Tag Archive for 'LEED certified'

The leetness of Dockside Green

julius published on August 14, 2008 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Moments ago I read a post about a building project named Dockside Green which received a LEED Platinum status. In first instance I thought someone considered it very leet (or 1337).

I decided to search around for a bit and I discovered that LEED is short for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design and that it’s in fact a report card about the greenness of buildings. According to wikipedia the following points are used in the assesments:

  • Sustainable sites
  • Water efficiency
  • Energy and atmosphere
  • Materials and resources
  • Indoor environmental quality
  • Innovation and design process

Let’s go back to Dockside Green, a community for working and living which is going to be built in Victoria, British Columbia.

A LEED status isn’t a big deal anymore. They’re issued all the time. But a LEED Platinum status is, especially for a neighborhood like Dockside Green. (It features 95 homes and commercial spaces). But what makes this new site Platinum? For starters all the waste water is treated on the spot, the heat energy of air exhausts is recovered and waste is used to create warm water.

Furthermore all the buildings have ‘green roofs’, in other words: grass upon your attic!

-jdh

Los Angeles Passes Awesome Green Building Laws!

jackson published on April 29, 2008 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Most of us know that green buildings are great. They use less energy, are less polluting, get fresher air, recycle water, have green roofs, are healthier for occupants, etc.

Most of us aren’t building contractors.

Check this:

“Last week the Los Angeles City Council unanimously approved of a green building ordinance that promises to cut millions of tons of pollution over the next decade. The law will require new commercial buildings and high-rise residential structures over 50,000 square feet to meet LEED standards, including drought-resistant landscaping, use of recycled materials, and energy efficient heating, cooling, and lighting. This makes LA the latest of 14 US cities that have required private developers to meet greener building practices. These legislative efforts were heralded by several groundbreaking reports released earlier in the month.

The CEC’s study found that “promoting the green design, construction, renovation and operation of buildings could cut North American greenhouse gas emissions that are fueling climate change more deeply, quickly, and cheaply than any other available measure”. The two-year study brought together an international group of architects, developers, sustainability and energy experts, and local and national government representatives to explore the potential and pitfalls in greening our built environment.

Hot on the heels of these findings comes Costar’s report, a brazen testament to the economic viability of LEED and Energy Star buildings versus non-certified structures. The study analyzed roughly 1,300 LEED and Energy star certified buildings (351 million square feet) and compared them to non-green properties similar in size, location, class, tenancy, and age. The findings were incredible: LEED buildings sell for $171 more per square foot, command rent premiums of $11.24 per square foot, and have 3.8% higher occupancy rates. Energy star buildings showed similar stats, selling for $61 more psf, with rent premiums of $2.38 psf and 3.6% higher occupancy rates.”

-Mike Chino @ inhabitat

Can’t argue with those numbers.

Change the behavior, change the laws. We all win.

This is great news.

We All Get To Live Green!

jackson published on April 10, 2008 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

As anyone who has recently sat near an open window can tell you, New York city is abuzz with construction. Everywhere you look cranes are hoisting materials and cement mixers are laying foundations.

Aside from the noise, this is a very good thing.

Because “green” is so hot right now, builders and designers are really outdoing themselves trying to create healthy and sustainable living space. Everywhere you look, it seems a new LEED certified condo or office building is shooting up.

This is a good thing because the trickle down effect means that soon we’ll all get to live green.

Celebrities and tastemakers now demand to live green, that means that their former digs will empty out, and new groups of people will be able to live in the non-green luxury spaces. Those people will have vacated their own nice spaces which leaves room for a wave of owners and renters that otherwise would have been unable to afford such fine living, because if a space isn’t sustainable, it will be cheaper.

This trickle-down/move-up effect will ripple through the NY housing market as celebrities flee their current apartments for greener pastures.

There’s nothing wrong with living non-sustainably, as long as you’re aware of the fact and seeking to change and improve it. We’ve lived non-sustainably for years, and will continue to live that way for a while.

In a few years, when material science has introduced entire new methods of construction using lighter and stronger materials than anything we’ve got today, everyone gets to “move-up” again.

If this years’ Green Skyscraper is carbon neutral, has en-suite parking, passive solar heating and cooling, and central composting/recycling centers, then next years will be carbon-negative (producing power, not just using it up,) have composting toilets, living roofs and walls, combo piezo-electric/solar skin, and a personal helipad.

The sky’s the limit.

But we all win.

Everyone gets to live sustainably.

Go New York!