Washington Green Building Benchmarking Law

On Tuesday, Washington DC Council unanimously passed The Clean and Affordable Energy Act of 2008, which includes a mandate for benchmarking buildings' energy efficiency via the Energy Star program.

http://www.costar.com/News/Article.aspx?id=F61C029F278482B155D050AA2DCFCB56&ref=1&src=rss

Liberty Finds Benefits in Building Green

According to Craig Cope, a local vice president for developer Liberty Property Trust,
"The additional cost [of building green] is certainly more than paid back in terms of quicker renting, keeping tenants longer, charging higher rents," he said. "Every building we do from here on out will be certified." For the full article, see http://hamptonroads.com/2008/07/green-buildings-are-going-so-are-prices.

Read This

Bob Herbert's column in the Times today says what needs to be said about Al Gore's speech this week challanging us to meet all our energy needs with renewarble fuels within ten years. Yes we can--http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/19/opinion/19herbert.html?_r=1&ref=opinion&oref=slogin

Albquerque Green Building Litigation--Column on Greenerbuildings.com

I wrote an extended column on the Albuquerque green building litigation which was published by our friends at greenerbuildings.com.

Please read it here--http://greenerbuildings.com/column/2008/07/11/open-floodgates-the-era-green-building-litigation

Green Building Litigation Hits In New Mexico

Well, I've been writing for a while that the green building litigation wave would hit, and it has. A coalitiion of industry groups and local companies has filed a federal lawsuit claiming that Albuquerque's green building code is pre-empted by federal law. The suit claims, in essence, that Albuquerque's code has set energy requirements for certain appliances like air conditioners "that are already covered in federal law and Energy Department regulations". http://www.abqjournal.com/news/metro/080732metro07-08-08.htm

I am currently gathering intel on the suit and will post more later.

PA Alert

Green Building Alliance (GBA) announced a total of $140,000 in Product Innovation Grants for three projects that seek to develop and introduce new and enhanced green building products. http://www.tristateobserver.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=10238

Doing Well By Doing Good--Cherokee Investments

Cherokee Investments, which is "a private equity firm specializing in brownfield cleanup and sustainable redevelopment", released a report on its sustainable projects yesterday, available at http://www.cherokeefund.com/ (article at http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/cherokee-report-highlights-its-investments/story.aspx?guid=%7BD55BC51C-630D-4C15-B3AC-A01C7D4D53A9%7D&dist=hppr).

Although the report does not provide hard numbers on their projects, it does highlight some of the community benefits of their projects--like transit oriented development and provide a succinct set of ideas for pursuing sustainability through real estate development.

State of Climate Change Law

Interesting article on the status of laywers pursuing climate change practices.

http://www.dailyreportonline.com/Editorial/News/singleEdit.asp?individual_SQL=9/21/2007@16763_Public_.htm

The article notes that there really aren't any cases yet. I believe that the first cases will come in the green building area, because of the myriad of local laws that have been springing up in recent years. The laws have been passed quickly, and in many cases mandate the achievement of LEED or LEED-equivalent standards.

Fireman's Fund Starts Green Home Insurance

Fireman's Fund announced it would start to sell a product which would allow homeowners to rebuild green. See http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/05/BUTT11JJOU.DTL

Great Resource--AIA List of Green Incentives

I have discussed the DSIRE website here before, but the AIA has compiled a report on all sorts of incentives for green building which is available here http://www.aia.org/SiteObjects/files/LLgreenincentives(5-19).pdf.

Washington Green School Fails To Live Up To Promise

An interesting article on the Washington Policy Center Blog about a green school that has failed to live up to its promises of reduced absenteeism and higher test scores. http://washingtonpolicyblog.typepad.com/washington_policy_center_/2008/06/another-green-s.html

This is exactly the type of situation which may lead to liability for the professionals involved in the project. Were representations and warranties made regarding the benefits of the green building? By whom? Who is responsible if the building fails to live up to those warranties of performance?