GreenBuild Blog

Sustainability Planning

This section deals with campus and corporate sustainability planning and programs

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

How do green building teams get high-performance results?

I’ve been doing a lot of research lately on how project teams are delivering high-performance projects, those that save 30% or more energy against the ASHRAE 2004 standard, with lots of daylighting and other green features. Consider that LEED-Platinum projects, currently the highest attainment in green building, represent less than five percent of all LEED-certified projects in the U.S., and you’ll see that there’s a lot of projects that don’t get to the very highest levels. Here are a few lessons learned:

1. It’s not easy doing it within budget.
2. It probably won’t happen the first time.
3. It takes a village to raise a building.
4. Building is a team sport; the owner’s active leadership is critical.
5. LEED is the best roadmap we have for sustainable building.

Click here to see my full report (PDF).

Posted by Sky on 01/22/2008 at 02:50 PM

This entry has been viewed 618 times.

Sustainability Planning • Permalink

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

This entry has been viewed 1047 times.

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Monday, December 04, 2006

Green Building and Sustainability Consulting

Sometimes a green building and sustainability consultant gets to eat the food he recommends to others. As a consultant focused on marketing green buildings and green building services, it’s been people asking me, “Who are your target clients?” Anyone who’s started a new business knows that the early-stage clients often define the enterprise for a considerable time, yet are indispensable. The marketplace tells each business what it wants most, in terms of what it’s willing to pay for. In the case of Yudelson Associates, it’s market intelligence, good business advice and a “hands on” approach to delivering it. Our clients to date include venture capital firms; very large and very small developers; architects and engineers wanting advice on green building marketing; projects looking for design assistance; a large building products manufacturer; organizations seeking an insightful speech or inspiring workshop; a university or a company trying to implement a sustainability program; and the list goes on. In each case, we’re trying to meet our corporate vision: “growing the business of green building,” allowing each client to contribute to that idea. It’s like jazz in a way, a central theme, with a lot of riffs. What are your experiences of growing a business?

Posted by Jerry Yudelson on 12/04/2006 at 04:53 AM

This entry has been viewed 697 times.

Company News • Sustainability Planning • Permalink

Friday, November 24, 2006

Environmental Sustainability, Green Buildings and LEED Join Forces at Greenbuild 2006

The recently concluded Greenbuild 2006 conference in Denver showcased the growing confluence of sustainability and environmental concerns, green buildings and the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED rating systems. The USGBC announced that it would sent to its members in January, for a vote, a proposal to amend the LEED for New Construction (LEED-NC) version 2.2 rating system to require that each project achieve at least two of the “Energy and Atmosphere” points, resulting in a minimum of 14% energy savings against the prevailing ASHRAE 90.1-2004 standard. (At the present, no specific energy savings are required to become a LEED-certified project, just meeting the minimum ASHRAE standard). Green building and environmental consultants have been using the LEED rating system in increasing numbers, with more than 1,000 LEED-NC projects registered for the first time in 2005. This proposal would be a first response to the challenge posed to USGBC in October by Architecture 2030, a new nonprofit calling for a 60% reduction in building energy use by 2010 (versus the average in 2005). Because USGBC made a public and overwhelming commitment at Greenbuild to reducing the global “carbon footprint” of new (and existing) buildings as its first priority, look for this to be the first of many changes in the LEED rating system that will be required to assure meeting that commitment in the future.

Posted by Jerry Yudelson on 11/24/2006 at 01:30 PM

This entry has been viewed 922 times.

Green Building News • Sustainability Planning • Permalink

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