The Yudelson Associates Blog: What's New

Saturday, November 29, 2008

Google’s Green Agenda and Real Energy Savings

According to a story last month in the New York Times, Google is “seriously dabbling” in green energy investments. Do you think that a company like Google can produce results through investments in startup companies? Is this a good use of their time and money? Will their lobbying power convince the Obama administration and the Congress to raise the stakes with more than $15 billion annual investment in clean energy technologies? Think how that money could really be used to help the economy. If a cost-effective building energy retrofit would cost $1.50 per square foot, then $15 billion would retrofit 10 billion square feet of U.S. real estate, producing (at $0.50 per sq.ft. annual savings, i.e. a three-year payback) $5 billion a year in real energy savings. 10 billion square feet is roughly equivalent to 2,500 buildings the size of Chicago’s Merchandise Mart, the largest since commercial building in the country. If this government investment were leveraged only 2 to 1, we could retrofit 20 billion square feet per year. In four years we could retrofit all of the US commercial real estate, based on the 72 billion square foot size of the building stock in 2003, according to the Department of Energy. That’s where the money should be going, don’t you think?

Posted by Jerry on 11/29/2008 at 09:06 AM

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Wednesday, November 26, 2008

900 U.S. Mayors Sign Climate Protection Agreement

Local leadership on the climate issue is just as important as action at the federal level. With the number of U.S. mayors signing the U.S. Conference of Mayors Climate Change Agreement exceeding 900 now, what Seattle mayor Greg Nickels started in 2005 appears to be gaining unstoppable momentum. From the published list of mayors, a savvy marketer can find government agencies to approach for green buildings and energy efficiency retrofits, along with renewable power systems. In addition to reducing GHG emissions by 2012, the mayors pledge to meet or beat other Kyoto Protocol targets in their own towns and cities; and to urge Congress to pass legislation to reduce GHGs.

Posted by Jerry on 11/26/2008 at 10:04 AM

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Monday, August 04, 2008

Is Toyota the future of green homes?

In July, the Wall Street Journal carried an amazing story about a small division of Toyota building homes with 60-year warranties. According to the article, “Toyota’s aspirations as a home builder are also gaining new importance with the planned launch by 2010 of its plug-in vehicles, gas-electric hybrid cars with powerful lithium-ion batteries that drivers will need to recharge at home. The car maker is testing an electricity-monitoring system in its homes that would charge the vehicle during off-peak hours to keep utility bills low, while the car’s battery can serve as an electrical backup, powering the home during blackouts.” Toyota has been building modular, factory homes for years, while the U.S. continues to rely on outmoded systems of site-built housing that meet no real goals for sustainability. The great housing “correction” (read crash) of 2007 and 2008 is likely to persist as we work off millions of unoccupied homes from inventory and foreclosure. Maybe the time has come for home builders to embrace the off-site factory, but with a green building twist. At this point, they’ve little to lose.

Posted by Jerry on 08/04/2008 at 05:57 PM

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Green Weenies: Will Green Hotels Ever Come of Age?

Most European hotels now have card keys that turn off the power in the room when you leave. Most Americans won’t accept them, because the A/C might take a few minutes to kick in, so the hotel leaves on the A/C all day for an empty room for fear of losing a guest. This might be a problem during the few summer months, but what about rest of the year? What will it take for hotels to put blue recycling containers in every room and compost their food waste, among a few mildly responsible measures? Other than the obvious ploy of not washing the sheets (at your option) for a multi-day stay (which saves water but also a lot of money for the hotel), what will it take to get the hotel industry to adopt green construction and operations standards? Consumer demand and economics are the obvious answers. If green hotels start showing higher occupancies and the cost of energy keeps going higher, we may start to see this nascent trend accelerate. But for right now, I wouldn’t bet on it happening very fast, because of the lack of vision and any sense of social or environmental responsibility in the lodging industry. The only thing that might accelerate change is if corporate travel departments and meeting planners start demanding LEED or Energy Star certification for hotels they patronize; that will be a message much harder to ignore.

Posted by Jerry on 08/04/2008 at 10:21 AM

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