RB Council Recap: Jacques Lord and Building ‘Green’

The Rancho Bernardo Community Council held a combined meeting for November and December on Thursday.

Some of the highlights include:

• Jacques Lord on Building “Green”: Local resident Jacques Lord joined the council to share his experience with building his home in an environmentally-conscious way and offer advice on how others can do the same. After losing his Luz Road home in the 2007 wildfire and, as an environmental professional, chose to “go green” when rebuilding. The definition of a “green” home varies among homebuilders and realtors everywhere, but the U.S. Green Building Council provides a national verification system for measuring the green building. LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is a points system that measures awards points across different categories, such as sustainability and water efficiency. Lord said he redesigned his home to reach the highest level of LEED certification. His home was built with termite and fire resistant lumbar and carpet from corn sugar, and features include motion-detecting lights, solar panel tiles, and low-flow toilets. “Getting the right products is important,” Lord said, and the California Center for Sustainable Energy, a San Diego nonprofit, provides classes and instruments to people interested in making their home green. Though the costs of a building a green home are higher than traditional costs, even small, affordable changes—such as using LED Christmas lights—can lower the environmental footprint of a house. “Whatever you can afford to do, do what you can,” Lord said.

• Spirit of the Fourth: Councilmembers unanimously approved council participation in the , Rancho Bernado’s Fourth of July celebration. The largest Fourth of July celebration in San Diego features two days of events, during which the council can host an event and run an informational booth to get the council name out in the community.

• Community Map: The council has been considering creating a new community map of Rancho Bernardo. This map would replace the map developed and distributed by the San Diego North Chamber of Commerce in 2008 and would be helpful to current and future residents. An update by the public relations committee included preliminary estimates of printing costs, costs that Robin Kaufman, council president, said would be met by selling ad space on the map. The public relations committee will continue working on the matter before a decision is made.

• No Saturday Meetings: The council moved to postpone the possibility of changing meetings from Thursday evenings to Saturday mornings. The suggestion of changing meeting times was made in response to low meeting attendance, but the council has decided to see whether its upcoming change in venue may increase attendance. Starting in January, the RBCC will hold its meetings at the Oaks North Community Center, 12578 Bernardo Oaks Dr.

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