August 5, 2010
by macko
in EBS News, Energy, Energy Auditing, Green Building
Tags: energy, Ghirardelli Square, Green Building Examples, Green Property Management, waste
EBS Ghirardelli Case Study
Today marks great news – 2 months in the making and 2 years of consulting have culminated in one great case study. Ghirardelli Goes Green is a case study highlighting the reduction in environmental impacts and reduction in costs that JMA Ventures and Ghirardelli Square have realized after systematically finding ways to affect both criteria.
Environmentally Ghirardelli Square educated tenants and reduced energy usage dramatically in key areas. Resulting from low initial cost and high value, the results have yielded impressive rates of return and present values using virtually any criteria. Working with Rita Hernandez and Jane Echlin we at Environmental Building Strategies were able to help them find ways to be better to both the bottom line and the environment.
Please feel free to share this case study with anyone looking to save money by engaging sustainability criteria in their everyday actions. Download here: EBS Ghirardelli Case Study
– The EBS Team
March 2, 2009
by Environmental Building Strategies
in Green Building, Uncategorized
Tags: green, Renewable Energy, sustainability, waste, water
So a couple things are on my mind this week. The main one is water however. To date this blog has focused quite a bit on energy, materials, and sustainability however we’ve lacked on the water subject.
Since Karolina let me on to this movie FLOW I’ve been newly recharged to change the world. I can’t express in words how important it is that you see this documentary. It discusses the critical nature of our current water supply in a global context.
It also discusses how multi-national corporations such as Coke, Nestle, and Pepsi are literally destroying aquifers where the “set up shop.” The worst part is they do this in places around the globe that can least afford it. Companies like Coke suck up water that would otherwise be provided for indigenous people and then bottle it and sell it back to them for profit. Lets just ask ourselves, “Does that make sense?” Does it make sense to pay ridiculous amounts of money for something that falls from our skies? Should we start paying for air? How about sunlight?
The greatest part about it is that this bottled water we drink is rarely ever better for our health and of course when you throw in the future impacts of the plastic bottle its stored in, you have a recipe for disaster.
Besides the film, I wanted to share some things the world is doing for water and its conservation.
In Orange County California, wastewater is being treated and discharged back into the ground water. It then is recaptured and used for drinking, showering and such. This is a really important concept because quite often wastewater and sewage is treated and dumped into our oceans. We are dumping potentially viable FRESH water in the salty oceans. An interesting note that Australia does this already – in fact I’ve heard that their President was shown on TV drinking a glass of treated water. Besides that they capture much of their rainfall and understand capture and reuse much better than Americans.
In other interesting news, Ben Block from Greener Buildings talks about how water efficiency is key to energy savings here. Also on Greener Buildings is an interesting article about a mobile transportation device for wastewater treatment. That article can be found here.
Thats about all I have for now – I will leave you with this interesting tidbit I learned…
An investment in wind power produces almost three times as many jobs as the same investment in coal power. And an investment in solar power produces almost four times as many jobs, and energy efficiency, almost thirty times as many jobs as coal power.
–The EBS Team
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