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David Gottfried: Green Renovation and Historic Choices (Video)
Planet Green Articles Feed — ... , the U.S. Green Building Council's annual conference. Planet Green is a Silver sponsor of this year's event, which will be held in Boston November 19-21. This post was written by Sara Gottfried, David's wife. When you remodel an old home, and certainly a 1915 craftsman, and you embrace green and you want LEED Platinum like us, there's a lot of decisions to be made. What do you save? Do you keep the old beautiful wood? I would say absolutely. But you have issues of ...

The Environmental Impact of Green Buildings
Joel Makower: Two Steps Forward — There's no question that green buildings represent one of the genuine success stories of green business. Thanks in large part to the LEED green building standard — which established a solid set of benchmarks for answering the question "How good is 'good enough'?" with regard to the built environment — a vast constellation ...

The Environmental Impacts of Green Buildings
Greener Buildings — The Environmental Impacts of Green Buildings There's no question that green buildings represent one of the genuine success stories of green business. Thanks in large part to the LEED green building standard ...

Debating the Green Building Premium
Green Inc. — Building green costs an average of 2.5 percent more up front, a study sponsored by the US Green Building Council and other real-estate and architectural groups has found. The study, whose results were released to coincide with a major green-building conference in Boston this week, says that the premium is far less than the public believes. It surveyed about 150 buildings (mainly LEED commercial buildings, as rated by the Green Building Council, plus a few multi-unit residential buildings), and found that the median cost increase was 1.6 percent. The resulting energy efficiency and water savings — which are not ...

Army Green: Not Just a Color Anymore?
Green Inc. — Among the considerations attending U.S. Army operations — from training and deploying troops to the massive administrative and support infrastructure — environmental sustainability hasn’t always been high on the list. But its carbon footprint — or “bootprint” in military speak — is the subject of the U.S. Army’s first annual Sustainability Report ( PDF ...

Could Going Green Lower School Taxes?
greenstrides — My answer to this question is, “Why not?!” If green measures, such as energy and water conservation, are implemented into existing schools and those schools under construction, the payback period for such implementations will be a few short years. The savings, on the other hand, will be significant and continue to save money for school districts enabling school taxes to be lowered accordingly. This morning I came across an interesting article at The Washington Independent that covered the story of sixth grade students and green enthusiasts at a Washington, D.C. school. They are following protocols of the ...

Kennecott Land, Citi and Pizza Fusion Build New Quarters to LEED Standards
Greener Buildings — Kennecott Land, Citi and Pizza Fusion Build New Quarters to LEED Standards WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Kennecott Land 's Daybreak Corporate Center in South Jordan, Utah, attained a LEED Platinum rating, Citi obtained LEED Gold status for office space in Chicago and Pizza Fusion opened its 16th restaurant built to LEED standards. The developments this month marked some of the more prominent accomplishments involving Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standards, better known as LEED, that are maintained by the U.S. Green Building Council of Washington, D.C. The 175,000-square-foot Daybreak ...

Monterey Bay Shores: The "Greenest Ever" Eco-Resort Set to Break Ground on California Coast - Holistic Approach Pushes Boundaries of Sustainability
Triple Pundit: People, Planet, Profit — "Sustainability" can be a slippery term in the best of circumstances. Add "eco-resort" to that and you have a recipe for greenwash. Organic soap, low-flow shower heads, and encouraging guests to hang up their towels for one more use before washing is all well and good, but does not a truly sustainable eco-resort make. There are exceptions, of course, and one of the best examples I've seen is Monterey Bay Shores, a planned eco-resort located in Sand City, along the scenic Monterey Peninsula on California's north-central coast. The seafaring, agricultural region made famous by John Steinbeck. The project is the ...

“Greenest Building in the West” on Hold Pending Investigation
INHABITAT — 110 embarcadero, pelli clarke pelli architects, green design, sustainable architecture, green building, leed platinum high rise, greenest building on the west coast, san francisco, solar panels After weeks of public outcry ...

Build It Green’s Next Step: Apartment Retrofits
Earth2Tech — U.S. green building rating systems have so far largely failed to address renovations of existing homes, in particular so-called multifamily dwellings like apartment buildings. But that is set to change. We’ve learned that the Berkeley, Calif.-based nonprofit Build It Green has secured grants to expand its GreenPoint ...

How Smart Are SMART Jobs?
Got2BeGreen — The Region 2000 partnership is not just promoting economic development in Central Virginia, it is also LEEDing by example. While focusing on sustainable work force development to grow wealth and opportunity in Lynchburg and the surrounding two thousand miles, their Economic Development Council also plans to build the New London Business and Technology Center to serve existing wireless and nuclear energy business. Bryan David, Executive Director of Region 2000, says that “because [the center] is about energy, we need to get it right on energy conservation.” He adds that they plan to be “respectful of the ...

Green Building and LEED Certification
Green Business — What does building green mean and why is it necessary? Greening a company encompasses many different aspects, not just recycling or stopping use of toxic materials and replacing it with something more environmentally friendly. Turning your company green includes green building practices. Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, more commonly known as LEED,  is at the top in terms of certification of green building construction practices. Follow their guidelines, study their material and join others in building for a green and better tomorrow. The U.S. Green Building Council offers a third-party certification program. If ...

