Catherine Mohr builds green

譯者: HJ Liao 審譯者: Wang-Ju Tsai

First of all, I'm a geek.

首先，我是個怪胎。

I'm an organic food-eating,

我是個熱衷生機飲食，

carbon footprint-minimizing, robotic surgery geek.

對碳足跡斤斤計較，用機器人動外科手術的怪胎。

And I really want to build green,

我真的想蓋綠建築，

but I'm very suspicious

但對那些出於一番好意的文章，

of all of these well-meaning articles,

心裏又很懷疑，

people long on moral authority

通篇的大道理，

and short on data,

提供的資料卻很少，

telling me how to do these kinds of things.

不能告訴我遇到狀況該怎麼辦。

And so I have to figure this out for myself.

所以我只好自己找答案。

For example: Is this evil?

比方說：這樣做錯了嗎？

I have dropped a blob of organic yogurt

我把一沱由健康快樂的本地乳牛

from happy self-actualized local cows

所生產的有機優格，

on my counter top,

滴到桌上了。

and I grab a paper towel and I want to wipe it up.

我抓了張紙巾，想把它擦掉。

But can I use a paper towel? (Laughter)

但是，我可以用紙巾嗎？（笑聲）

The answer to this can be found in embodied energy.

答案是，要看它的內含耗能。

This is the amount of energy that goes into

也就是進入到紙巾當中的

any paper towel or embodied water,

內含耗能或內含水量。

and every time I use a paper towel,

我每用一張紙巾，

I am using this much

也就等於會用掉這麼多的

virtual energy and water.

耗能和水。

Wipe it up, throw it away.

擦乾淨，然後丟掉。

Now, if I compare that to a cotton towel

現在，拿棉布來比一比。

that I can use a thousand times,

棉布可以用一千次，

I don't have a whole lot of embodied energy

沒有大量的內含耗能問題，

until I wash that yogurty towel.

直到我把沾滿優格的布拿去洗。

This is now operating energy.

現在，來看看操作耗能。

So if I throw my towel in the washing machine,

如果我把棉布丟進洗衣機，

I've now put energy and water

我就把這些耗能和水

back into that towel ...

加進那條棉布裏，

unless I use a front-loading, high-efficiency washing machine, (Laughter)

除非我用的是前置式高效能洗衣機，

and then it looks a little bit better.

那情況會稍微好一點。

But what about a recycled paper towel

如果是回收紙巾呢？

that comes in those little half sheets?

像這樣小小張的回收紙巾？

Well, now a paper towel looks better.

嗯，回收紙巾好像比較好。

Screw the paper towels. Let's go to a sponge.

把紙巾丟到一邊。來看看海綿吧！

I wipe it up with a sponge, and I put it under the running water,

我用海綿擦，然後拿到水龍頭下沖洗，

and I have a lot less energy and a lot more water.

結果，耗能大減，但用水量大增，

Unless you're like me and you leave the handle

除非你和我一樣，打開水龍頭時

in the position of hot even when you turn it on,

把把手轉到熱水的位置，

and then you start to use more energy.

這樣，耗能就會開始增加，

Or worse, you let it run until it's warm

更糟的是，你讓水一直流，直到水變熱

to rinse out your towel.

才開始沖洗。

And now all bets are off.

結果，之前全都白忙一場。

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

So what this says is that

所以，我要說的就是

sometimes the things that you least expect --

有時候，你沒想到的事情

the position in which you put the handle --

比如手龍頭把手的位置，

have a bigger effect than any of those other things

比起其他你努力想改善的東西，

that you were trying to optimize.

作用更大。

Now imagine someone as twisted as me

現在，想像有個人和我一樣怪

trying to build a house.

想蓋房子。

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

That's what my husband and I are doing right now.

這就是我先生和我現在在做的事。

And so, we wanted to know, how green could we be?

所以囉，我們想知道我們能做到多「綠」。

And there's a thousand and one articles out there

外面大概有一千零一篇文章

telling us how to make all these green trade-offs.

在談綠色代價與取捨的問題。

And they are just as suspect

這些文章也不太可靠，

in telling us to optimize these little things around the edges

講了很多如何優化一些瑣碎的小事，

and missing the elephant in the living room.

卻沒看到客廳裏有頭大象。

Now, the average house

現在，我們來看一般的房子

has about 300 megawatt hours

其中大約有300千瓦小時的

of embodied energy in it;

內含耗能。

this is the energy it takes to make it --

也就是蓋這個房子需用到的耗能。

millions and millions of paper towels.

相當於好幾百萬張的紙巾。

We wanted to know how much better we could do.

我們想知道，怎樣可以做得更好。

And so, like many people,

所以，和很多人一樣，

we start with a house on a lot,

我們從地上的一棟房子開始。

and I'm going to show you a typical construction on the top

畫面上方你會看到一般的建築。

and what we're doing on the bottom.

畫面下方則是我們在做的事。

So first, we demolish it.

首先，我們拆掉房子。

It takes some energy, but if you deconstruct it --

這會增加一些耗能，不過如果你是用拆解的方式，

you take it all apart, you use the bits --

把房子解體，並利用這些材料，

you can get some of that energy back.

