ELEMENT To LEED Green Hotel Movement
Starwood Hotels has confirmed that its newest brand, ELEMENT hotels, will require all of its developments to pursue LEED certification from the USGBC. ELEMENT'S key green features include daylighting, energy-efficient appliances and water-efficient faucets. The first of such properties is scheduled to open this July in Lexington, Massachusetts.
++Starwood Hotels' ELEMENT Brand To Mandate LEED Certification In All Hotels Brand-Wide [Press Release 4/21/08]
++Starwood Develops Brand of LEED-Certified Hotels [Display and Design Ideas]
If you haven't heard by now, T. Boone Pickens (The King of Takeovers) is planning a huge wind farm in the panhandle of Texas, which would be the largest in the world. Well, he took the first step in that plan today by ordering 667 turbines from GE for about $2 billion (almost $3 million a turbine)...and that's just 25% of the total turbines he plans to purchase. Once built, the wind farm would have the capacity to supply power to over 1,200,000 homes in North Texas, which could be sometime in 2014. Just to check, I plugged in Pampa, Texas (site of wind-farm) into 
Hopefully, as more companies begin to adopt a full-service green strategy, you will hear more "Work from home!" and less "Get to work!" A panel at the recent CoreNet Global Summit encouraged U.S. corporations to implement worker mobility "telecommuting" programs in an effort to reduce carbon footprints. Gervais Tompkin (no relation to Ricky Gervais), principal at architectural firm Gensler, reports that about 73 million square feet of office space was delivered in the US during 2007. Alternatively, studies have found that as much as 55% of the nation's office space is underutilized. At HP in the UK, instituting a mobility program resulted in consolidating more than 2,800 workers in 451,000 square feet of office space down to 165,000 square feet...resulting in a 49% energy savings! Given the transition from the manufacturing to the service sector AND the focus on corporate globalization over the past 50 years, mobility programs of one variety or another should be carefully considered at many, if not all, service firms in the US. In theory, all you need is a computer and an internet connection, right? 
If Pottery Barn built green homes on white sandy beaches with views of the Pacific Ocean, they wouldn't do it any better than Seabrook Land Company's Seabrook community. Spearheaded by town founder & president, Casey Roloff, Seabrook is an "authentic beach town atop a well-situated bluff on the Washinton State coast (
I came across a couple green sites recently...they provide wind and solar information based on your address. The first is findsolar.com. This site helps determine the solar viability of your home. Once basic information is entered (address and power company), the site spits out the utility savings per month, total cost, solar panel size, tax credits and anything else you would need to know before you installed a solar panel on your house. The second site is firstlook.3tiergroup.com. With this site, after you create an account, you can figure out how much wind hits your property by providing your location. These sites provide excellent initial cost info on the solar and wind investment decision. When you consider the fact that installing a solar panel can cost between $30,000 and $60,000 (before credits), you want to make sure that you are figuring out all of the relevant costs and benefits of a particular decision.
I got an invite from the FHA Mortgage Center today about a contest they are running for real estate bloggers. So, I submitted Equity Green to the contest and we will see if it can make some noise over the next month. The contest runs through June 1st and they give out prizes based on votes received, Editor's Choice, etc. They have a 
Driving through Southern Utah, there are three things that always catch my attention. The red rock terrain, the green golf courses, and the heat. Just last week, my wife and I drove through St. George and it was probably 85 degrees...in April. Temperatures start to average in the mid 80's starting in May and usually last till October, getting to the upper 90's and 100's in June, July, August and September. The heat provides the perfect opportunity for residents to embrace green building...and that seems to be the case in St. George. A housing panel is weighing plans for the construction of a green housing development aimed at households earning between 60% and 110% of the area median income. The Flats at South Point will save residents 50% or more on heating and cooling costs and will have a targeted home value between $180,000 and $230,000 . An affordable green development in the ballpark of $135 per square foot. That's awesome! The first phase of construction is slated for completion around July 2008. 
10 cities have been chosen by the AIA's Center for Communities by Design to work with architects and local stakeholders to work out a plan for implementing sustainability. By participating, the cities, which include Detroit, Tampa, New Orleans and Fort Worth (and 6 other cities), will be able to mentor and provide a blueprint to neighboring cities on how to implement various aspects of sustainability. The program will address neighborhood revitalization, transportation infrastructure challenges, as well as offer strategies to improve air and water quality.
As a consumer, this is a great story. Marin County (north of San Francisco) is taking on energy giant, PG&E, and wants to change how and where their residents obtain energy. And they want to change it now. They are calling the movement Marin Clean Energy. They have created a CCA (community choice aggregation), which allows a local board to not only negotiate energy rates but also the source from which the energy is being supplied, whether that be PG&E or another supplier. Although the Marin case could backfire if PG&E drops the rate of natural gas over the next couple of years, if more communities and municipalities join the fray and demand control of their energy, competition will ensue, which would drive the price we pay for energy down. I am curious to see how this progresses.