December 29, 2008
by Environmental Building Strategies
in Energy
Homebuilders were slapping on solar panels and added other eco-friendly enhancements as energy prices soared earlier this year, hoping greener homes would lure reluctant buyers.
But since July, the cost of oil has plunged from $147 a barrel to about $36, while home prices continued to fall.
Home builders were adding $20,000-worth of solar panels, high performance insulation, low-leakage air ducts and other systems in order to lure buyers because there electric bills will be cut in half.
An example of this technique working was a green community in California, Encore development, where sales figures in July showed that homes with green features sold 1.55 homes per week, compared with 0.88 homes per week for similar homes in the same city that weren’t green.
But that advantage disappeared in the second half of the year. So why are home builders sticking with green. Many know that they can’t get financing without pre-selling a majority of their product. They recognize that by standing out and delivering a better product buyers are more willing to purchase and financiers are more willing to loan them money.
Many builders are shying away from initial expensive green investments such as solar panels and looking at increasing the efficiency of homes. This is done by sealing the envelope of the home and having more efficient systems, lowering the water usage and improving the indoor air quality. These changes add little to no extra charge to the construction cost but provide substantial savings in energy use.
Oil prices may fluctuate, but the benefit of going green is far beyond your immediate energy bill.
December 26, 2008
by Environmental Building Strategies
in Green Building
A friend of mine at Green Talk turned me on to this video and its a must see for the holidays. Merry Christmas Y’all!!!
December 26, 2008
by Environmental Building Strategies
in Green Building
Tags: Blogs, Building Green, Christmas, Consulting, Eco Community, Green Building, Home Improvement, Paint, VOC
Merry Christmas! And Happy Quanza, Hanukkah and the rest.
I want to be in the giving spirit during this holiday season so I’ve decided to provide you with a breadth of resources instead of some politically or environmentally charged post.
So I recently came across a great company and their blog – Seville Consulting Blog. Great source of information and the author Carl is a leader in the industry. Contact him if you are going green in the Southeast United States.
Although not up and running quite yet, our friends at Building Green have started a new website called Green Building Advisor which looks like a promising resource for public information. Set to launch at the International Builders Show in Vegas on January 20-23 (oh and Environmental Building Strategies will be there so find us!).
Green Eco Communities is a newer website listing all environmentally friendly places to live in the US divided up by state. While this will be an incredible task for them to continually update and be subjective with, they are on the right path and we applaud them.
One of the most popular and longer running daily blogs out there is Jetson Green. I like the name more than anything as one of my best friends is named Jetzen (except my buddy spells it cooler). But seriously these guys post daily and are a breadth of knowledge.
A rarely ever discussed subject is the alternative wall coverings that exist out there. Today it seems like everyone is talking about Low and No VOC paints which is fine and dandy but at the end of the day, paint sucks. So do something unique with your interior or exterior space. Use a plaster technique like Venetian Plaster or Stucco.
However if you truly want a unique wall covering that is easy to apply and looks amazing, check out Wara Juraku which is a Japanese wall covering mainly consisting of natural materials such as sand, seaweed, and straw.
Cool companies to check out Green Fusion in San Rafael
and Eco Home Improvement in Berkeley
WikiHow is a good resource for DIY information and they have a great category on Sustainable Living that is worth a look if you are into greening your lifestyle.
Look for more tips coming in the new year as Environmental Building Strategies ramps up its campaign to change building and LEED the way towards a sustainable tomorrow.
December 24, 2008
by Environmental Building Strategies
in Energy, Renewable Energy
So I’ve been wanting to write about this for a while – its a bit off the green building subject but it resonates well within the community.
Why can’t you check a box on your electric bill from PGE saying that you want to buy power only from clean sources. The box could have a number inside it saying something like Normal – $63.56 and another box that says – Cleantech $95.35.
It would be a way to inform the public about the currently additional costs of converting to clean without telling them to buy a REC which you never actually see. PGE is just monopolizing the situation they have and slowing the process even though they claim to be such a proponent of renewable.
I truly believe they are only doing this push for sustainability and renewable tech because the govt has mandated it on them. Coal is still the cheapest and at the end of the day the idea is to be profitable. Wouldn’t it make sense fiscally (which is usually all anyone ever cares about) to continue with cheap energy sources? However someone should mention the case for PGE where they have somehow found this sense of social and environmental stewardship where they should be commended for their actions. Kinda like Chevron in that sense with their ridiculously convincing human energy commercials. Hell they almost had me fooled.
But this is getting off topic – if the government and municipalities would push for an idea like this then we could maybe get somewhere. At a minimum you would find out where the demand is. Look at the Prius if you think this idea of paying more for clean is ludicrous. The Prius and other Hybrid’s out there do not make sense fiscally. Their payback is in the 10 year range at $3 dollars a gallon (a friend did a econometric analysis if you are interested in the data) and for those who don’t know, the batteries need to be replaced at 100,000 miles. The case for a Hybrid starts making sense when gas gets closer to $10 a gallon.
So with that said, I can’t go two minutes in California without seeing a Prius. It has the ability to work just the same with PGE and would blossom with the right government incentives.
December 22, 2008
by Environmental Building Strategies
in Energy, Green Building, Uncategorized
Tags: energy, Green Building
One of the biggest problems with an energy audit is that the suggestions rarely get implemented. If it is a financial concern there are ways around the issue. First, incentives exist to help mitigate costs. A simple web search can find websites dedicated to these issues and it is always possible to contact your local municipality or building department to learn more. More importantly though is the fact that many people don’t realize the potential banks have as a resource for energy efficiency solutions.
Go to the bank, mention the upgrades: banks are increasingly offering programs for homeowners looking to make energy efficient upgrades. You can restructure your asset and liabilities the bank sets based on reduced future expenses (liabilities) as a result of the improvements. This means that your personal net worth goes up giving you the ability to borrow more money.
New Resource bank is the country’s first “green” bank and they love helping in green people in green ways. Contact us for more information!
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