NYC is falling behind in GREEN

NYC is falling behind a lot of other cities in its number of LEED certified buildings.  This is disappointing given that New York is supposed to be the leader in pretty much everything that is good and fashionable and forward-thinking.

Despite intensifying efforts to grow greener, the Big Apple still trails five major cities, including San Francisco, when it comes to the number of green buildings, according to a study released Wednesday.

The city has 41 buildings that have a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) rating, far behind Chicago, which led the list with 70, according to a new study conducted by The Center for an Urban Future, a Manhattan-based think tank. Even far-smaller Portland, Ore.—which boasts 63—has more green buildings than New York. Finishing just ahead of New York was San Francisco with 44 LEED certified buildings.

May I also add that NYC’s number ties that of Atlanta, which popular perception would have you believe is down here in the hinterlands eschewing anything forward-thinking.

USGBC tweaks it’s LEED credits system

The USGBC has released new updates to its LEED credits system which includes credits tailored to different regions of the country.  This is good since water conservation isn’t quite as useful in Seattle as it is in Arizona.

“Because environmental priorities differ among various regions of the country — the challenges in the Southeast differ from those in the Northwest, for example — regionally specific credits give LEED a way to directly respond to diverse, regionally grounded issues,” said Brendan Owens, vice president of technical development for the U.S. Green Building Council. “The inclusion of these regional LEED credits is the council’s first step toward addressing regional environmental issues.”

The U.S. Green Building Council will launch the next version of its LEED green building certification program on Monday. Recent updates to LEED 2009 reflect updates in building science and technology. As part of the updated program, building owners will be able to earn additional “bonus points” on their LEED certifications for implementing green building strategies that specifically address issues in their regions.

The U.S. Green Building Council also is rolling out a faster, easier tool to manage the latest version of LEED Online. This online program will help streamline the LEED registration and certification process. The Washington-based organization has 78 local affiliates, more than 20,000 member companies and organizations, and more than 100,000 LEED-accredited professionals.

NY governors mansion goes green

The first executive residence in the nation to go green is the NY governor’s mansion, which is certified LEED gold.  Apparently the effort to retrofit the residence started under former Gov. Elliot Spitzer, who wasn’t able to see it completed for various reasons.  Current Gov. David Paterson, therefore, will get to enjoy the newly green home.

The steps included installing solar panels, energy-efficient appliances and light bulbs in the mansion, which was built in the mid-1800s on Eagle Street, said Erin Duggan, a spokeswoman for the governor.

Energy use is down 20 percent to 25 percent over the past several years.

Green hotels across the nation

Hotels have been a leading industry in building and retrofitting their facilities for sustainability.  This makes sense because hotels use a lot of energy and water so they can benefit the most from green facilities that conserve.

MSNBC has a good discussion of what exactly different hotel companies are doing to go green. Check the link for a full list.  Here’s a sample of water conservation alone.

Hilton: The company’s aim: to reduce water use at all of its brands, such as Hilton, DoubleTree and Embassy Suites, by 10 percent by 2014. Its nearly 90 European properties have taken the lead, installing water-saving toilets, showerheads, and faucets over the past three years. Home-turf hotels are next.

Hyatt: Nearly all North American properties have “low-flow” showerheads (which use a maximum of 2.5 gallons of water per minute) and toilets (1.6 gallons of water per flush). The improvements helped reduce the chain’s overall water consumption by 3 percent in 2007.

Marriott: Over the past 10 years, the company has added some 400,000 low-flow showerheads and toilets to all of its locations world­wide. Marriott also buys 1 million towels annually that don’t require prewashing, conserving 6 million gallons of water each year.

Starwood: All new Element hotels will have low-flow water fixtures in rooms and water-efficient landscaping; its Lexington star has led the way, saving up to 1 million gallons of water per year.

Empire State greening already spreading influence

I made the point in a previous post that the Empire State Building’s green renovation would be a great tool for spreading the message of green building.  It turns out that this is already happening as some eyes from other cities are on the Empire State Building project.

The Empire State project is considered a test case in retrofitting existing structures for environmental sustainability. A partnership involving Jones Lang LaSalle (NYSE:JLL), Clinton Climate Initiative (CCI), Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), Johnson Controls Inc. won the bid to “green” one of the world’s most famous building.

According to a Jones Lang LaSalle spokesman, the Chicago-based real estate company plans to implement the green initiative in existing buildings in Boston and other U.S. cities.

According to the article, the Empire State Building Project will serve as a model for a number of older Boston buildings.

American Airlines Arena in Miami goes green

A recent post of ours highlighted that the Empire State Building is going green.  Major landmarks going green is a big deal because not only do those buildings (which are usually large structures with a lot of users) save a lot of energy and water if they are green, but they also are great tools for advertising sustainability.

Miami is following NYC with one of their landmarks, American Airlines Arena, going green. Now the thousands of patrons seeing sports and other events there will be exposed to sustainability.  It’s highly possible that many of these people wouldn’t be introduced to sustainability as effectively otherwise.

“The American Airlines Arena is a catalyst for all Miami businesses to invest in a greener future,” Diaz said. “The arena’s commitment to the Earth and our community paves the way for other companies in downtown Miami to follow that path and make a lasting difference.”

The arena, originally built in 1999, used the LEED for Existing Buildings rating system to receive the certification. The facility’s green features include a roof that reflects heat and reduces the energy needed to cool the building, an off-site chiller for the air conditioning and underground parking.

