Hello and thanks for joining us for sustaining us.

A brand new series on all things sustainable here on KLCS PBS.

I'm David Nazar going green.

We've all heard the term things like green energy green buildings green cities and now green cleaning.

We begin our broadcasts with a special report on a most unique and innovative approach to keep you safe at your workplace.

It's something many of us who work in an office building take for granted when our workday is over we leave in the evening return the next morning.

And like magic our office is clean.

The building is clean.

Everything is nice and shiny.

We can thank the countless janitors who work all throughout the night to get our cubicles office space kitchen space presentable the next day.

In years past janitorial work revolved around using harsh chemicals and toxic cleaning solutions.

And there wasn't much attention paid to things like saving water or energy or cleaning in an environmentally friendly way.

Well these days all of that is changing because janitors around Southern California and throughout the state are jumping on the sustainability bandwagon.

We found that there wasn't anything sort of addressing the work that janitors were doing every night.

They're the eyes and ears of a building.

They know tenant practices.

They know the building's like nobody else so they can really identify where we can conserve more energy.

How We're Doing waste diversion how Howard you know also conserving water.

And so there was no certification and there was no standard in the industry but we found that we were at a place at least in California and especially in Los Angeles that we wanted to really address having a standard Cardona says too often janitors are part of the invisible workforce of a building.

And she says that has to change if we all want to work in a sustainable clean building environment.

So the green general education program is a 30 hour program and they get really into detail on how.

What are the best practices in sustainability in the work that they do every night.

That can also translate to their home.

There's so much new policy and polls and legislation on diverting waste from the landfills and so they really understand it work is changing for them.

And Carter nice explains that with older more outdated cleaning chemicals janitors were reporting getting runny noses eye irritation respiratory problems asthma and if the building janitors were dealing with these health issues ultimately so were the building tenants understanding all of the chemicals and how important it is to follow the rules and to read the labels and to understand why we're using different chemicals that are not just safer for them but they're safer for the tenants.

So over time the improvement of indoor air quality is quite is quite important not to be funny about who knew the cleaning of an office was such a Science Friday as it is.

Dominique Hargraves is with the U.S. Green Building Council in Los Angeles.

U.S. GBC L.A. works with partners across the region like L.A. Metro the city of L.A. the mayor's office the city Office of resiliency and even utility companies to help foster a culture of sustainability.

The janitors are on the frontlines.

They know every single inch of the building they are cleaning the elevators they are cleaning restrooms they're cleaning desks before this program janitorial workers were not a part of sustainability.

This program really.

Pushed them to be.

The eyes and ears of the building so they're looking for leaks and they're reporting those leaks.

They are looking for items that are plugged in all night when no one is there.

The green janitor education program was launched in Los Angeles in 2014.

Back then it consisted of six buildings and about 140 trained janitors.

We expanded throughout Southern California to another 50 buildings and now today we've actually trained over 1000 workers.

Across the state of California and we have some really interesting clients.

Up in Sacramento.

We have the California Lottery.

Is training their workers.

We have YouTube.

Training their workers.

We have.

Kilroy realty training every single worker and all of their buildings from the entire state.

Every big building that you see around us.

Is into this program and implementing it for the good of the building and.

To have sound environmental practices.

We want to see green janitors in every state.

We're getting calls from Denver.

We're getting calls from Phoenix calls from New York calls from Chicago other places that want to implement this program.

This program is going to take the United States.

I started The program certainly took Veronica Laguna by storm.

Laguna has been a janitor in the L.A. area for over a decade.

First of all is very important for my health for the family up.

We utilize products would not harm our health and are also my co-workers are using very harmful chemicals and now that people are seeing a lot of throat infections and cancers.

But now it's really important for us to utilize that's hard for an audience and we're also taking care of the environment of the ozone layer.

It's important for us to make sure that we keep them safe.

It's very important for everybody not only about myself but some people that are cleaning here but people that are also working in the offices that are not exposed to all these chemicals.

Sarah Neff is a senior vice president of sustainability for Kilroy Realty Corporation Kilroy owns office buildings all throughout the West Coast from San Diego to Seattle and Kilroy is using nearly 100 green janitors which is 40 percent of their total janitorial service.

So a lot of our janitors have been with us for five 10 15 20 years and so they're just they're a part of who we are as a company and engaging them on sustainability is part of what we do engage everybody.

We all think of basically buildings as invisible.

You know they're they fade into the background.

We don't really think of them as major users of energy or water or things that impact our health.

But in fact they do all of that feeling really deeply that 40 percent of carbon emissions and 15 percent of potable water and we have to improve them if we're going to meet any of our climate goals and engaging our janitors is just a critical piece of the puzzle sustainability.

It's very important because our resources are depleting our natural resources are depleting and if we don't learn on how to best utilize these resources then we're going to have no pundit And joining me now to discuss sustainable buildings is Anthony Brauer.

Anthony is an architect at Gensler architects in Los Angeles and he is the sustainable design director there.

He's also with the United States Green Building Council and the L.A. metro Sustainability Council.

Thanks for being here Anthony.

What a resume.

Thanks Dave.

Great to be here.