Home Green Home, With the Sierra Club
Green Inc. — The following is the latest in a series of posts in which Green Inc.’s editor, Tom Zeller Jr. , explores ways to improve the energy efficiency of his home. Green Inc. readers are encouraged to share their own thoughts and experiences in the comments section — or by sending e-mail to greeninc@nytimes.com . * Two of the most frequently asked questions I receive from readers look something like this: 1)“I want to try to improve the efficiency and sustainability of my home and the products I purchase, but I don’t know where to begin finding out what’s available, and what sorts of incentives there might be for me. Is there ...

Escape and Indulge at Gaia Napa Valley Hotel and Spa
Greenopia Environmental News — [image] Sometimes, you just need to get away. Away from work, errands, family all of the responsibilities that make adulthood a questionable lifestyle decision. Unfortunately, thanks to all those daily commitments, getting away is limited to the confines of your backyard or local park. Just north of San Francisco is a new, sustainable destination that will make you feel worlds away without having to pay the cost for a flight to Bali. Located in American Canyon ...

A New Grid May Be Needed, But So Are New Habits
Ecoearth.info Blog — New Grid May Be Needed, But So Is Smarter Use by Richard Harris The last of a 10-part series All Things Considered , May 1, 2009 Power companies are planning to beef up the nation's electricity transmission grid. At the same time, conservationists are trying to reduce the vast amount of power wasted in Americans' homes and offices. That raises a question: If we simply used energy more efficiently, would we need to spend billions of dollars on a new grid? To answer this question, we first need to know how much electricity buildings of the future could save. A good place to start is an office in downtown Washington, D.C. the ...

Product-Safety Certifier Expands to Green
Green Inc. — Underwriters Laboratories , whose ubiquitous product-safety labels have literally made it household name for more than a century, is pushing hard to make a new name for itself as a global environmental-standards tester. Yesterday, its 5-month-old subsidiary, UL Environment , or U.L.E., awarded its first product certification to a type of recycled drywall called EcoRock, manufactured by Serious Materials in Sunnyvale, Calif. Having U.L.E.’s environmental certification, according to Kevin Surace, the chief executive of Serious Materials, will help the company sell EcoRock panels for building projects aiming for ...

Kaplan Thompson House: Virginia’s First LEED Platinum Home
INHABITAT — Arlington, Virginia recently received its first LEED Platinum home, which simultaneously holds the honor of Best Single Family Residential Project from the Virginia Sustainable Building Network. A collaboration between Metro Green and Kaplan Thompson Architects, the four bedroom family home and loft merges contemporary architecture with a sustainable footprint that leaves even us totally green with envy. Read the rest of Kaplan Thompson House: Virginia’s First LEED Platinum ...

Lost Over LEED?: BuildingGreen Launches Software to Help LEED Certification
Earth2Tech — Information technology isn’t just aiding the green building sector in terms of energy management tools — it also can play a role in designing certified green structures. Brattleboro, Vt.-based BuildingGreen, a green building publisher and products cataloger, on Wednesday launched an online software package meant to ...

World’s First LEED Platinum Data Center Opens in Germany
INHABITAT — sustainable design, green design, arup associates, leed platinum, germany, data center Germany recently joined the ranks of the green elite with the completion of Citigroup’s stunning new Data Center ...

Newark’s Roseville Commons supposed to make G-living affordable
Green Diary — The Brick City’s West Ward in Newark will be a home to a $14 million, multipurpose, affordable housing project. The joint venture includes Montclair-based RPM Development Group, Newark-based New Community Corp. and the city administration. Dubbed as Roseville Commons, the 553-567 Orange St. building is seeking LEED certification from the USGBC since its energy-efficient design includes rooftop solar panels. Funding sources like the Low-Income Housing Tax Credits and the New Jersey Housing Mortgage Finance Agency have shown special interest in the ...

Hope Floats in New Orleans with the FLOAT House
Triple Pundit: People, Planet, Profit — 6a00d8341c67ce53ef0120a61f574c970c-500wi In honor of World Habitat Day , designated as October 5, 2009, we wanted to help remind the world of its collective responsibility for the future of the human habitat. World Habitat Day this year is celebrated under the theme Planning Our Urban Future to raise awareness of the need to improve urban settlements to deal with new major challenges of the 21st century. One of the most powerful forces is climate change. Warming events are triggering harsh natural disasters, like Hurricane Katrina, which rendered large sections of New Orleans unrecognizable and claimed almost 2,000 lives. With ...

75 Chipotle Mexican Grill Restaurants Go Green with Solar
Triple Pundit: People, Planet, Profit — Chipotle Mexican Grill Logo Colorado-based restaurant chain, Chipotle Mexican Grill, is going solar.  The popular restaurant chain is taking another step towards a more sustainable future. According to a company press release ...

Bowled Over By LEED Lanes in Brooklyn
TreeHugger — Images via Brooklyn Bowl LEED buildings are getting pretty thick on the ground these days, and don't often make it into TreeHugger unless they are pushing platinum or or doing something really special; Brooklyn Bowl falls into that latter category- a century-old iron foundry where Peter Shapiro and Charley Ryan have built a hipster bowling alley and music venue and gone to the considerable trouble of getting it LEED Certified. ...Read the full story on TreeHugger ...

First Hospital Lands Green 'LEED Platinum' Certification
GoodCleanTech — Dell Children's Medical Center of Central Texas became the first healthcare facility in the world to achieve LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Platinum Certification. Among its various characteristics, the hospital contains 47,000 tons of recycled Mueller airport runway material. Inside, reclaimed water is used for irrigation, an on-site natural gas turbine supplies all electricity (with links to the municipal grid and an emergency generator for backup), and converted steam energy from a heating/cooling plant supplies all chilled water. The U.S. Green Building Council awards the ...