你就可以減少一些耗能。

We then dug a big hole

接著，我們挖個大洞

to put in a rainwater catchment tank

來放雨水貯留槽

to take our yard water independent.

這樣院子就有獨立的供水。

And then we poured a big foundation

然後，我們灌地基，

for passive solar.

安放被動式太陽能系統。

Now, you can reduce the embodied energy

再來，你可以讓內含耗能

by about 25 percent

減少約25%

by using high fly ash concrete.

如果你採用高飛灰量混凝土的話。

We then put in framing.

再來，我們搭建結構。

And so this is framing -- lumber,

這就是房子的結構、木材、

composite materials --

複合材料，

and it's kind of hard to get the embodied energy out of that,

要減少這些東西的內含耗能，不太容易，

but it can be a sustainable resource

但你可以採用永續性資材，

if you use FSC-certified lumber.

例如有F.S.C.認證的木材。

We then go on to

然後，你會發現

the first thing that was very surprising.

第一件令人吃驚的事。

If we put aluminum windows in this house,

如果我們在房子裏裝上鋁窗，

we would double the energy use right there.

內含耗能就會加倍。

Now, PVC is a little bit better,

用PVC會好一點，

but still not as good as the wood that we chose.

但還是不如我們所選用的木材。

We then put in plumbing,

接著是裝設水、電、

electrical and HVAC,

及空調等的管線，

and insulate.

以及絕緣。

Now, spray foam is an excellent insulator -- it fills in all the cracks --

泡沫噴劑是很好的絕緣材料，可以填補各個間隙，

but it is pretty high embodied energy,

但它的內含耗能相當高。

and, sprayed-in cellulose or blue jeans

噴覆式纖維素或回收的牛仔布料，

is a much lower energy alternative to that.

內含耗能低，是很好的替代品。

We also used straw bale

我們還用了乾草磚

infill for our library,

搭蓋圖書室，

which has zero embodied energy.

乾草磚的內含耗能是零。

When it comes time to sheetrock,

在選擇石膏板時，

if you use EcoRock it's about a quarter

如果你採用生態磚（EcoRock），

of the embodied energy of standard sheetrock.

它的內含耗能只有一般石膏板的四分之一。

And then you get to the finishes,

再來是表面處理。

the subject of all of those "go green" articles,

所有那些談「綠化」的文章，都以此為主題。

and on the scale of a house

以一個房子的規模來看，

they almost make no difference at all.

表面處理幾乎沒有什麼影響。

And yet, all the press is focused on that.

可是，報刊文章都把重點放在這裏。

Except for flooring.

但地板例外。

If you put carpeting in your house,

如果你在房子裏鋪地毯，

it's about a tenth of the embodied energy of the entire house,

它大概會佔整個房子內含耗能的十分之一。

unless you use concrete or wood

如果你選擇混凝土或木材，

for a much lower embodied energy.

內含耗能就會減少很多。

So now we add in the final construction energy, we add it all up,

現在，我們把最後的施工耗能加進去，全部加起來，

and we've built a house for less than half

與一般建造這類房子所需的內含耗能相比，

of the typical embodied energy for building a house like this.

我們蓋的房子，只用了不到一半的內含耗能。

But before we pat ourselves

但是，等一下，

too much on the back,

我們先別急著得意。

we have poured 151 megawatt hours

我們花了１５１千瓦小時的耗能

of energy into constructing this house

來建造這個房子，

when there was a house there before.

而這兒原本就有個舊房子。

And so the question is:

現在問題來了：

How could we make that back?

我們要怎麼把它補回來？

And so if I run my new energy-efficient house forward,

假如，我從今天起開始使用這個節能的新房子，

compared with the old, non-energy-efficient house,

和過去沒有節能設計的舊房子相比，

we make it back in about six years.

大概六年後可以把它抵銷。

Now, I probably would have upgraded the old house

如果，我是改建舊房子，

to be more energy-efficient,

讓它變得更節能，

and in that case,

在這種情況下，

it would take me more about 20 years to break even.

要花約二十年才能抵銷。

Now, if I hadn't paid attention to embodied energy,

假如我沒有去注意內含耗能這件事，

it would have taken us

可能就得花上

over 50 years to break even

五十年的時間才能抵銷

compared to the upgraded house.

改建房子時所增加的耗能。

So what does this mean?

而這代表什麼意義？

On the scale of my portion of the house,

以我的房子的規模來看，

this is equivalent to about

使用這房子的內含耗能，

as much as I drive in a year,

和我開車所用的內含耗能相當，

it's about five times as much

大概等於我飲食的內含耗能的五倍，

as if I went entirely vegetarian.

如果我吃全素的話。

But my elephant in the living room flies.

而我客廳裏的大象呢，是搭飛機。

Clearly, I need to walk home from TED.

看來，我得從TED走路回家才行了。

But all the calculations

這些內含耗能的計算，

for embodied energy are on the blog.

在這個網誌上可以找到。

And, remember, it's sometimes the things that you are not expecting

最後別忘了，那些你覺得無關緊要的事，

to be the biggest changes that are.

常常就是至關緊要的。

Thank you. (Applause)

謝謝。（掌聲）