"Open Energy Receives $972,000 Purchase Order From Premier Power for SolarSave Roofing Membrane System"
"Wachovia Announces Plans for Green Building, Banking"
"New Parkway Visitors Center Built With 'Green' Features"
"Pa. Grant Sought for Local Roof 'Greening'"
"Architects Tap the Sun's Energy"
"Metro Health Installs 'Green' Roof"
"CB Richard Ellis Is Aiming to Make Buildings Greener"
"Local Rooftops Sprouting Greener Look"
"Downtown Public Square Wins National Award for 'Green Roof'"
"First Carbon-Neutral Building Slated for New York"
"City of Waco Getting the First 'Green Roof' in Central Texas"
"Bill Clinton Stresses Green Agenda"
"Global Coalition to Make Buildings Energy-Efficient"
"Trends & Innovations: Eco Tower to Create Its Own Energy"
"Lawmakers Looking to Encourage 'Green Building'"

Open Energy Corp. has received a purchase order from Premier Power Renewable Energy Inc. for a photovoltaic roof system to be installed on the new Bardessono Inn in Napa Valley, Calif. The roof system is valued at $972,000 and will be integrated with Duro-Last single-ply roof membranes for this particular project. MTM Management LLC is the developer of record on the lodging. Mark Bettis, Open Energy's regional sales manager, stated: "The Bardessono Inn project is environmentally inspired, with solar power co-generation, water conservation, on-site composting and minimal solid waste generation." The luxury boutique hotel is on track for a spring 2008 grand opening.
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Wachovia is set to open its first green banking offices in California's Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and Santa Barbara counties, beginning this November. The offices are part of a larger green building strategy the financial services company launched in early June. By 2010, Wachovia aims to build no less than 300 Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)-certified green financial centers. These facilities will slash energy use by at least 20 percent and will be designed to consume 25 percent less water than traditionally built branches. Karen Curtin, the executive in charge of Wachovia's Branch and Network Management team, states: "Our green building efforts are the right thing to do for the planet and our children, and also a smart business decision. By using environmentally friendly materials, we will reduce our energy use and operating costs." In addition, Wachovia is currently erecting a 1.2-million-square-foot office tower at its Charlotte, N.C., headquarters that will feature a green roof system and will harvest rainwater for site irrigation. Finally, the company's green branch commitment will extend to new centers in leased space. For newly leased branches, Wachovia has vowed to pursue a LEED Commercial Interiors Retail certification.
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In North Carolina, the new Blue Ridge Parkway Destination Center will double as a visitors center for the parkway and a regional destination center for the state's western region. Construction is about 70 percent complete and should wrap up by this summer. It will feature a sod roof system and walls with a glass panel in front to collect heat to be used throughout the complex. Michael Molling, the parkway's maintenance chief, remarks: "We're pretty proud of the fact that it's a much different building than the [National] Park Service usually builds."
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In Lancaster County, Pa., seven local companies have successfully lobbied the Lancaster County Planning Commission to help them with their green roof system plans. The planners received commissioners' approval to apply for $500,000 in state funds for the energy-efficient rooftops. Together, the seven buildings are expected to realize a yearly energy savings of 181,000 kilowatt hours once the green roof systems are in place. That is a 20 percent savings over current energy use. Additionally, such roof system installations can capture as much as 90 percent of the precipitation from storms. The greening effort is expected to cost between $10 and $14 per square foot. Of the seven projects included in the grant proposal, six are in the city of Lancaster. They include the Bare Building and the local YMCA. The Columbia Borough Municipal Building is the seventh site.
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Klar and Klar Architects, a Florida-based architectural firm, is designing a solar-assisted commercial facility in Pinellas Park. Once completed, the 14,000-square-foot complex will be the Tampa Bay metro area's biggest solar-assisted commercial building. The project will include photovoltaic roof panels that will supply approximately 33 percent of its power. Additionally, all the building's water will be solar-heated. Surgical Pathology Laboratories will serve as the building's anchor tenant, occupying an estimated 9,000 square feet. The remaining offices are now available for lease.
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Metro Health Hospital in Wyoming, Mich., boasts a nearly 1-acre green roof that contains approximately 108,000 flowering plants. The new green roof system took nearly three years to plan. Metro spokesman John Ebers notes: "Right now, we have five different species of flowering sedum. They were selected because they are very great at adapting to the environment." About 180 patient rooms overlook the energy-efficient roof.
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CB Richard Ellis Group Inc. (CBRE) plans for its buildings to be "carbon-neutral" by the end of this decade. By curtailing energy use and possibly even buying carbon offsets, CBRE expects to reduce its creation of greenhouse gases to almost nothing by 2010. The California-based firm is the first major commercial property services firm to make such a sweeping pledge. Ashok Gupta of the National Resources Defense Council applauds CBRE's initiative, stating: "Most people think about power plants and cars and don't realize that energy-efficient buildings can have a huge impact on global warming benefits." CBRE currently manages approximately 1.7 billion square feet of commercial space for landlords. In the next few years, the firm will look to make that space more efficient by persuading property owners to change their energy practices and invest in interior and exterior improvements.
