Before long, Deanna Carveth will have to be fitted with a cape. It would be one woven using renewable materials, of course.
“I’ve packaged a lot of household hazardous waste, rendering people’s garages safer from the toxic goo that lived within,” Carveth said in her best superhero voice. “I get a cape.”
Carveth is a hazardous waste chemist working for Snohomish County’s public works department — in other words, a chemical geek.
After years of tackling pesticides and paints elsewhere, she’s been helping Snohomish County’s environmental effort.
Her work earned her a big award. She was recently anointed a “Built Green Pioneer” by the Master Builders of King and Snohomish Counties, which represents the region’s home building industry.
She helped beef up the building industry’s Built Green program, which sets the standards builders use when they want to use environmentally friendly building practices and earn some green street credibility. She also helped create the county’s sustainable development task force.
A checklist 11 pages long outlines hundreds of guidelines including thresholds for preserving trees and using native plants in landscaping; using low-energy glass, thicker insulation and energy-efficient appliances and fixtures.
Terms that are becoming more commonplace — paint with low volatile organic compounds and formaldehyde-free products for better indoor air — were once the province of the industry’s most experienced scientists.
“I worked to encourage the use of science to build less toxic homes that are easier on the planet and healthier for the families who live in them,” Carveth said.
Now she’s heading up work on the county’s program to make biodiesel by drying canola seed at the county’s Cathcart property. She just helped the county buy a Matthew’s 675, which can dry 15 tons per hour.
Next comes a grain elevator and silo.
Carveth is a brilliant scientist and is enthusiastic, county Public Works director Steve Thomsen said.
“She does not fit the mold of a typical geek,” he said. “She’s definitely a lot of fun and very interested in green initiatives, sustainable communities, and sustainable energy ideas.”
Reporter Jeff Switzer: 425-339-3452 or jswitzer@heraldnet.com.
Q&A
Q: What are the top three things builders are now doing that’s better for the environment and what difference are they making?
1. Using Energy Star appliances and alternate energy (solar) in homes to make them more affordable to own and operate.
2. Incorporating less toxic finishes, glues and adhesives into homes so they are healthier to live in, making families healthier.
3. Using more native plants, leaving trees in the landscape, minimizing lawns; this means fewer pesticides and fertilizers are necessary which means better water quality for everybody.
Q: What three easy things can people do to be greener?
1. Use reusable bags for purchases where possible: Avoid plastic bags because they cause litter, don’t decompose and use petroleum products in their manufacture.
2. Use the car less: Transportation is the largest source of pollution. I bike to work, when it isn’t raining, 6 miles one way, mostly flat. That doesn’t work for everybody, but getting out of the car makes the air cleaner and us healthier because we are walking or biking or skating.
3. Buy local food and local products: This is actually more important than organic, but if you can get local and organic that is the best. In our house we are trying for a 300 mile diet, eating food from farms and providers within 300 miles. This is problematic for coffee, chocolate and bananas.
Deanna Carveth, senior Snohomish County planner
Building industry info at builtgreen.net.
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