FORMER LOS ANGELES INDUSTRIAL BROWNFIELD BEING TURNED INTO L.A. CLEANTECH CORRIDOR

by Jodi Summers

First Los Angeles was known for its weather. Then we became known for our traffic. Our next claim to fame will be Los Angeles’ emergence as a model for sustainable industrial development in North America.

“We will make clean tech as synonymous with LA as motion pictures,” noted Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said. “We will make LA the capital of green technology … and transform the city into a laboratory for green development.”

Los Angeles’ great green project, the CleanTech Corridor is a 20-acre Center site at Santa Fe Avenue and 15th Street is located within the greater Los Angeles Downtown area. The site is a prime industrial-zoned parcel uniquely positioned to provide jobs for those living in nearby loft and residential developments or for those commuting via local and regional public transit.

CITY SAYS

City boasts that the Los Angeles CleanTech Corridor offers an aggregation of clean technology and green-focused companies near the Los Angeles River. The firms sought for the Center include both established firms and emerging companies engaged in the assembly, manufacture or development of products in clean energy generation, sustainable building materials and furnishings, clean water technology, reduced emissions vehicle technology, manufactured products using recycled or organic materials and similar CleanTech initiatives.

Incentives for moving your green business to Los Angeles, according to the city include, “Support and advantages not otherwise available at other development sites. Tenants will have access to a wide variety of city, state and federal financial incentives. The site is located within the Central Industrial Redevelopment Project Area, the Eastside State Enterprise Zone and the Los Angeles Federal Empowerment Zone. Incentives include City Department of Water and Power energy programs and rebates, significant employment and investment tax credits, permit expediting assistance, workforce recruitment and training and other programs. In addition, occupants may qualify for favorable ground-lease terms, New Market Tax credits, infrastructure grants and low interest CRA/LA loans.”

Advantages for locating in Los Angeles

• A growing pool of high-tech, skilled workers engaged in technology jobs within Los Angeles County – numbering nearly 226,000 – the fourth largest source of jobs in the County

• The largest manufacturing employment base in the country with 470,000 jobs

• The largest number of Ph.Ds granted in any region of the country

• World-class research facilities at UCLA, USC and the California Institute of Technology, with a combined 42 Nobel Laureates and opportunities for collaboration in technology development

• Four of the nation’s top ten engineering firms

City-offered incentives include

• The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s $5 billion projected investment in achieving 20 percent of customers’ power from renewable sources by 2010 and 35% by 2030

• The Port of Los Angeles’ $15 million Technology Advancement Program as part of the 2006 Clean Air Action Plan targeted at investing in clean technology related to improving air quality and meeting clean energy goals

• $46 million set aside by The Los Angeles City Employees’ Retirement System (LACERS) funds in 2005 for CleanTech investments over a ten-year period

If you’re interested, let us know. It will be great to have you here.

For more information visit www.CleantechLA.org.

http://www.ioe.ucla.edu/news/article.asp?parentid=3347

http://www.today.ucla.edu/portal/ut/la-to-become-the-capital-of-green-88893.aspx

http://cleantechlosangeles.org/

CLEANTECH L.A. AIMS TO LEAD THE GREEN DEVELOPMENT EVOLUTION

By Jodi Summers

As we move toward a more efficient world, collaborative alliances are the next wave of evolution. In the last administration, we saw the auto companies begin to share ideas. In leaner, greener times the Department of Energy created the Commercial Building Energy Alliance. Locally, our universities are pooling their knowledge through CleanTech Los Angeles, with goal of making L.A. THE city spearheading the green evolution.

“Los Angeles is leading the world with its commitment to reducing its environmental footprint and this collaboration will undoubtedly stimulate innovation in our region and provide opportunities to create and attract clean tech companies who wish to capitalize on the region’s enormous public demand for their innovative solutions,” said Bill Allen, CEO of the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation.

