The other day I was working with some clients and I showed them a great LEED building in downtown Portland. Was built to LEED specs but not certified due to the high cost- I get that but the clients didnt get it about the cost savings and the low impact on the city resources-ouch. What can I do? And these clients work in the environmental industry!
Clients not listening
October 12th, 2009WSJ section on green economy
April 8th, 2009If you subscribe to the Wall Street Journal, they have put together some pretty interesting articles in the section called The Journal Report-ECO- nomics out today on Monday. It features some interesting interviews with Venture Capital players and some executives in different industries.
The two that really struck me were the interviews with Autonation and Vinod Khosla, a green energy VC. The Autonation execs pointed out how the car market was driven (no pun intended) by almost a one to one correlation in gas prices versus fuel efficiency. (I am seeing new Ford F150’s out there again). Dollars overtake green concerns it seems. The execs at AN seem to believe a high gas price might push the reluctant consumer into smaller cars with fuel efficiency. My concern with higher mandated fuel costs, although bringing conservation and behavioral changes, is that while it looks great on paper I have watched my tenants and employees in my rental properties struggle with high gas prices and food costs driven by higher fuel prices. We need to look very hard at the possibility that pushing prices up in this sector will not have reprecussions on segments of society least able to afford it. No easy answers here.
In the same section, Vinod Khosla makes the point that the private sector has to make money in green or they probably won’t invest. I find that point lost on many of my friends who are in the green advocacy area. In the long run guys, it is going to have to make economic sense or it may not be adapted by the market. Government can fund it in the short term but the market will have carry it in the long run IF the green initiatives are to succeed.
Forget “If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It” Thinking!
March 25th, 2009You’ve been hearing that going GREEN is a good thing. GREEN will protect our environment and will help save the planet. However, depending on which generation you grew up in, you may or may not be convinced that a new light bulb, an afternoon with a plumber or even foam caulking will put enough savings into your pocket to justify the expense of tackling these small issues to start with. After all, it’s only heat, air and water…. Your time is valuable and you are comfortable with the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” schedule of routine maintenance on your properties. Why would you spend money on GREEN stuff anyway?
Okay, let’s go boldly where no man has gone before! It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that paying too much for something is a bad thing. In the building I presently work in, the faucet in the bathroom leaks terribly every time you turn the water on. This has gone on for the past five years and although I’ve mentioned this numerous times to the company that manages this office building, it just doesn’t seem to get to the top of the list for repairs. It might be fair to also make the assumption that of the four bathrooms in this office building, each with four toilets and two sinks, that common small leaks may be present. Now, humor me here — let’s take 16 toilets silently loosing an average of up to 225 gallons of water per day each along with eight sinks losing about 30 gallons of water per day each, and poof! We get a potential of nearly one million gallons of water per year G O N E ! Not used, just gone… paid for by the building owner and then passed on to the tenants. Oh, and how much does a million gallons of water cost? Right around SIX THOUSAND GREEN DOLLAR BILLS. I think you are starting to catch on! Take that times the five years we’ve been here and you are looking at THIRTY THOUSAND GREEN DOLLAR BILLS. You’re right – that’s not pocket change!
Now that I have your attention, consider the numbers for apartment complexes with shotty plumbing routine maintenance. Add on, cheap shower heads that put out more than twice the water of the new 2-gallon-per-minute shower heads you could install in each apartment. Let’s say a forty apartment complex has the old 5-gallon-per-minute shower heads and on January 1st, the owner replaces them with the low-flow shower heads. Just from the shower water used alone, the owner could see a reduction of up to 875 gallons per tenant per month, or 420,000 gallons less than the previous year. Again, we’re talking THOUSANDS OF GREEN DOLLAR BILLS running down the drain, and that’s only if each apartment tenant only takes one 10-minute shower per day.
Might be time to reconsider this whole GREEN thing, especially when it actually involves your GREEN DOLLAR BILLS. After all, it’s not how much money do you earn — it’s how much money do you get to keep!
Is the economy slowing green building?
March 9th, 2009It seems that American consumers these days have cut back on everything from consumer goods to travel and are refocusing on the basics. The last thing they want to do now is spend money on luxury items, and one might say that in some ways green building in residential and commercial is looked upon as a luxury item. When you lose your job and are trying to make ends meet, the last thing you may be worried about is LEED initiatives and carbon credits.
So keeping the green building dream alive may be a large part of the mission today in order to weather the current economic waves of change. It can be done that reminding everyone that recovery will come, and then it will be in the best long term national interest to focus on green and clean when we build again. Keep the faith.
