Jodi Summers = Santa Monica Real Estate

RESEARCH CONFIRMS > THE GREENEST BUILDING IS THE ONE ALREADY BUILT

April 21, 2012 on 12:02 am | In Fascinating Information, Green, Historic Properties, Recycling, Uncategorized | 4 Comments

edited by Jodi Summers

Recent research concludes that, when comparing buildings of equivalent size and function, building reuse almost always offers environmental savings over demolition and new…or as we’ve come to term it, the greenest building is the one already built

A recent report produced by the Preservation Green Lab of the National Trust for Historic Preservation and called “The Greenest Building: Quantifying the Environmental Value of Building Reuse,” offers statistical validation. The report, offers policy-makers, building owners, developers, architects and engineers compelling evidence of the merits of reusing existing buildings as opposed to tearing them down and building new.

Highlights include:

• Reuse Matters. The study finds that the majority of building types in different climates will take between 20-30 years to compensate for the initial carbon impacts from construction. Energy Efficient new construction can take between 10 to 80 years to overcome the climate change impacts created by its construction.

• Scale Matters. Collectively, building reuse and retrofits substantially reduce climate change impacts. Retrofitting, rather than demolishing and replacing, just 1% of the city of Portland’s office buildings and single family homes over the next ten years would help to meet 15% of their county’s total CO2 reduction targets over the next decade.

• Design Matters. The environmental benefits of reuse are maximized by minimizing the input of new construction materials. Renovation projects that require many new materials can reduce or even negate the benefits of reuse.

Historic rehabilitation has a thirty-two year track record of creating 2 million jobs and generating $90 billion in private investment. Studies show residential rehabilitation creates 50% more jobs than new construction. Rah! Rah! Adaptive reuse.

http://www.preservationnation.org/issues/sustainability/green-lab/valuing-building-reuse.html?utm_source=Listrak&utm_medium=Email&utm_term=http%3a%2f%2fwww.preservationnation.org%2fissues%2fsustainability%2fgreen-lab%2fvaluing-building-reuse.html&utm_campaign=Green%20Building%20Update%20-%20February%203%2c%202012

http://www.preservationnation.org/issues/sustainability/green-lab/lca/The_Greenest_Building_Exec_Summary.pdf

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jodisummers/5712503676/

http://www.socketsite.com/archives/LEED%20Platinum.jpg

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The Appraisal Journal recently published data to this effect: for every $1 green home improvements decreased the property’s annual energy bills, the home’s value increases by $10-$25. That might not seem impressive on such a small scale, but these numbers translate to an increase of $8,000 to $25,000 to the market value of a greened-up 3,000 square foot home. Same goes for solar homes; Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory compared solar homes to similar homes without solar panels, and found that a solar system can add around $17,000 to a home’s value.

Comment by Ask Tara @Trulia — April 22, 2012 #
1) Do you know why Santa Monica Airport sells jet fuel and Torrance Airport doesn’t?

2) Do you know why some Airport tenants pay $2.36 per sq ft and other pay 2 cents?

3) Do you know what City Council Resolution 6296 says?

4) Do you know how much the City spends each year on subsidizing Santa Monica Airport?

5) Do you know the difference between the three parcels of land at the airport?

6) Do you know how the Second Circuit Court ruling in National Helicopter Corporation of America v. City of New York applies to Santa Monica Airport?

7) Do you know why jets at Santa Monica Airport are allowed to idle and accelerate less than 300 feet from homes, but jets are not allowed within 300 feet of instrument landing system equipment or antennas “since prolonged exposure to jet fumes is dangerous to the health of personnel working on the systems?”

Comment by ZinaJosephs — April 23, 2012 #
Water quality watchdog Heal the Bay gave Santa Monica’s beach areas all As during dry weather, a continuing sign that Santa Monica’s bad water reputation may be behind it.

All seven of Santa Monica’s testing sites came back with an A or A+ for testing during dry weather, but four fared worse during rainfall.

The scores are based on daily and weekly samples of water from various test spots. Heal the Bay employees analyze those samples for certain kinds of bacteria that are present when fecal waste is in the water.

Comment by AshArch — May 28, 2012 #
Santa Monica Wins High-Profile Sustainability Award

In April, Santa Monica was named the winner of the 2012 Siemens Sustainable
Community Award in the midsize community category (population 50,000
- 150,000). Santa Monica and fellow 2012 Sustainable Communities Chicago,
IL (large community category) and Purcellville, VA (small community category) were chosen from among 132 communities across 40 states to become this year’s winners.

Santa Monica’s award application focused on integrating goals and principles of its Sustainable City Plan into a wide range of city operations, services and strategic planning initiatives, including the recently adopted Land Use and Circulation Element
(LUCE). Judges noted Santa Monica’s excellence in setting strategic citywide goals that are reinforced across multiple planning areas, such as resource conservation, economic growth, open space and land use, housing, transportation, civic participation, and human services. As part of the award, Santa Monica will receive $20,000 worth of trees from the Alliance for Community Trees.

The awards program is a partnership between the Siemens Corporation and the US Chamber Business Civic Leadership Center. For information, visit http://bclc.uschamber.com/sustainablecommunityawards.

Comment by Siemens Sustainable Community Award — June 18, 2012 #