CleanTech Los Angeles, it is an alliance featuring prominent leaders from the City’s premier academic institutions, business community and local government. The big picture is to establish Los Angeles as a global capital of clean technology by leveraging the City’s strongest assets.

Publicly, the CleanTech L.A. Memorandum of Understanding was signed by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, California Institute of Technology President Jean-Lou Chameau, University of California Los Angeles Chancellor Gene Block, University of Southern California President Steven Sample, Los Angeles County Economic Development President Bill Allen, Los Angeles Business Council President Mary Leslie, and Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce President Gary Toebben.

“Broader recognition of Los Angeles as a global regional center of science and engineering research and clean technology development bodes well for its economic competitiveness in a rapidly changing world,” added Dr. Jean-Lou Chameau, President of the California Institute of Technology.

CleanTech LA will focus on four key areas: Testing, R&D, and Commercialization; Advocacy for Funds; Education and Outreach; and Economic Development Strategy. The partnership is currently working together on initiatives such as www.cleantechla.org, the California Climate Change Institute, the CleanTech Manufacturing Center, and theClean Technology Research Center. Planned future programs include the CleanTech Corridor, advocacy for federal and state funding, and greater collaborations and partnerships.

PARTNERS:

* City of Los Angeles

* University of California, Los Angeles

* University of Southern California

* California Institute of Technology

* Los Angeles Business Council

* Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation

* Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce

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“Clean technology is one of the bright spots in our future economy,” said Gary Toebben, President & CEO, Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce. “The L.A. Area Chamber is pleased to work with the City of Los Angeles and other partners to help make Southern California the hub of the emerging clean tech sector and the jobs and economic growth associated with it.”

For more information visit www.CleantechLA.org.

http://www.ioe.ucla.edu/news/article.asp?parentid=3347

http://www.today.ucla.edu/portal/ut/la-to-become-the-capital-of-green-88893.aspx

http://cleantechlosangeles.org/

http://preaprez.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/villaraigosa-latimes-blog.jpg

http://valuecarpetonline.com/ucla-ar.jpg

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FIGURE OUT HOW TO MAKE BUILDINGS NET ZERO BY 2025

FIGURE OUT HOW TO MAKE BUILDINGS NET ZERO BY 2025

By Jodi Summers

The DOE has taken a number of steps to encourage energy efficiency in the design of new buildings. EnergyPlus is an energy modeling tool, which is augmented by OpenStudio, a plug-in for the Google SketchUp 3-D drawing program that allows SketchUp to work seamlessly with the EnergyPlus program.

Both are available on the EnergyPlus page of DOE’s Building Technologies Program Web site.

http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/buildings/energyplus/

That site also features a selection of benchmark models for 16 types of building in 16 locations to help designers understand the energy use of similar new buildings- http://www1.eere.energy.gov/buildings/commercial_initiative/new_construction.html

EnergyPlus models heating, cooling, lighting, ventilating, and other energy flows as well as water in buildings. EnergyPlus includes many innovative simulation capabilities such as time steps of less than an hour, modular systems and plant integrated with heat balance-based zone simulation, multizone air flow, thermal comfort, water use, natural ventilation, and photovoltaic systems.

CHINA’S GREEN PROPERTY MARKETS ARE ABOUT TO EXPLODE!

CHINA’S GREEN PROPERTY MARKETS ARE ABOUT TO EXPLODE!

By Jodi Summers

China’s secondary and tertiary markets are beginning to play a greater and greater role in the country’s real estate market, and analysts are speculating that China’s property market could quadruple in size by 2020.

The information comes courtesy of a report from at Jones Lang LaSalle titled China40: The Rising Urban Stars report.

“China’s Tier II and Tier III cities are dynamic centers of economic development and continued growth,” says Michael Klibaner, head of research Shanghai. “Massive infrastructure investment makes these markets increasingly accessible at a time when interest in China has shifted from being export oriented towards a focus on the domestic market.”

