Blog roll edition…
Simple changes can increase energy efficiency in buildings and save $1.2 trillion
Data shows housing getting better-and worse
July 31st, 2009
Weekly Intel: Top Links of the Week
July 30th, 2009
West Coast Early Bird Discount Ends Tomorrow
West Coast Green’s early bird discount ends tomorrow, Friday July 31.
We attended last year and will be there again this October. We assure you, if you are a residential builder, designer or architect and are looking to stay out in front of the green building movement, it’s a show that is not to be missed. With green home sales growing while everything else stays stagnant, this is the place to be. The show’s content will put you at the center of innovation, business, green home building.
Learn more about the event here. It will take place in San Francisco, October 1-3, 2009.
The speaker line-up is strong, including:
- Ray Anderson, Chairman, Interface, Inc.
- Michelle Kaufmann, Principal, Michelle Kaufmann Designs
- Marc Porat, Chairman of the Board, Serious Materials
- Cameron Sinclair, Co-founder, Author, Design Like You Give a Damn, Architecture for Humanity
- Andrew Winston, Founder, Ecostrategies
BuildingGreen.com, the organization behind GreenSpec product ratings/listings, has also announced a double discount partnership. Learn more here and make your investment work overtime.
We’d love to see you at the show. Send us an email at greeneditor@buildintelblog.com or give us a shout out at Twitter @GreenIntel and hopefully we’ll see you there!
July 29th, 2009
Mandating Green Building Development
Lawrence Anderson
Cities and states are now cracking down on how real estate can be developed (sounds like one of those seat belt commercials). Effective July 1, Baltimore City introduced a new law in effect requiring any new building development, either free-standing, retrofits or additions, must be certified LEED-Silver as recognized by the United States Green Building Council. We live and work in Baltimore and have a Green Building practice, so you can imagine how psyched we are.
Baltimore joins states like Ohio and Hawaii, who both recently passed building laws, enacting similar codes. In addition, Toronto established a green roofing by-law in May. According to greenbuildingpress.co.uk, “the move received overwhelming support, and consists of a green construction standard and a mandatory requirement for green roofs on all classes of new buildings.”
We know what USGBC is doing to advance green building, but what does this new law mean for the future of commercial building? Are these new green laws going to slow urban growth? Some may say yes, but looking at the bigger picture, this is an opportunity for developers to aid in the development of environmentally conscious cities – a new beginning.
As stated on Green Building Law Update, “as cities, states and federal agencies are mandating LEED certification, you simultaneously have the USGBC ‘raising the bar’ for green buildings by bi-annually updating the LEED rating system to include even more stringent requirements for certification. The USGBC’s goal is not for every building in the country to be LEED certified. Instead, the USGBC wants ‘to bring in even greener and greener buildings.’”
Which strengthens the question; what effect will these new building requirements have on development? As legislation continues in cities and states across the country, it will be interesting to see trends in building and how fast businesses are to adapt. Lets start placing odds on the next city to follow suit…
July 27th, 2009
Big Month for New Homes in June
Channel 4
Another big surprise this morning, at least when you consider previous analyst forecasts, and welcome sight for the home building industry. Sales of single-family homes increased by 11.0% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 384,000 compared to the prior month, the Commerce Department said Monday.
The national batting average is starting to rise as we’ve gone three for three in the last three months - three consecutive months of increased sales. Is it that big of a surprise though when you consider the following factors:
- First-time homebuyer tax credit
- Lower prices
- Economy is showing signs of recovery
- Summer is usually a busy buying period
We shouldn’t overlook the strategic, aggressive online marketing efforts from the large home builders either. Many have been shifting their focus to targeting potential homebuyers online, where they start the process of searching for their dream home, enhancing their web features and increasing their presence with robust social media profiles.
If you ask the experts, they’ll tell you there’s still likely a long, sluggish recovery ahead when you consider the existing inventory of unsold houses, including all of the foreclosed homes. But with shares of home building companies also rising, the lines are starting to point in a new direction.
July 24th, 2009
Get Social On Your Next Anniversary
Just like your wedding day or when those guys landed on the moon, a milestone or anniversary of your business and/or products should be recognized and even celebrated. Commemorating a particular date or year creates many opportunities to map back to and achieve strategic business goals (thanks to The Anniversary Company who, believe it or not, specialize in business anniversary campaigns):
- Shine a positive spotlight on your organization during a 12-month period.
- Attract positive press and attention from industry analysts.
- Affirm your organization’s longevity for the benefit of customers, employees, stockholders and the community.
- Reinforce and validate your brand.
- Give your existing marketing programs a boost.
- Launch new initiatives.
- Inspire employee and customer loyalty.
- Underscore your organization’s contributions to the industry and the community.
- Showcase your company to current and prospective customers.
In this generation, opportunities abound to couple social media with more traditional tactics. After all, chances are your anniversary bridges the gap of then and now, old and new. Yes, it will still take time and you must consider the big picture: opportunities in advertising, sales, marketing, public relations, communications, investor relations, community relations and human resources. Check out a few recent successes, and one blunder, in anniversaries and marketing.
