The Yudelson Associates Blog: What's New

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Green Home Market Ready to Surge

All indications point to a major increase in green home offerings by homebuilders large and small in 2007 and 2008. In my article in the December issue of Environmental Design & Construction magazine, beginning at page 34, I give 12 reasons why I believe this increase is real, imminent and permanent. Primarily, it’s the spirit of the times. For the first time in a generation, the general public is concerned about energy costs and availability. Secondly, homebuilders are getting comfortable with building energy-efficient homes, and the $2000 federal tax credit for meeting certain efficiency goals was just extended through the end of 2008. Third, the buyers are getting more sophisticated about asking for energy use information. Fourth, and perhaps most importantly, the growing competition between the National Association of Home Builders and the emerging LEED for Homes program, along with about 60 other green building certification programs in the U.S., means that there will be a lot of marketplace interest in building green, on the supply side.

Posted by Jerry Yudelson on 12/27/2006 at 08:55 AM

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Tuesday, December 26, 2006

If it’s not a green building, is it obsolete?

“Trillions of dollars of commercial property owned by real-estate investment trusts, corporations and other investors around the world will soon become obsolete - and will drop in value,” opens the article by Charles Lockwood, a well known real-estate consultant, in the December 25th Barron’s, America’s definitive financial weekly. Lockwood cites several reasons for this prediction: green buildings have lower operating costs, are more attractive to corporate tenants, produce reduced absenteeism and illnes, enable better employee recruitment and retention, and foster greater productivity. This is exactly the business case for green buildings I set forth in my 2006 book, Developing Green: Strategies for Success, available from NAIOP. Now that the costs of green buildings are falling in line with conventional building costs, is there any reason now for companies and developers not to build green?

Posted by Jerry Yudelson on 12/26/2006 at 01:02 PM

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Friday, December 22, 2006

The 10 million home Internet power drain

According to the December 21st Wall Street Journal, there are now 28 million server computers in the world, most of them obviously in the developed countries, each drawing 400 watts of power. Assuming these run 24/7, these represent about 100 billion kilowatt-hours per year of energy consumption, with the attendant carbon dioxide emissions. The Journal reports that AMD, Intel and other chip makers are trying to do something about this, along with the federal Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Agency. If the average home uses 10,000 kilowatt-hour per year, this represents the power use of 10 million homes. Green building advocates need to look at other areas than buildings to curb power consumption, and this is one of them.

Posted by Jerry Yudelson on 12/22/2006 at 03:31 PM

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Thursday, December 21, 2006

Banned In Boston

The New York Times reported December 20th that Boston will amend its building code to require all new private construction above 50,000 sq.ft. (a three story office building) to meet the minimum LEED certification requirements of 26 of the 69 possible points in LEED. This tactic, incorporating LEED into the building code, has benefits and drawbacks. For a drawback, it puts LEED and the U.S. Green Building Council squarely in the camp of the regulators and requires it to have the slow-moving consensus process of code-writing bodies. For a benefit, it is just the beginning of a long-term movement toward upgrading the nation’s building stock, especially its environmental and health impacts, that is way overdue. This move by Boston, and similar moves by other local jurisdictions such as Washington, DC, puts the onus squarely on the private sector to respond to an escalating global warming crisis and to build healthier, more energy-efficient buildings.

Posted by Jerry Yudelson on 12/21/2006 at 07:34 AM

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