Give me your impression of that green janitors field report kind of innovative and unique isn't it.

It is.

I mean the great thing about the green janitors program is really that it picks up for us where design leaves off you know touches on extending air Aaron material quality.

You know we talk about water conservation energy performance and it brings all of that into the daily operational aspects of building.

You know you go from less toxic cleaning materials which was the focus of that piece to also understanding you know how water you're waterless urinals really need to be maintained differently than traditional fixtures.

Even the details of understanding how much energy a flat screen display takes uses and why it's important to turn these items off after hours.

And that brings me to you Anthony.

What exactly are green buildings and then we'll delve into that.

So a green building is essentially just a building that reduces or eliminates any negative environmental impacts on the local area.

But more importantly it's on our climate.

Some buildings focus on one or more primary things the better ones try to focus on everything you know they talk about how do we reduce our reliance on water.

How do we bring more energy efficiency more efficiency with less energy consumption.

How do we implement waste reduction method measures or even reuse building materials.

How do you focus on improved indoor air quality.

And to me one of the more important things is how do you design buildings that enables adaptation to a changing environment.

So with that and adaptation as it were take me through a green building for example.

GENZER architects I've been through your building.

Boy there's a lot of going green stuff for lack of a better word there.

Give me a bird's eye view of what it is that your building so at our building so we actually have When you walk into our lobby you know this is a very large open three storey free storage space with lots of natural light.

You can actually walk into the space and count on maybe one or two hands how many light fixtures you actually see in the space.

And we have a large expansive glass on the west side of the building and the skylight overhead which brings in so much daylight into the space that during during operating hours we kind of call some of the areas of the building kind of we call it Daylight autonomous where we don't need to use.

We don't need to use artificial lighting fixtures to really make the space usable.

And for reference for our viewers if I'm not mistaken your office skins or aren't you in the city national tower complex over there right.

We're in this international tower complex here.

So how does a monster tower like that be a green building when there are tens and tens of thousands of square feet of building so there's there's so when a building went down I mean you look up at a building like that and there's usually two or three I think in our buildings case there's two separate floors for mechanical systems.

And those are the systems that are actually integrating and making sure that you're delivering the right amount of energy a lot of times you want to over design to make sure you have what you need.

But sustainability is more about how do you tune the building to deliver exactly what you need.

And sometimes you even want to tune what's your tenant makeup like a retail store might use more energy than an office space which will both use less energy than a data center.

So different uses actually of tenants actually may contribute to how much overall energy consumption of building might tackle.

Now for the million dollar question because I've read so many reports there is kind of a rap on your industry that architects engineers designers builders et cetera just don't want to build these green buildings because it's not cost effective in other words if you build a building Anthony would you design a building you're going out to spend a lot more for the Labor for the materials for the construction et cetera.

What's the cost.

And then the cost benefit of doing this.

Well I think that the truth is and some people have said this before if you want a green building I can make it cost a lot.

And if you want a green building I can make it cost a little if you make the right decisions up front.

Those costs really start to disappear.

Are you going to spend a lot of money for high performance glass because you wanted to put a curtain wall or an all glass aside facing south so your glass gets more expensive but if you actually focus on orientation and now let's orient that glass facade to the north where the sun will hopefully never hit it if you angle at the correct way.

Those are the kind of decisions that don't cost everything.

Now I know everybody kind of talks about everybody thinks about green buildings they think about building the solar panels on top of solar panels is an expensive solution.

Those costs are coming down over time but it's making the decisions up front that will mitigate the need for those costs and measures at the end of the project.

With that said then is your industry failing us.

In other words should you be doing more to go green should you be building more green buildings.

And should developers and real estate folks not be so worried about their costs because again it is expensive and I don't know if the cost is transferred to us.

So no matter what we do there's always more that we can do.

Like I said some buildings focus on one or two things some focus some buildings focus on several things and then to be honest when we get a gold star or the industry right now is I mean talk about a net zero energy building.

So a building that only uses as much energy as it can generate.

And how do we reduce the amount of energy that building can consume so that what we're able to generate is enough to offset it.

Yeah we can always do better we're always striving to do better there's a lot of building standards green building standards out there.

And as they have all they constantly raise the bar.

Speaking of doing better in closing I'm asking you what you folks can do better let's look at this objectively what can we as consumers what can we as individuals the public what can we be doing to sort of help your cause and go green so that eventually we can have green buildings even green cities and then we'll leave it there.

Thirty seconds.

So the sum of the big things you can pay attention to now.

How do you pay attention to when lighting and equipment usage really needs to be turned on.

Maybe one of the big impacts in an office building that people don't think about is that we can actually control is actually to turn off one of the display screens when they're not in use.

Those are left running all night.

And so quite a bit of energy but I think probably one of the most important things to do as an office building tenant is ask your landlord what they're doing.

And this works if you're already a tenant.

I actually have a of a big driving factor for influencing change if you ask those questions when you're trying to negotiate your lease or when you're out there looking for space as if you're building owners see the tenants are asking for this they will endeavor to kind of make those those those requirements part of their building program so that they can entice tenants to be so he's in there.