Cheers!
- To celebrate Moonfruit’s 10-year anniversary, the company launched a Twitter contest that bolstered their followers from 400 to 47,000.
- You couldn’t miss the media coverage last week on the 40th Anniversary of man landing on the moon. NASA executed a range of digital tactics to commemorate the anniversary.
- Comic-Con kicked off its 40 year anniversary in San Diego this week. In honor of the comic-studded event, Google launched a range of comic-theme for iGoogle.
- There’s a lot of negative blog buzz around a Millennium Park fixture. Intended to be summer-long to mark the 100th anniversary of architect Daniel Burnham’s reworking of the Chicago’s street grid, Burnham Pavilion is now scheduled to open by Aug. 4 as opposed to its original June 19 date.
Enjoy some of our favorite television family anniversary celebrations…
The Cosby Show: Ray Charles - Click here for this week’s top video clips
July 24th, 2009
Weekly Intel: Top Links of the Week
In case you missed it…
California tops green city rankings
Higher Education bill contains money for green schools
Chicago’s first net-zero house
Bringing down the house - or at least they tried
World’s largest earthquake test
Oh, and happy third blog birthday Jetson Green! You’re getting more attractive with age.
July 21st, 2009
DesignIntelligence Names Top 3 Green Role Models
Here’s why you should know them.
On the heels of the 2009 DesignIntelligence Sustainable Design Survey, which draws data from architecture and design firms throughout the United States, we thought we would give you a run down of the top 3 green design role models and why you should care.
Top 3 green and sustainable design role models:
1. William McDonough
- Founding principal of William McDonough + Partners
- Leading the way in sustainable design since 1984 when he was commissioned to design the Environmental Defense Fund Headquarters which required good indoor air quality
- In partnership with Michael Braungart, McDonough wrote one of the most influential books on lifecycle development, Cradle to Cradle: Rethinking the Way We Make Things
- This book spurred a whole new approach to manufacturing building products and incorporating them into buildings
2. Ed Mazria
- Executive Director of Architecture 2030
- Issued the 2030 Challenge, calling for all new buildings and major renovations to reduce their fossil-fuel GHG-emitting consumption by 50% by 2010
- The 2030 Challenge has been widely adopted throughout the building industry, and incorporated into city, state and federal legislation.
- Congress now requires all federal buildings meet the 2030 Challenge targets
3. Bob Berkebile
- Pioneer of the sustainable design movement over the past 30 years.
- Founding chairman of the American Institute of Architects Committee on the Environment (COTE) and a board member of the U.S. Green Building Council,
- Played a huge role in introducing the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)
July 20th, 2009
0-60 with the Splinter Car at AWFS
We took a ride (figuratively speaking) with Joe Harmon of Joe Harmon Design at AWFS® Vegas last week. Joe is building the Splinter, a high-performance, mid-engined supercar from wood composites as a graduate project at North Carolina State University. Wood is used wherever possible. The power goal is 600 horsepower. Joe, coincidentally, is also the spokesperson for those who can do anything if they set their mind to it…
DELTA | PORTER-CABLE is the official tool sponsor of Splinter and is an IMRE client
July 17th, 2009
Weekly Intel
Weekend reading is looking rather green. All the week’s greatest news about (GREEN) building in one easy to access list. Check it out.
Four Eco Towns Given the Greenlight
NYC has a plan to redice CO2 emmissions
Deconstruction versus Demolition: Why its the greener choice
Turner comes out on top for BD&C’s Top 200 Building Team LEED APs
Green building at Ithaca College demands help from its occupents
July 17th, 2009
Appraised to Sell?
As if the housing market didn’t have enough other factors weighing it down, the National Association of Home Builders released results of a national survey on Monday that says 26% of builders are seeing signed sales contracts falling through due to improper appraisal practices.
“Home builders are increasingly concerned that inappropriate appraisal practices are needlessly driving down home values. This, in turn, is slowing new home sales, causing more workers to lose their jobs and putting a drag on the economic recovery,” said NAHB Chairman Joe Robson, a home builder from Tulsa, Okla.
Following the typical home purchase process, once the buyer and seller reach a bottom line price and a mortgage is applied for, the mortgage lender has an appraisal ordered to ensure the value of the property. The appraisal value is determined by comparing prices of similar homes in the area that were recently sold and adjusted based on the types of add-on features of those homes. If the property appraisal comes in below the agreed upon price, the buyer usually has to cover the difference and may instead decide to continue their search of the “perfect home,” which is what many builders are seeing happen. According to the NAHB survey, of those who are reporting appraisal problems, 54 percent said that the appraisal amount was actually less than the cost of building the home.
Thanks to the Fannie and Freddie fallout, legislation is currently under review to put an end to tampering and tweaking of home values. This legislation is seeing a few key groups, including the National Association of Realtors and the National Association of Mortgage Brokers among others, clashing over a called conflict of interest.
The Appraisal Institute has a great online resource that assists in finding unbiased professional appraisers in the case there are fears of improper practices.