Jo-Anne and Bryan took Dave Edwards to the USGBC Northern California Chapter Gala Awards 2009 at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco.  There were more than 800 attendees at the event, where the USGBC celebrated the awarding of its ‘Super Heroes’ for 2009.

Viewing the Exhibits

Prior to the awards, we were able to walk through the California Academy of Sciences, which was closed to the public.  The Academy is a remarkable building, housing a huge collection of exhibits.  We decided that we need to bring our son and daughter to the museum as we believe they would enjoy the exhibits.

The building was certified Platinum by the USGBC on October 8, 2008.  It is a both a beautiful building and extremely ‘green’.  The building has radiant heating and cooling, and used Uponor products throughout.  Uponor has a case study on this building in YouTube.

Bryan and Jo-Anne reviewing the exhibits at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco.

The museum has radiant heating and cooling, which is exactly what we are putting in our home.

One end of the museum houses a number of exhibits that describe global warming, its importance and consequences, and how to we need to address it.

This exhibit shows, in very real terms, how the amount of CO2 is increasing in the atmosphere.

 2009 Super Hero Awards

The Super Hero Awards, and the recipients, were as follows

Community Award - StopWaste’s Green Building in Alameda County
Green Groundbreaker Award - Integrated Design Associates (IDeAs)
Green Team Award - The David Brower Center
David Gottfried Special Achievement Award - Anthony Bernheim

We have not been to the Integrated Design Associates building in San Jose yet.  It was the first net zero energy, zero carbon commercial building in the U.S.  The mayor of San Jose, Chuck Reed, was at the gala to present the award to David Kaneda, who is the founder and owner of IDeAs.

Dave Edwards, who owns Earth Bound Homes, is the general contractor that is building David Kaneda’s private residence in Cupertino.  Dave drove with us to the gala tonight and, after the awards, introduced us to David Kaneda and his wife, Stephania Wong Kaneda.  Also, Dave introduced us to Bill Leddy, who designed David Kaneda’s house.

After receiving his award, David Kaneda mentioned in his address that his family had moved into their new house that afternoon and would be spending their first night in the house tonight.  Also, David acknowledged that Dave Edwards had built his home, which will be LEED-H Platinum and net zero energy and zero carbon.

After the awards ceremony, John Westly gave the keynote address.  We were surprised and delighted at how elequently John spoke and how inspirational his keynote was.

The awards were presented in the center of the building, which has a stage and screens.

Chuck Reed, Mayor of the City of San Jose, presented the Green Groundbreaker award.

David Kaneda receiving his award and acknowledging and thanking his team.

The room was full for the awards ceremony.

David Gottfried, the founder of the USGBC and owner of the first LEED-H Platinum home in Northern California, describing Anthony Bernheim's accomplishments.

Steve Westly delivers an inspirational keynote at the event.

Dave Edwards (left) congratulating David Kaneda (right) after the awards.