Analyzed in the report were the 40 top Tier II and Tier III cities which will be a strong future investment value. Each city was further analyzed for it real estate strengths. For office, Tianjon, Chongqing and Nanjong made the list; in retail Changsha, Wuhan and Wenzhou; and in Logistics Chengdu, Qingdao and Zhengzhou.

The country also has new cities under construction. Dongtan’s master plan outlines the world’s first green city, every block engineered in response to China’s environmental crisis. It’s like the source code for an urban operating system. “We’re not focused on the form,” project architect Alejandro Gutierrez explains. “We’re focused on the performance of the form.” He and his team imagine a city powered by local, renewable energy, with superefficient buildings clustered in dense, walkable neighborhoods; a recycling scheme that repurposes 90 percent of all waste; a network of high tech organic farms; and a ban on any vehicle that emits CO2.

William McDonough had drafted a master plan for building the city of Huangbaiyu as a “cradle-to-cradle” model city. Phase 1 construction, with forty new homes built using advanced construction is close to completion.

“The future evolution of China’s cities and their real estate markets will be driven by a rich combination of factors that are strongly influenced by government policy,” the report states. These policies focus on urbanization, with plans in place to see the city population explode to 850 million people by 2020. “The government’s ideal end vision of the urbanization process is a country wide network of environmentally sensitive cities each with their own unique competitive advantages and strong trading connections.”

Energy-saving fluorescent lamps will continue to be rule rather than the exception in China, and more efficient LED lighting will be widely used for parking lot and street lighting, among other applications. Growth areas are being designed with mass transit in mind.

“We are confident that more business park hotspots will emerge as experienced developers and investors penetrate further into China’s Tier II and Tier III cities,” says Tammy Tank, head of business parks in China.

Info courtesy of

http://www.globest.com/news/1366_1366/asia/177432-1.html

http://travel.aolcdn.com/travdestguide/Tianjin-China_02-360a032407.jpg

http://www.visit-southampton.co.uk/xsdbimgs/May%20Breeze%20square.jpg

http://www.virtourist.com/asia/china/chengdu/imatges/01.jpg

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/15.05/feat_popup.html

http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/003475.html

LIVE GREEN –> IDEAS TO GREEN YOUR PROPERTIES

Edited by Jodi Summers

1. Double-Paned Windows

According to the Department of Energy, the typical U.S. family spends $1,300 a year on home energy bills. Double-paned windows are up to 40 percent more energy-efficient than standard windows, and allow you to save from 10 to 25 percent off your heating or cooling bill, on top of saving five tons of carbon dioxide emissions per household per year.

2. Caulking and Storm Panels

Double-paned windows are expensive, and it could take decades for their savings to counterbalance their cost. To improve insulation without switching windows, seal up any leaks or gaps around doors and windows with caulking and weather stripping, then add a storm panel to your single-pane window to increase energy efficiency for far less money than double-paned windows.

3. Plant Trees

On top of soaking up carbon dioxide, trees that surround your house can provide hading in the summertime, keeping your property cooler and requiring less energy-intensive air conditioning.

4. Swap Your A/C for a Ceiling Fan

Ceiling fans are remarkably effective in cooling and use far less energy than air conditioning. If you still need a little A/C, consider running it on low, and using ceiling fans to effectively circulate the cool air.

5. Get Your Ducts in a Row

Faulty duct work can cause serious, life-threatening carbon monoxide problems in the home. Check your ducts for air leaks. Look for sections that should be joined but have separated, and then look for obvious holes. If you use tape to seal your ducts, experts suggest using mastic, butyl tape, foil tape, or other heat-approved tapes (look for tape with the Underwriters Laboratories logo). A well-sealed vapor barrier on the outside of the insulation on cooling ducts prevents moisture buildup.

6. Be Reasonable with the Thermostat

No reason to be uncomfortable in your home to save energy or reduce emissions, but try to keep it as warm as you can stand it in the summer, and turn it down to 68 or below in the winter.