Empire State Building to go green

The Empire State Building is about to have a retrofit that will save $4.4 million dollars a year in water and energy.

It is currently undergoing a $500 million renovation, including $100 million to go “green”.

Anthony Malkin, president of W&M Properties, which owns the building, said the technology was devised as a model to retrofit other buildings.

The Clinton Climate Initiative is putting up $20 million for the first five stages of a $100 million project to make the skyscraper, once the tallest in the world, a model of energy efficiency and conservation. The Clinton Climate Initiative, founded by President Bill Clinton, works with cities on programs to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

The entire plan will cut energy consumption in the 102-story building by 38 percent.

It’s pretty symbolic that the Empire State Building is going green.  That building gets a lot of traffic every day.  So a huge amount of people will be exposed to green initiatives and the resulting benefits.  That savings number -38 percent- should get the attention of some people.

Here are some of the upgrades.

* On-site upgrades of its 6,500 windows.

* New air-conditioning and heating systems that adjust to demand and also generate cool water.

* Insulating the space between radiators and the outside of the building to trap heat and cold air.

* Installing energy-efficient lighting that can be set to light hallways and common areas only when they are occupied.

* Upgrading the existing building-control system to provide more details about demand and use of its systems.

* Introducing an Internet-based system for tenants to monitor their energy use and show them how to conserve.

China taking initiative again

China is not only trying to be the top in solar power, but also in electric cars.

Chinese leaders have adopted a plan aimed at turning the country into one of the leading producers of hybrid and all-electric vehicles within three years, and making it the world leader in electric cars and buses after that.

This might be bad news for Detroit as now the U.S. automakers will now have to compete not only with the Japanese electric and hybrid carmakers but also with a new Chinese force.

For China, the electric car isn’t a huge help.  Most of China’s electricity comes from the huge number of coal-fired power plants in China.  That means that there may be less smog in the the cities but not necessarily out at the power plants.

But electric vehicles may do little to clear the country’s smog-darkened sky or curb its rapidly rising emissions of global warming gases. China gets three-fourths of its electricity from coal, which produces more soot and more greenhouse gases than other fuels.

A report by McKinsey & Company last autumn estimated that replacing a gasoline-powered car with a similar-size electric car in China would reduce greenhouse emissions by only 19 percent. It would reduce urban pollution, however, by shifting the source of smog from car exhaust pipes to power plants, which are often located outside cities.

Green Pittsburgh

During recent years Pittsburgh proved to be a leader in green development and retrofits of existing buildings.  At one time it ranked first in number of LEED certified buildings (it is now 7th).  The NYT has a good article profiling Pittsburgh and its green measures in detail.

A number of century-old landmarks have been revived as energy-efficient buildings in the last decade, and several major projects, both new and retrofits, will open this spring.

Years before national environmental building standards were set in 2000, Pittsburgh began experimenting in sustainability as local architects, engineers and academics debated how to reuse old industrial sites.

“We were working on the Model T of green building,” said the architect Bob Kobet of the discussions among early proponents of solar energy, weatherization and nontoxic design.

With innovations that would later become widely accepted, like a rooftop garden and photovoltaic roof panels, the local Green Building Alliance’s first project, in 1998, retrofitted a 100-year-old former soap factory and art gallery as office space for Conservation Consultants Inc. “Nonprofits became the test market,” said Ms. Flora, with local foundations underwriting new designs.

The green cred of Pittsburgh is one factor helping it weather the recession better than many other cities as its commercial real estate market remains stronger.  Just one more of the benefits of building green – money.  Green commercial space provides greater cash flows as operating costs are reduced and future capital improvements are made cheaper.

Mr. Saulson said the green investment was cost-effective. He said that suppliers had quickly responded to the demand for sustainable supplies like low volatile-organic-compound paints, energy-efficient window walls and sustainably harvested plywood at a competitive price. “We’re building our branches as LEED-certified buildings for $100,000 less than one of our major competitors is building the same size branch that’s not green,” he said.

As sustainable building gathers national momentum, 41 more LEED projects are expected to open in southwestern Pennsylvania in 2009. Among the largest is the new 1.5-million-square-foot Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, opening May 2 in the Lawrenceville neighborhood. The $625 million campus, which overlooks the Allegheny River, will have two green-certified buildings among a half dozen.

So the market in Pittsburgh that produced more green buildings in the past and is strengthening the city’s economy during the current recession is continuing to bring LEED projects online going forward.  As the article mentioned, this phenomenon has spread to many other cities but there is a ways to go.  There are a lot ot buildings out there waiting for a green retrofit.

Elmo Goes Green!

The newest green spokesman is set to make his debut in the next week: Elmo from Sesame Street.

Watch as Elmo and Abby pitch in to help Mr. Earth (actor Paul Rudd in a hilariously large costume) host Sesame Street’s first Earth-a-Thon. Mr. Earth teaches Elmo and Abby how “it can be easy being green” by recycling, re-using, and conserving water and energy. Abby, in her desire to help Elmo be more “green”, accidentally turns him the color green and can’t remember how to change him back! Lots of fun ensues as Abby is eventually able to poof Elmo red again. Elmo, Cookie Monster, Rosita and Telly join Mr. Earth in pledging to continue to do “green” things to help our planet because Earth Rocks!