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An increasing number of green roof systems are popping up throughout the Boston metropolitan area. Although some of these rooftops' primary purpose is aesthetic appeal, most are actually functional roof systems that work to lower building temperatures and improve energy efficiency. For example, the green roof system on Boston's Seaport Hotel and World Trade Center requires little water, does well in the city's harsh climate and is self-sustaining. Local building owners and managers have responded well to prompting from the company Earth Our Only Home. Spokeswoman Karen Webber reasons: "If you have enough green roofs across the city to lower the temperature by just 1 degree centigrade, you actually can reduce the energy of the whole city by 10 percent."
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Nashville was awarded the top prize in a recent international competition sponsored by Green Roofs for Healthy Cities. Public Square, the city's entry in the contest, was lauded for its creative and effective design. The open-air green roof system captures precipitation in a 57,000-gallon, below-grade tank. The rainwater is then filtered and recycled to irrigate the various plants and other greenery in the park. City officials note that more than two acres of the 7.5-acre Public Square are green. Green Roofs for Healthy Cities President Steven Peck remarked: "The Nashville Public Square is a landmark project for the city of Nashville from a civic and a sustainable perspective. This project raises the international bar for municipal green roof projects and all parties are to be commended for their efforts on this award-winning project."
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Groundbreaking is set for 2008 on New York City's first carbon-neutral building. Dubbed Solar Two Arts and Education Center, the 8,000-square-foot, emissions-free facility will replace a smaller complex now on the riverfront site. Solar Two is designed to be mostly solar-powered with photovoltaic roof panels generating 85 kilowatts of electricity from the sun. Ground-source geothermal wells, meanwhile, will supply the building's heating and cooling. The goal of Solar Two is to showcase New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's goal of at least a 30 percent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions citywide over the next three decades.
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Waco's new Chamber of Commerce building is now under construction and is due to feature the first green roof system in central Texas. In fact, when completed, it will likely be the first chamber building in the entire country with such a roof system. Although the green roof system is expected to cost between $8 and $12 per square foot to install, roofing professionals insist it will pay off in the long run in the form of reduced energy bills. Not only do green roof systems bring down such costs, they also soak up precipitation and filter out such pollutants as carbon dioxide. Johnson's Roofing founder Bill Johnson states: "You might expect a building like it in Austin. You might expect a building like it in Kansas City, but in Waco, Texas? Well, we want people to say: 'Yes, in Waco, Texas.'"
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Former President Bill Clinton addressed Cushman & Wakefield's annual economic and real estate forum on May 16, using the opportunity to stress the need for the real estate community to make public and private buildings more energy-efficient. In particular, he applauded Mayor Michael Bloomberg's PlaNYC campaign, which pushes for a greener and more sustainable New York City by 2030. Clinton urged attendees to search for ways to cut down on a building's use of energy. For instance, on a 90-degree day, an asphalt-based roof system will reach more than 105 F within three hours. By comparison, a grass roof system on the same structure will have a temperature of just 80 F and effectively cool the building.
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Under a plan developed through the William J. Clinton Foundation, a coalition of the former president, 16 of the world's largest cities, five banks and companies that specialize in updating older buildings have pledged billions of dollars toward slashing urban energy use. The plan calls for participating banks to provide as much as $1 billion each in loans that private building owners or cities can use to upgrade outdated heating, cooling and lighting systems in aging structures. The loans and interest would be recouped via savings accrued through lower energy costs as such upgrades typically can reduce energy use and related costs by between 20 percent and 50 percent. The first targets under the initiative would be municipal buildings in such cities as Bangkok, Berlin, Chicago, Houston, Johannesburg, Mexico City, New York, Rome, Sao Paulo and Toronto. The ambitious plan was announced near the end of a three-day meeting of business executives, mayors and environmental experts organized by Clinton.
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An unnamed group of developers has announced plans to build the 68-story "Energy Tower" in Dubai. The cylinder-shaped structure will be designed to generate its own electricity thanks to a huge wind turbine on its rooftop and solar panels covering its roof. The Energy Tower will also draw energy from a nearby island of solar panels. Overnight, it will tap energy stored in fuel cells. Finally, the building will feature special windows designed to keep out desert heat.
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More than a dozen bills have already been filed in Massachusetts' legislature this session to encourage the construction of green buildings. These bills would, among other things, create green building income and excise tax credits, boost state reimbursements for communities that build energy-efficient schools, require the state to integrate green technologies into buildings owned or leased by the state, and create a central clearinghouse for information on sustainable building products and methods. Already, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick has announced that private developers will be required to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions produced by large-scale projects through such methods as green roof systems and energy- efficient lighting. Patrick has also signed an executive order requiring agencies to lower energy consumption by 20 percent within five years and 35 percent by 2020. In Boston, city officials are also promoting environmentally friendly building design for big projects through the use of efficient HVAC systems and other methods. "About a third of all global warming emissions are attributable to the heating, cooling and lighting of buildings, so it's imperative that we address this," says Sue Reid, a staff attorney for the Conservation Law Foundation. "Green buildings are an essential component of any effective strategy to address global warming."
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