7. Change Your Bulbs

Electricity is the largest source of U.S. carbon emissions, using about 38 percent. A switch to compact fluorescent lights (CFLs) or light-emitting diodes (LEDs) can reduce emissions and energy use drastically. Keep in mind, CFLs still contain mercury; LEDs are considered the best bet.

8. Turn Off and Unplug

Research conducted by the DOE shows that in the average American home, 75 percent of the electricity used to power home electronics is consumed while the products are turned off. Unplugging seldom used appliances could shave up to $10 off your monthly electricity bill.

9. Reach for the Energy Stars

There’s an ENERGY STAR version of almost every appliance these days from a computer to a refridgerator. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), by choosing their ENERGY STAR-qualified products, consumers can cut energy use by 30 percent, a savings of about $450 each year.

10. Switch to Solar or Wind Power Without Buying Your Own System

According to the DOE, at least 50 percent of customers have the option to purchase renewable electricity directly from their power supplier. Such power is sometimes referred to as “green power” or “clean power,” and costs an average of $1.25/month extra.

11. Shower Efficiently

With our new tiered water rates, it’s wise to be conscious about how much time, and water, you’re spending in the shower. A one- or two-minute reduction in shower time can save up to 700 gallons of water per month.

12. Use the Cold Water

If your shower takes awhile to heat up, catch the cold water in a bucket and use it to water your garden or lawn.

13. Go Native

Using native plants in landscaping can reduce residential water use by 20 to 50 percent.

14. Green Paints, Materials, and Accessories

According to the California Air Resources Board, indoor air quality in the state is worse than outdoor air quality, thanks to the toxins in paint, wood finishes, carpet, adhesives, and solvents. Air quality in new and recently renovated homes can be up to 10 times more polluted than outdoor air quality. To cut down on indoor toxins, opt for Green Seal certified paints and solvent-free adhesives.

15. Displace Water

Put a plastic bottle or a plastic bag weighted with pebbles and filled with water in your toilet tank. Displacing water in this manner saves five to 10 gallons of water a day. That’s up to 300 gallons a month, even more for large families.

16. Seal Your House

Visit the DOE’s Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy site for a printable home energy audit, check your home for cracks, and have adequate installation installed.

28. Keep Your Garden Green

It might surprise you to learn that homeowners actually use 10 times more pesticides and fertilizers per acre than farmers, on average; 67 million pounds of the stuff are applied on lawns each year. Opt for native plants, safer pesticides, and compost for fertilizer instead.

www.realtor.com

www.dinnergarden.org/victoryGardens.html

LOS ANGELES IS A BETTER PLACE THAN PARIS TO BUY GREEN INVESTMENT REAL ESTATE

LOS ANGELES IS A BETTER PLACE THAN PARIS TO BUY GREEN INVESTMENT REAL ESTATE

by Jodi Summers

Sacre bleu! Los Angeles is a better real estate…according to Forbes.com.  In a recent top 10 article called World’s Best Places For Real Estate Buys, Ten cities investors will target in 2009 our beloved Los Angeles was #7 – after  San Francisco and before Paris.

Washington D.C. topped the list this year, thanks to the proposed $1 trillion swell of government spending. As Forbes notes, “At present, D.C. has the lowest unemployment rate in the country–4.1%, compared to the 7.2% national average. With President Obama’s stimulus package recommending $1 trillion in new spending, it’s unlikely government jobs–and those they support–will be leaving the District anytime soon.”

Not many investors were looking at L.A. in 2008, as we were hammered by the subprime crisis and a massive volume of foreclosures. As we all know, our perceived property poverty curtailed spending and our whole local economy limped along. We were 19^th on the 2008 Forbes World’s Best Places For Real Estate Buys, so this 12-point rise is a huge boost for real estate morale.

