With LEED certified projects growing in popularity, green can be a major selling point to investors and tenants alike. These initiatives not only offer significant and measurable savings in terms of energy usage, but contribute to the health and well being of the people who live and work in your project, so green messaging is very important.
Green leasing plays an important role in the sustainability of the building stock; building operations themselves must be “greened” as well. Green leasing introduces sustainable goals and commitments into building operations and into the lease itself.
Last year, during Women’s History Month, we published, our list of the top women in sustainability. This week, PINK released their list of the top women in sustainability for 2011. These are women who they see as pioneers who are employing cutting-edge best practices to lead the movement for corporate responsibility and sustainability
A list of top green building trends for 2011 is provided by Green building consultant, Jerry Yudelson and Tom Breunig, director of marketing, of Earth Advantage Institute.
With heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems using more building energy use than lighting and IT combined, they can have a major impact when it comes to how sustainable a building is. This is where innovative HVAC start-ups like Ice Energy, Optimum Energy, and Chromasun come in, with technology designed to significantly reduce HVAC building energy usage.
Despite all the headlines, and a bit of hype, in the world of commercial real estate, the number of green buildings is relatively very small and not growing at a significant rate. Only 2% of all new building construction projects receive LEED certification. Lets look at reasons why building sustainability is stalling and what can be done.
Despite the rhetoric, the numbers show that green stimulus investments are among the most cost-effective ways to spend the Recovery Act dollars and create jobs.
Our buildings are central to our lives, and we put a tremendous amount of our wealth and skills into making them. The modern green building movement is a highly tuned, intensive, and measured approach to building that values efficiency, health and durability.The success of the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) has not been based on their radical agenda but on the practical results of the types of building they have helped shape. The improvement in productivity in LEED commercial buildings alone can pay for the entire building. These large projects have demonstrated the value gained by investing in green building principles
In a recent interview, Annie Lesroart of eBay, shared with us how eBay implemented a fast, ambitious and effective strategy to go green. From forty employees, the program expanded to hundreds of thousands of eBay buyers and sellers (including people who don’t even work at eBay!) How did this happen? And how can it happen for you?
