Would you be interested in simple, cost effective solutions for lowering your utility costs at home or at your business?

Take poll:
http://polls.linkedin.com/p/99207/mjvnx

As a designer there are too many things that come to mind when I start to ponder Green. In general, they are: supply chain; production; design; materials; construction; management; choices; lifestyle. Things directly affected by our choices: carbon footprint; pocketbook; health; lifestyle; environment.

I still find that many people believe the personal decisions they make have little affect on the environment’s condition. It’s true that on an individual basis we have little impact on a global scale. However, on a global scale humanity has a major role in environmental impact.

Together, let’s manage our moves toward sustainability one house, one business, one community at a time. Let’s improve our family’s health and well being and lower our utility costs & resource consumption at the same time.

We can design buildings per LEED standards and even better. There are many rebates to take advantage of in facility equipment upgrades. We can be thoughtful and plant a shade tree on a west exposure, decide to go as paperless as possible, recycle and re-purpose, change plumbing fixtures to low flow or waterless, use CFL’s, etc.

We can choose contractors that use green practices, we can purchase hybrid or alternative fuel vehicles, have cyber offices and cyber meetings. We can post PDF plans on FTP sites that are downloaded (not printed) by owners, contractors, city reviewers, etc.

I’ll stop there, nobody has all day. Hopefully people can discover that we are all at some level of green, we all have an affect on the environment we live in, and we need to individually decide what to do about it, in all aspects of our lives – including design & construction. Contact me for specific design & construction ideas as well as “low hanging fruit” to save utility costs at existing businesses or homes.

The bottom line for most commercial rentals comes down to dollars. One of the comments had pointed to this site: http://britalicus.wordpress.com/2009/07/30/green-buildings-can-deliver-higher-rents/

Comments?

The HVAC controls industry is in the middle of a very interesting transition. The market seems to be mature and stable – the seven largest suppliers account for more than four-fifths of all sales.

The economy has forced many to cast an eye on reducing non-essential costs. A new opportunity has emerged in recent years with the advent of lightweight energy management systems designed specifically for residences and small and medium sized commercial buildings..

I had the opportunity to speak with a top, major city, planner and he questioned why there is a separate LEED design review process. He pointed out that most cities already review plans for conformance to the International Energy Efficiency Code, customers are already paying for a building review fee, and that they could easily review for conformance to any LEED or adopted sustainability standards.

States and local municipalities can also come up with their own energy efficiency and sustainability standards, such as California has done. At this point LEED certification is still an option and the IEEC already addresses a building envelope’s thermal efficiency and its maximum wattage allowance for new designs.

Soon, green design standards will become the norm, will be required for all permit submittals and administered at the local municipality level.