid from tubes sunk 300 feet deep in the earth; and lighted by electricity from solar panels.
"When I built this house, I knew I had one chance to create something that would be around for my children and my grandchildren," said Goshay, a film producer. "I wanted a zero-energy house that also reduced our impact on the soil, water and air."
Not only is the 6,500-square-foot house replete with sustainable features, it's visually stunning, thrown open to the outdoors on the first floor, where the dining room offers a view of Mount Tam unobstructed by windows or walls.
It took three years to build the house; Goshay and her teenaged son moved into the home in September. She is divorced and has four other grown children who live on their own. As for watering the roof, it's actually irrigated with rainwater and greywater recycled from the sink, tub and shower, as is the vegetable garden conveniently located next to the kitchen.
The home is one of approximately 700 LEED-certified single-family dwellings in California, the state with the country's highest number of such homes. There are at least a couple of other LEED-certified single-family residences in Marin.
While there are LEED-certified airport terminals — San Francisco International Airport's T2 is one example — as well as apartments and other commercial and industrial buildings, it's rare for single-family residences to get certified. This is because the rigorous standards of the U.S. Green Building Council, the awarding body, make it a time-consuming and expensive process.
"The LEED program is the council's measurement system for green homes," said Randy Potter, chair of the council's residential marketplace committee. "You accumulate points by choosing sustainable materials, systems and building methods. The more you use, the higher you get, and gold is the second-highest level," between silver and platinum.
"LEED is one of two programs we use here in the Bay Area," said Potter, whose contracting firm, Earth Bound Homes, is based in Santa Clara. "There's another system, Green Point Rated, for entry-level projects. The bar is way higher for LEED."
The home's basement — Goshay calls it "the brain" — reveals some of the details that helped win the certification. A series of seven white tubes connect to the geothermal pump that moves fluid from 300 feet deep to the house.
The pump uses the stable, even heat of the earth to provide heating and air conditioning. Underground, the earth is a constant temperature, warmer than the outside air in the winter, cooler in the summer. In the summer, the pump pulls the heat from the home and discharges it into the ground; in the winter, it moves the heat from the earth into the house.
The 110-gallon solar water heater and the three tanks for rainwater and greywater are also on the lower level. Inverters monitor energy use.
"We're not at zero energy yet. It's an ongoing process; we're working at reducing our energy use," she said. Zero energy means the solar panels are returning enough energy to the grid to zero out the energy supplied by PG&E.
Upstairs is the living roof, designed by Rana Creek, the firm that helped design the living roof on the California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park. The house was designed by San Franciso-based Hunt Hale Jones and Oakland-based zumaooh.
"The building materials are certified by the Forest Stewardship Council," said Jeff Jungsten of Mill Valley's Caletti Jungsten Construction, builder of the home.
"Kiki had a vision for every spot. Everything has a reason; it was all thought out," Jungsten said.
Goshay, a board member of Cool the Earth, a Marin County-based program that teaches children to reduce their carbon footprints, studied for seven years at the College of Marin and elsewhere to plan her dream house.
"I wanted to create a sanctuary for my family with the healthiest living environment possible utilizing all the gifts this site offers," said Goshay.
"This woman has done things that go well beyond the norm in what the ordinary green home has set as a standard," said Potter. "Anyone who is doing that is doing it for more reasons than being able to pencil out a payback or conserve some resources. They're doing it because they want to go the extra mile and do something extraordinary."
The Kentfield resident and passionate environmentalist is a woman who walks her talk, which in this case would mean watering her roof. Among other things, Goshay's home is topped with a luxuriant living roof complete with California poppies, bushes and grasses; heated by fluid from tubes sunk 300 feet deep in the earth; and lighted by electricity from solar panels.
"When I built this house, I knew I had one chance to create something that would be around for my children and my grandchildren," said Goshay, a film producer. "I wanted a zero-energy house that also reduced our impact on the soil, water and air."
Not only is the 6,500-square-foot house replete with sustainable features, it's visually stunning, thrown open to the outdoors on the first floor, where the dining room offers a view of Mount Tam unobstructed by windows or walls.
It took three years to build the house; Goshay and her teenaged son moved into the home in September. She is divorced and has four other grown children who live on their own. As for watering the roof, it's actually irrigated with rainwater and greywater recycled from the sink, tub and shower, as is the vegetable garden conveniently located next to the kitchen.
The home is one of approximately 700 LEED-certified single-family dwellings in California, the state with the country's highest number of such homes. There are at least a couple of other LEED-certified single-family residences in Marin.
While there are LEED-certified airport terminals — San Francisco International Airport's T2 is one example — as well as apartments and other commercial and industrial buildings, it's rare for single-family residences to get certified. This is because the rigorous standards of the U.S. Green Building Council, the awarding body, make it a time-consuming and expensive process.
"The LEED program is the council's measurement system for green homes," said Randy Potter, chair of the council's residential marketplace committee. "You accumulate points by choosing sustainable materials, systems and building methods. The more you use, the higher you get, and gold is the second-highest level," between silver and platinum.
"LEED is one of two programs we use here in the Bay Area," said Potter, whose contracting firm, Earth Bound Homes, is based in Santa Clara. "There's another system, Green Point Rated, for entry-level projects. The bar is way higher for LEED."
The home's basement — Goshay calls it "the brain" — reveals some of the details that helped win the certification. A series of seven white tubes connect to the geothermal pump that moves fluid from 300 feet deep to the house.
The pump uses the stable, even heat of the earth to provide heating and air conditioning. Underground, the earth is a constant temperature, warmer than the outside air in the winter, cooler in the summer. In the summer, the pump pulls the heat from the home and discharges it into the ground; in the winter, it moves the heat from the earth into the house.
The 110-gallon solar water heater and the three tanks for rainwater and greywater are also on the lower level. Inverters monitor energy use.
"We're not at zero energy yet. It's an ongoing process; we're working at reducing our energy use," she said. Zero energy means the solar panels are returning enough energy to the grid to zero out the energy supplied by PG&E.
Upstairs is the living roof, designed by Rana Creek, the firm that helped design the living roof on the California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park. The house was designed by San Franciso-based Hunt Hale Jones and Oakland-based zumaooh.
"The building materials are certified by the Forest Stewardship Council," said Jeff Jungsten of Mill Valley's Caletti Jungsten Construction, builder of the home.
"Kiki had a vision for every spot. Everything has a reason; it was all thought out," Jungsten said.
Goshay, a board member of Cool the Earth, a Marin County-based program that teaches children to reduce their carbon footprints, studied for seven years at the College of Marin and elsewhere to plan her dream house.
"I wanted to create a sanctuary for my family with the healthiest living environment possible utilizing all the gifts this site offers," said Goshay.
"This woman has done things that go well beyond the norm in what the ordinary green home has set as a standard," said Potter. "Anyone who is doing that is doing it for more reasons than being able to pencil out a payback or conserve some resources. They're doing it because they want to go the extra mile and do something extraordinary."
Contact Janis Mara via email at jmara@marinij.com. Follow her at Twitter.com/jmara.
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