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Sunday, May 10, 2009
Time to Invest in Green Building Marketing?
I’m wondering why principals of design firms especially, who’ve feasted off of a five-year growth in business from 2002 to 2007, aren’t willing to dig into their pockets and come up with $10,000 or $15,000 each to invest in targeted marketing and training programs, to gain market share, hire better employees and make their current workforce more skilled. While many firms have laid off 20% or 25% of staff, there’s still business out there to be had. More importantly, clients want to hear something new from you, something that will save them money. A firm with 10 principals should put together a “war chest” of $100,000 to $150,000 for carefully targeted marketing, training and skill building programs. These funds should be targeted at the markets that are still growing: health care, K12 education, federal government buildings, energy-efficient upgrades of commercial buildings, and the like. There’s quite a bit of stimulus money out there that’s going to be spent on design and construction, to soften the blow of the current recession. As as business confidence returns in the second half of this year, you can be sure that clients will remember those firms that were in front of them with new ideas, well financed cost-saving investments, and expanded technical capabilities.
Posted by Jerry on 05/10/2009 at 06:36 AM
This entry has been viewed 311 times.
Company News • PermalinkMonday, May 04, 2009
Microturbines: An excerpt from Green Building A to Z
Microturbines are a relatively new technology with significant applications in green building design. By using natural gas as a fuel (also diesel or propane), microturbines generate electricity and hot water, rather than just one or the other. In this way, about 80% of the energy value in the fuel is converted to useful work. Microturbines can range from 25 kilowatt (kW) output to 500 kW, have low emissions of nitrogen oxide, are about 20% to 30% efficient in producing electric power and can produce hot water at 120F to 175F, a range quite suitable for a number of uses, including swimming pools and service water.
To read the entire chapter, click here to download the PDF version.
Posted by Sky on 05/04/2009 at 03:00 AM
This entry has been viewed 301 times.
Company News • PermalinkSunday, May 03, 2009
Green Buildings and Green Jobs: What’s Up?
I provide my answers to the question: “Green Jobs, Where’s The Beef?” as part of a series of short video commentaries on green building trends and sustainable development practices distributed to the public via YouTube.
The new green jobs will come from three areas. The first area is green buildings, both new and existing, where the growth is already tremendous - about 80% in 2008. The second area is renewable energy development, particularly wind and solar. And, the third area is efficiency upgrades for older buildings.
These are the same drivers of future employment that President Obama is promoting in his proposed budget and policy projections. Assuming the President and the Congress keep the momentum going, investments in green building, renewable energy and energy efficiency literally could provide millions of sustainable new jobs over the next four years.
Many of these new jobs in the building and construction industries will be created by the need to retrofit the hundreds of thousands of structures that were built for an era of cheap energy, without regard to environmental consequences. Now, we have to go back and make design and operational changes that are consistent with our new knowledge of the financial costs and environmental consequences of building without sustainability in mind.
This new green building consciousness is crucial for the success of this transition. I learned the hard way in the late seventies and early eighties when I was director of the California solar energy program designed to establish a permanent solar industry in the state. We had a good start, but in 1985 the federal and state governments took the props (tax credits) away simultaneously, and the industry collapsed overnight. For me, this is a valuable lesson to remember today.
What do we have to do to make the growth in green jobs permanent? My list of requirements includes making sure building codes accurately reflect the current realities of global warming and the cost of carbon emissions, establishing governmental economic incentives that will not go away after a few years. Finally, we need to create a lasting infrastructure connecting building owners, facility managers and government agencies to ensure that green practices will guide future construction and operations.
To view the brief video of highlights of Jerry Yudelson’s perspective on green jobs, click here.
Posted by Jerry on 05/03/2009 at 02:15 PM
This entry has been viewed 251 times.
Company News • PermalinkMonday, April 20, 2009
What’s in Store for Green Homes? Chapter 11 of Choosing Green
Suppose you’re just not ready to buy a new home now, but you’re interested in buying a green home in the future. Where are we headed? Here are a few educated guesses. First of all, I predict that the green home market is going to grow rapidly and become a dominant part of the homebuilding market by 2010.
To read the entire chapter, click here to download the PDF version.
Posted by Sky on 04/20/2009 at 03:00 AM
This entry has been viewed 307 times.
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