As far as green development goes, the Los Angeles Green Building ordinance –is being heralded as “the most far reaching plan of any big city in America to promote green building practices in the private sector.”  The ordinance intends reduce the City’s carbon emissions by more than 80,000 tons by 2012, the equivalent of taking 15,000 cars off the road – a bolder objective than any other major city in the country. (Now if they’d only find a way get 15,000 cars off the road.) 

“It’s all about perception,” notes a local investor. “If people perceive Los Angeles is a good value, then it becomes a good value, and prices grow strong.”

Good news for local property owners - sales surged 102%in the residential sector, according to Radar Logic, a derivatives firm, and Forbes notes that this wave “has that market hinting at a bottom.”

The 2009 Top 10 Best Places For Real Estate Buys

1. Washington, D.C.

2. London, U.K.

3. New York, N.Y.

4. Tokyo, Japan

5. Shanghai, China

6. San Francisco, Calif.

7. Los Angeles, Calif.

8. Paris, France

9. Houston, Texas

10. Singapore

Please note Forbes’ rankings come from the Association of Foreign Investors in Real Estate, a research association that tracks where member investors are finding the best opportunities around the world.

Get the whole story @ http.//www.forbes.com/2009/01/21/investment-obama-realestate-forbeslife-cx_mw_0121realestate.html?partner=alerts

http://mightyminnow.files.wordpress.com/2007/11/washington-dc.jpg

http://www.pointernet.pds.hu/touristinfo/free_wallpapers_2/France_Paris_Night.jpeg

PUBLIC COMMENT ON LEED FOR NEIGHBORHOOD DEVELOPMENT DESIRED

by Jodi Summers

In their own green way, the U.S. Green Building Council values your opinion. And now, they have opened a second public comment period for LEED for Neighborhood Development. Make your voice heard on neighborhood greening through Sunday, June 14, at 11:59 p.m. PDT.

See http://lists.usgbc.org/t/943571/18403397/91/0/ to submit your comments.

During the first public comment period, the US Green Building Council received more than 5,000 comments. Reponses are said to be posted at the above link.

The LEED http://lists.usgbc.org/t/943571/18403397/1552/0/ for Neighborhood Development rating system integrates the principles of smart growth, new urbanism and green building into the first national rating system for neighborhood design.

The program is the result of a collaboration among USGBC, the Congress for the New Urbanism, and the Natural Resources Defense Council. The rating system has been in pilot since July 2007, with nearly 240 projects participating. Feedback gathered from those projects, as well as countless hours of USGBC volunteers’ time, have led to the current, more-sophisticated and market-responsive draft of LEED for Neighborhood Development.

THE LOS ANGELES CLEAN TECH CORRIDOR WILL MAKE L.A. THE LEADER IN GREEN TECHNOLOGY

By Jodi Summers

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA/LA) hope to transform L.A. into ‘the global capital of clean technology.” The goal is to transform the manufacturing corridor east of downtown into the center of green innovation. The mayor and his team are marketing this industrial parcel, dubbed the CleanTech Manufacturing Center, as a green business incubator, the way Silicon Valley hatched technology.

“We will make clean tech as synonymous with LA as motion pictures,” Mayor Villaraigosa boldly declared. “We will make LA the capital of green technology … and transform the city into a laboratory for green development.”

The CleanTech Corridor city planners envision spans 2,236 acres — about 10% railroad-owned — east of Alameda Street, and is accessible by the Metro Gold Line. It begins at a swath of land straddling the L.A. River, near Los Angeles State Historic Park (the former Cornfield), that Councilman Ed Reyes hopes to transform into a neighborhood where bicycles and pedestrians would rule and carbon emissions would be cut by 35%. Then it runs south through the site of a future Department of Water and Power research center into the Artists-in-Residence district, which stretches from Alameda to the river and from 1st Street to south of 7th Street. The vacant CleanTech Manufacturing site at Santa Fe Avenue and 15th Street, just south of the 10 Freeway, forms the corridor’s southern anchor.

