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Friday, October 27, 2006
Greening the Mormon Empire
I taught two workshops for AIA and SMPS yesterday in Salt Lake City. Found out that the first LEED Gold building in Utah has just been completed. Talked with one leading architect about his experience with green building projects. The first three buildings, he said, cost 5% to 7% more. He expects the next three projects to have a 3% to 5% price premium. After that, costs of green buildings should fall back into the “noise” level. Part of this expected price drop is growth of a supply chain for green materials and technologies among established building materials suppliers and vendors, as well as the effect of competition for new business. This experience is typical for many architects and developers. There is a “learning curve,” after all, for most new technologies and new approaches. In manufacturing, this learning curve phenomenon is well known: the price per unit produced falls by a predictable amount, say 15%, for each doubling of cumulative production. A IPod that costs $60 to make (hypothetically) for the first five million units, will cost $51 for the next 5 million, about $44 for the next 10 million, etc.
Posted by Jerry Yudelson on 10/27/2006 at 07:31 AM
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Green Building News • (0) Comments • PermalinkThursday, October 26, 2006
Is Global Warming Causing More Intense Hurricanes?
Does global warming cause more intense hurricanes, such as last year’s Katrina, Rita, etc.? One camp of climate scientists says yes, it’s obvious. The other, meteorologists who study hurricanes for a living are pretty sure it’s part of a long-term cyclical phenomenon, and that increased damages stem mainly from lots more human settlement along the southern and southeastern coasts of the U.S. Consider how green buildings, with much lower energy use can help ameliorate global warming over time. Read the entire article at: Slate Magazine
Posted by Jerry Yudelson on 10/26/2006 at 10:53 PM
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Green Building News • (0) Comments • PermalinkFriday, October 20, 2006
Leaving Las Vegas
Just spent a great evening and morning talking to the Las Vegas chapter of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties (NAIOP). NAIOP published my book, Developing Green: Strategies for Success (available at NAIOP Bookstore. At a breakfast meeting attended by over 100 developers and development industry participants, I was on a panel that discussed green development in Las Vegas. One large office building in downtown Las Vegas, with 10 floors of offices above six floors of parking, scheduled for occupancy in August 2007, by the Molasky Group of Companies, is aiming at LEED Gold certification. The Las Vegas City Center project, the world’s largest private construction project at $7 billion and 17+ million sq.ft., is aiming to have all buildings achieve LEED Silver certification by 2009. (It appears there’s more green happening in Las Vegas Valley than just trying to make the folding kind.) Check in with the Southern Nevada chapter of the US Green Building Council, at www.usgbclv.org. My host, Pamela Vilkin of Tradewinds Construction, co-owner of a large, local commercial plumbing contractor, supplies the dynamic energy for both the USGBC chapter and the sustainable development committee of the local NAIOP chapter.
GOING TO KANSAS CITY
Was in KC on October 16th to speak with the local chapter of NAIOP. Green building is beginning to happen in that area, but slowly. Had a long discussion at the meeting with a key player in design at Wal-Mart. His presence at the meeting indicated to me that everyone should keep an eye on our biggest retailer as it reshuffles itself into a greener and more obviously socially responsible organization.
MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS
I went to St. Louis on October 17th to speak to that city’s NAIOP chapter at the historic Racquet Club. Missouri has about 40 LEED registered projects right now, and is just starting up the learning curve for green buildings. On the way in from the airport, we drove by the Alberici Corp.‘s LEED Platinum headquarters, a striking building renovation topped by photovoltaic panels and showcasing a large wind turbine, probably in excess of 100 KW, alongside the building. Seeing this display reminded me that we all need to figure out how to make green buildings more “educational” to the public at large. Solar panels on the roof facing the road and wind turbines alongside a busy freeway are good ways to do that.
Posted by Jerry Yudelson on 10/20/2006 at 05:09 PM
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Green Building News • (0) Comments • PermalinkWednesday, October 18, 2006
On, Wisconsin!
In Madison, Wisconsin, today, Jerry talked with providers of the Wisconsin Green Built Home assessment program, a third-party certification of home energy efficiency. About 30% of new homes built in Madison are now certified, but the number seems to have peaked at that percentage. The program estimates that only 2% of homes in other parts of the state are Green Built certified. This is in a very cold state, where winter temperatures of zero Fahrenheit and below are not uncommon. (Remember all those December NFL playoff games in Green Bay on frozen fields?) It seems hard for most green building certification programs to crack the 30% barrier, and to reach that number is common only in a few places, such as Austin, Tucson and Portland, that I know of.
Posted by Jerry Yudelson on 10/18/2006 at 09:46 AM
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Green Building News • (0) Comments • PermalinkPage 20 of 21 pages « First < 18 19 20 21 >
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