Antony Brauer with against architects thank you so much for this interview.

Thanks so much David.

Now from reducing energy consumption in buildings and Anthony Brauer spoke about to reducing waste in the kitchen.

PBS station WTI T.W.

in Chicago visits with an Illinois woman trying to make a sustainable difference.

Stephanie cut Soros has the story on a crisp spring morning and Alvin deal.

Stephanie kept zeroes is in her neighbors backyard talking trash snarl recycling.

I mean if it's only recycling we've got bigger you know we've got a bigger problem in the big picture.

I think about let's have less things brought into Ivan Dale and let's have less things leaving Abbott they'll get zeros in her neighbor.

Christina splish share an aspiration to live zero waste reducing trash of all kinds from food to plastics to the bare minimum through reuse repair or responsible recycling.

They're hoping to get the rest of the neighborhood on board with reducing their waste to keep zero has even made sustainability her business literally.

Her consulting firm bright beat works with businesses to reduce their environmental footprint.

Like at the Good Food Expo where food industry stakeholders share sustainable products and practices it's important because we need to divert waste from landfills into compost on recycling.

And if you don't purchase the right products we don't implement use the right products you can't do that for me.

You know working with recycling and compost food to waste type projects allowed me to Think about those things in my business.

A third of the food that is produced for human consumption is uneaten.

You know that's not just food but it's also the water that was put into the ground to to grow the crops or the feed that was grown and fed to the animals and all the transportation that went into that.

It's such an environmental footprint just to get the food to you know through distribution to our house.

And then when it goes uneaten all of those resources are also wasted.

Get zero says one way to reduce that footprint is supporting businesses who also walk the walk.

She does much of her shopping at the dill pickle food co-op in Logan Square where they minimize food waste through careful stock management sending spoiled produce to be composted and donating unsold food items or using it up themselves.

We partner with the Northwest Food partners that work to distribute that's one network of local pantries.

The food is not donated which is which is very little we have this pickups almost daily is is open for our staff to grab and we also use some of that in our deli department as well particularly for the daily soups that we make back at home.

Cat series has developed her own strategies to make it easier to live low waste that she says anyone can adopt from composting food scraps.

You have the bin right there where you can toss your food scraps to reusing old containers and buying in bulk to bypass packaging waste.

The containers might be something I've purchased.

You know it's a glass jar Or something I had around the house such as the reasonable container of black beans to recycling bin placement.

It's required by a city ordinance that every box store grocery store convenience store all have a spot for you to throw away your used bags.

Not everyone knows that if it's any film plastic you can put it in there.

So we strategically place where the plastic bags go right by the garbage can.

If it's right there it is easier to remember.

Even the refrigerator helps make sure food gets eaten instead of thrown away.

You can see everything when it's more visible you're less likely to leave it sitting there beyond the kitchen.

There's also the stuff of everyday life including everything that comes with having a child like Katsura his daughter Zoe.

When someone has a baby everybody wants to give them stuff because they love them and they love the child but also I've learned they want to get rid of that stuff because they have too much stuff.

80 to 90 percent of coats shoes clothes toys gear that we have was handed down.

And it's because of the uncertain future.

Children like Zoe will face that cat zeroes believes we all should do what we can to reduce waste in our homes and communities.

It's overwhelming to even ponder what this world is going to look like when my 2 year old daughter is grounded let alone my grandchildren.

It's.

Scary and so I feel compelled to do what I can to make things not worse you know.

And if I can make them better I feel really good.

Thank you Stephanie Cutter sorrows and WTC w in Chicago for that report.

Well scientists in Arizona are experimenting with technology that helps farmers get the most out of their crops while also conserving our most valuable resource.

This next story is brought to you through a special collaboration with KLC US PBS and Arizona State University's Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communications as we partner with and mentor students seeking to explore the environment through their reporting .

Reporter Reporter Dylan McAdam explains how farmers are taking to the sky to get a bird's eye view of their fields.

Gone Gone are the days of farmers walking their fields.

I'm going to go now.

Now they take to the air With drums.

I don't really do anything to fly it.

It's all on autopilot right now.

Kelly Thorp an agricultural engineer uses drones to take detailed images of his plants that show the condition of the field.

They're a very powerful technology to be able to go out and regularly map fields giving you regular information from which you can make decisions from decisions like how to use our most valuable resource.

Water if we can make those decisions more accurate then we know that we're being more efficient in our water use.

It's an alternative to conventional farming in the sense of using information to guide decisions on an input use.

After the drone is down with its flight.

Kelly and his team will analyze the data and then tell this machine right here how much water each plot crop needs.

So what I end up with at the end of all that is essentially a map of my field that is sectioned into smaller areas that can receive differential amounts of water.

This allows Thorpe to give the right amount of water to each area of the field that I think that the drones offer a very promising future for coming up with ways to make our agricultural decision making more resource efficient In Maricopa.

Dylan McKim Cronkite News Thanks still on McKim and the Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communications for that report.

For more information about our program just click on KOCO stories and then click Contact us to send us your questions and comments or story ideas so we can hear from you.

Thank you so much for joining us for this edition of sustaining us here on KLC s PBS.