“…The City is standing with the world-class academic institutions of Los Angeles and our dynamic business community to stake a claim as a global leader in the clean and green technologies that will drive the 21st century economy,” the mayor pronounced. “From R&D to manufacturing to design, this partnership taps into the creative assets and innovative spirit of our City to foster new industry and spur job growth.”

Of course, there are no local funds to make this conversion happen, so the city of Los Angeles will be calling for private investment and money from state and federal sources,

Last fall, CRA officials and the mayor’s business team began courting clean technology companies — talking up the purchasing power of the city’s public utilities, as well as the array of federal, state and city tax incentives available to business.

More than 100 companies, from solar and electric car manufacturers to a garment recycling business, expressed interest in the CleanTech site, which the city purchased from the state last April for $14 million.

“The Los Angeles Business Council believes that attracting green-tech companies will be a prime economic driver for the region,” said Los Angeles Business Council President Mary Leslie. “We were proud to launch the website CleanTechLA.org at our Sustainability Summit last year and look forward to continuing our partnership with the consortium to build a vibrant green economy in Los Angeles.”

For capitalist development, the Los Angeles Times reports that the most intensive push has been for an Italian rail manufacturer, AnsaldoBreda, which is angling for a $300-million rail car construction contract with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. If it secures the contract, AnsaldoBreda has promised to build a $70-million manufacturing plant. The contract is controversial because some MTA officials have been unhappy with the company’s performance in meeting rail car contract specifications in the past, but the company has several political insiders in town pushing this deal, said to be Los Angeles County Federation of Labor lobbyist Chris Lehane, and the green building company Shangri-LA Construction, founded by prominent Democratic contributor and Villaraigosa donor Steven Bing.

More altruistically, farther north in the corridor, a DWP research center focusing on renewable energy, climate change and water intended to attract companies that want to work with area universities.

Dubbed CleanTech Los Angeles, the city is seeking to create a research alliance (not unlike the Department of Energy’s Commercial Building Energy Alliances) involving local area educational institutions, with major roles being played by the California Institute of Technology, University of California Los Angeles and the University of Southern California, among others.

“I’ve often said that Los Angeles may have the best collection of intellectual talent of any county in the nation. I believe it’s important to invest our intellectual capital in programs that enhance the quality of life for all of our citizens” noted University of Southern California President Steven Sample. “USC is delighted to partner with our colleagues in higher education, and with our friends from the public sector and from private business, to help make Los Angeles the greenest city in America.”

“Broader recognition of Los Angeles as a global regional center of science and engineering research and clean technology development bodes well for its economic competitiveness in a rapidly changing world,” added Dr. Jean-Lou Chameau, President of the California Institute of Technology.

The cluster of laboratories would be housed in an old transformer warehouse overlooking the river on the DWP’s Main Street site, and the DWP recently secured a private donation that will allow the department to perform a $4.5-million “green retrofit” of the building.

Among the projects planned: development of aerospace technology with Caltech and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory that would help the DWP better measure snowpack in the Eastern Sierra and dust in the Owens Valley.

In the basement of the DWP building, UCLA would build a wind tunnel testing facility. Meanwhile, USC is exploring the site as a home for a research institute that would study how to make data centers more energy efficient.

“The city really provides a platform to have a lot of technologies tested,” said John X. Chen, the DWP’s executive director of customer service and water conservation. He said the city will be spending billions of dollars trying to reach the mayor’s renewable energy goals. For those reasons, he argued that when competing for grants, “We will be very, very competitive against anybody out there.”

And, you can’t have business without housing nearby. At the northern end of the corridor, the Cornfield/Arroyo Seco specific plan area spans more than 600 acres — from Los Angeles State Historic Park, across the river into Lincoln Heights. It will be one of those picture pretty pedestrian- and cyclist-centered neighborhood

The city would also place special restrictions on developers within a mile of the river, requiring open space and measures to reduce carbon emissions in the neighborhood.

