[Posted by Bae-Won Koh - August 27, 2010]
Oh, I didn't say how far it is from home to the office. It is only 7.5 miles. With a car it takes about 15 minutes without traffic. With the bus that I take, it takes 20 minutes stop-to-stop and 45 minutes door-to-door since I have to be at the stop 5 minutes before bus schedule and walk 15 minutes from the bus stop to the office. It was Saturday June 6th. I practiced biking from home to the office and back to home – a bit safer on the road since it was Saturday. Well, surprisingly my thighs were ok but another place of my body was not – if you are a bicyclist you know what I mean. Man, it was burning. I couldn't sit on a couch.
I was not listening when my colleague told me, "Bae-Won, are you going to buy a pair of bike pants?" "No, why do I need them? I have good shorts." "I bet you will need them." After sleeping the night, my thighs were like not moving well. But I knew that I had to keep it going to build the strength. So I decided to go out to a store, of course riding a bike, to buy something to protect my "burning" body part. Honestly I don't like the cyclist's look – with spandex pants and shirts. Don't sermon to me whatever the functions of those are. I just don't like the look. So I decided to buy a cushion seat filled with gel. Hah! It was heaven compared to what I had. Anyway my first round trip to the office was successful. Hey, I did it!
[Posted by Bae-Won Koh - August 11, 2010]
It was May 26, 2009 when the Celica died. One of my colleagues at the office gave me an old bike. Yes, it was a 25-year-old Peugeot 103 in a very good shape after I dusted it off. I immediately took it to a bike shop, Cycle Logic that is just a block from the office for a tune-up service. It took 4-5 days until I got the bike back from the shop. In the meantime, I explored the bus route and carpooling. I am very lucky that four of my co-workers live within 1-2 miles from my place. I carpooled with two of them until I got the bike.
It had been 24 years since I biked last time. Well, I didn't forget how to bike. The "never-forget-how-to-bike" myth was true. However I had not jogged or run on a treadmill in over a year. You know what I mean. Yes, I didn't have the necessary muscles well developed. So I tried to ride a bike to Cameron Village during the lunch hour on June 3rd, which was only less than 1 mile, to test my physical capability to ride back home which is about 8 miles. Guess what? I COULD BARELY WALK! One of the co-workers who lives in the same neighborhood carries a bike rack in his car so he transported the bike to my home. What a first day! It started as a long way to go.
From June 15 – 19, 2010, members of the NC Triangle Chapter attended USGBC's bi-annual Chapter Leaders Retreat in Snow Bird, Utah. The event was attended by nearly 200 USGBC leaders including Chairs, Vice Chairs or Executive Directors from each of USGBC chapter as well as USGBC national staff, the Chapter Steering Committee, USGBC Board of Directors, and Emerging Professionals National Committee. NC Triangle Chapter Chair Bae-Won Koh attended on behalf of our Chapter as well as myself, though I was also attended as a member of the Emerging Professionals National Committee.
The retreat featured over 25 different sessions on various topics of interest to USGBC Chapters including developing a fundraising plan, transitioning from a working board to a strategic board, green school initiatives, how to engage youth in the Chapter, and improving the chair-executive director relationship.
While all the sessions were quite useful , there was one overriding message that really hit home for us after the retreat: USGBC is a 501c3 non-profit, mission driven organization devoted to making green buildings available to everyonewithin a generation. A lot of times we may get lost in the shuffle with the numerous professional organizations in our industry, but USGBC is really quite different.
For starters, we are mission driven and not membership driven. Now that doesn't mean we won't help our members by educating them so they can better advance the green building movement. It just means that it is also incredibly important that we engage our members in outreach and advocacy efforts to help make sure that everyone in our region of North Carolina has access to healthy, energy efficient buildings where they work, play and learn.
[Posted by Bae-Won Koh - July 23, 2010]
Sara did it so why not me?
Well, I read Sara Bongiorni's book review – I confess I did not read the whole book, A Year Without "Made-In China", in 2007. She tried to live an "ordinary consumer" life without buying products made in China for one year and her conclusion was that it was impossible to function as an "ordinary consumer" without Chinese products. It got me an interest on environmental aspects. I asked to myself, "Hmmm....what about Without Car; Without Processed Food; Without Petroleum-Based Goods?" And then as an architect I started thinking, "A Building Without Products Made and Harvested Outside 500 Miles; A Building Without Potable Water, Public Sewer & Electricity; A Building Without Parking..." It kept going and going. (Actually my office has designed a building that has no tie to any water, sewer and power. They will be all treated or provided on site.) Thoughts were thoughts back then. Nothing put me into serious consideration or trial.
[Posted by Vanessa Holman]
On June 28th - 29th 2010 the USGBC Triangle and Charlotte Chapters co-sponsored the NC Sustainable Communities Summit in Charlotte, North Carolina, with HUD, NC Association of Community Development Corporations, and Neighbor Works. The event received extensive media coverage and an attendance of over 250 people from across the state, municipalities, state and federal government agencies and community groups.
