GreenBuild Blog
Corporate Sustainability / Green Business Practices
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
This entry has been viewed 362 times.
Corporate Sustainability / Green Business Practices • PermalinkMonday, 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
This entry has been viewed 589 times.
Corporate Sustainability / Green Business Practices • PermalinkGreen 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
This entry has been viewed 503 times.
Corporate Sustainability / Green Business Practices • PermalinkThursday, July 17, 2008
Can Green Building Help Lifestyle Centers Succeed?
With so many major retailers building green (Kohl’s, Office Depot, Home Depot, Best Buy, Coldwater Creek, to name a few), wouldn’t it make sense for shopping center developers of these large lifestyle centers to build to LEED standards and offer prospective tenants the prospect of an easier certification, by supplying 8 to 10 “LEED points” for retailers? Just yesterday, I was in on a project meeting for a national retail chain that is specifically aiming at a green building certification for a new store located in such a “green” shopping center. The interest is clearly in marrying the two concepts: green retail and green development. Wouldn’t it make sense for developers to use this market slowdown as an opportunity to explore green building concepts and the value of using those as marketing tools for major tenants?
Posted by Jerry on 07/17/2008 at 12:54 PM
This entry has been viewed 477 times.
Corporate Sustainability / Green Business Practices • PermalinkPage 3 of 4 pages < 1 2 3 4 >
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