FYI…The L.A. Times notes that the CleanTech corridor is a critical component of the mayor’s “green jobs” agenda as he eyes a probable run for governor in 2010. And it could be a test of his pledge to transform Los Angeles into “the greenest and cleanest big city in the nation,” drawing more than a third of its electrical power from renewable sources by 2020.

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http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-clean-tech28-2009apr28,0,669366,print.story

http://www.ioe.ucla.edu/news/article.asp?parentid=3347

http://www.today.ucla.edu/portal/ut/la-to-become-the-capital-of-green-88893.aspx

http://cleantechlosangeles.org/

http://www.lachamber.com/clientuploads/EWE_committee/RFI_FINAL_9_16_2008.pdf

http://www.zimbio.com/pictures/hoDaoA3nwB-/Mayor+Antonio+Villaraigosa+Votes+Election/jvGcHFcTcLF/Antonio+Villaraigosa

THE GOVERNMENT’S COMMERCIAL PROPERTY ENERGY GOAL: TO MAKE BUILDINGS NET ZERO BY 2025

By Jodi Summers

The US Department of Energy wants to reduce the amount of energy used by commercial buildings from about 19% of total US energy consumption to 0% by 2025.

To achieve this goal (watch, Santa Monica), the DOE is offering solutions sector by sector, dialoguing with owners and developers about ways to capitalize on new technologies and reduce energy consumption,.

The DOE kicked off its Zero-Net Energy Commercial Building Initiative lastyear by establishing the National Laboratory Collaborative on Building Technologies and developing the Commercial Building Energy Alliances.

The objective of the Alliance is to share best practices and practical experiences in energy efficiency.

The Commercial Building Initiative focuses on “turning tomorrow’s buildings into domestic energy assets by constructing energy-efficient, high-performancebuildings that expeditiously and cost-effectively achieve sustainable carbon reductions and enable, through energy-efficient buildings, higher ROIs for building owners and occupants as well as to economy as a whole.” - Official word from says Drury B. Crawley, team leader in commercial buildings research and development for the DOE’s Building Technology Programs.

The rollout was a collaboration between U.S. Department of Energy and 19 commercial real estate companies, with the goal of linking building owners to the latest efficiency research and technologies from the agency’s laboratories. High profile retailers including Wal-Mart, Target and Macy’s have become involved in the Retailer Energy Alliance.

The DOE proudly notes that this “public-private partnership designed to minimize the energy consumption and environmental impact of commercial buildings.”

The focus of thе latest phase of the Alliance is to minimize energy use in leased space, offices, shopping malls and the hospitality industry.

Kudos to the DOE for this bold attempt to curtail usage in properties that involve so many random people passing through who give no thought to the building itself.

With commercial buildings comprising roughly 18 percent of the country’s energy consumption, the DOE feels that commercial holdings represent a large opportunity to cut usage. Best practices are shared and the alliance, and the goal is to serve an industry voice to advocate for more energy efficient equipment from the nation’s building materials suppliers.

Henry Chamberlain, president and COO of Building Owners and Managers Assoc. International, called the Alliance “a catalyst for long-term change” that can reduce the use of energy, cut greenhouse gases and drive innovation in the marketplace.

Each Commercial Building Energy Alliance brings together industry experts who can influence the energy footprints of the companies or institutions they represent. Members discuss energy challenges, share non-proprietary information, conduct energy saving assessments and cut the cost of high-efficiency building equipment through group purchases. They can also benefit from the technical assistance of the DOE.

The DOE has already created a steering committee for the next Commercial Building Energy Alliance, which will examine energy use in hospitals. The DOE describes the nation’s 8,000 hospitals as among its “most energy intensive commercial buildings, with more than 2.5 times the energy intensity and carbon dioxide emissions of office buildings. Unlike most other commercial buildings, hospitals are operational 24 hours a day, seven days a week and provide services even during power outages, natural disasters…”

All alliances are part of the DOE’s Net-Zero Energy Commercial Building Initiative targeting zero-energy commercial buildings by 2025.

Go to http://www1.eere.energy.gov/buildings/tax_commercial.htmlFor tax deductions that are available for improving the energy efficiency of commercial buildings, as well as links to qualified software available for calculating the savings.

The Net-Zero Energy Commercial Building Initiative was signed into law by former President Bush as part of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, and is authorized for more than $1 billion in federal funds over the next decade. DOE committed $15 million last year to the program’s first phase, a research project involving two national laboratories and 21 companies that will produce new and retrofitted buildings with significant cuts in energy consumption.

Tools:

The DOE has taken a number of steps to encourage energy efficiency in the design of new buildings. EnergyPlus is an energy modeling tool, which is augmented by OpenStudio, a plug-in for the Google SketchUp 3-D drawing program that allows SketchUp to work seamlessly with the EnergyPlus program.

Both are available on the EnergyPlus page of DOE’s Building Technologies Program Web site.

http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/buildings/energyplus/

That site also features a selection of benchmark models for 16 types of building in 16 locations to help designers understand the energy use of similar new buildings- http://www1.eere.energy.gov/buildings/commercial_initiative/new_construction.html

*

sources:

http://www.globest.com/news/1391_1391/insider/178282-1.html?type=pf

http://www.energy.gov

http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/news/news_detail.cfm/news_id=12446

http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2009/04/10/doe-forms-commercial-real-estate-alliance

http://www1.eere.energy.gov/buildings/retailer

http://www.ggashrae.org/meetings/2008-2009/speaker_presentations/Crawley.pdf

http://www.costar.com/News/Article.aspx?id=C94B2CDD13C1546D6DBB4F76C65D20B1

http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/news/news_detail.cfm/news_id=12450

http://www1.eere.energy.gov/buildings/commercial_initiative/new_construction.html

http://itecsinsider.com/?tag=green-buildings

http://jcwinnie.biz/wordpress/imageSnag/nzero01.jpg

http://naturalpatriot.org/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/livingroof.jpg

http://www.building.lv/latinzenieris/images/99265_01.jpg

NEW GREEN LEED FOR RETAIL OPTIONS TO BUY SOON

NEW GREEN LEED FOR RETAIL OPTIONS TO BUY SOON

By Jodi Summers

“LEED for Commercial Interiors 2009 is a system for certifying high-performance green retail interiors, and LEED for Retail: New Construction 2009 is designed to guide and distinguish high-performance green retail buildings,” proclaimed the US Green Building Council. “The LEED for Retail rating systems were designed to recognize the unique nature of the retail environment and address the different types of spaces that retailers need for their distinctive product lines.”

Green retail is the next big push from USGBC Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) suite of rating systems. New Construction 2009 and LEED for Retail: Commercial Interiors are now being reviewed by the FCC.

More than 80 individual retailers worked with the USGBC and the LEED Retail Core Committee to formulate the draft. Both systems offer variations on site selection, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, materials and resources, indoor environmental quality, innovation and design process, and regional priority.

Once confirmed, these new LEED for retail benchmark will join standards for New Construction, Core and Shell, Schools, Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance and Commercial Interiors. More systems are planned.

“Much has been invested in the development of these current LEED for Retail draft rating systems and a concerted effort has been made to ensure that both of the LEED for Retail 2009 rating systems capitalize on the existing market momentum while addressing the needs of LEED users,” the USGBC announced. “Most of the structural and technical changes incorporated into LEED for Retail 2009 drafts were also designed to create a rating system that can be part of a continuous improvement cycle.”

Info courtesy of http://www.globest.com/news/1361_1361/insider/177441-1.html

http://www.inhabitat.com/2008/01/06/foliage-covered-building-in-seoul-by-mass-studies-architects

http://worldcentric.org/biocompostables/categories/retail

http://www.sustainablebuildings.gc.ca/default.asp?lang=En&n=75F4A2E5-1