theLEED » General

Great New Online Magazine

admin — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 18:12:25 +0000

Take a look at the following magazine about hip stuff, cool gadgets and life management. with beans

LEED Platnium

admin — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 21:26:46 +0000

Congrats to the new largest educational recipient of the LEED Platinum designation. The St. Olaf Regents Hall of Natural and Mathematical Sciences has been granted the highest level available from the respected Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) green building »”>Green Building Rating System. The nearly 200,000 sq ft facility cost nearly $63 Million.

For more info, you can read St. Olaf’s press release here.

Summit Series – November 2009

Rick Walker — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 16:09:18 +0000

site of the Summit Series

It is Sunday and I am departing from Miami International Airport. I got the opportunity to attend the Summit Series – an event for influential and charity-driven entrepreneurs. For someone not from New York or Silicon Valley, it was a treat to meet some of the leaders of technology innovation and business.

It my meetings I was able to have quality time with some of the other leading young business leaders. This was an invitation only event that was very exclusive in nature – the guest list was very impressive.

Over the next few days, I hope to write a little about my discussions with some of the leaders in commercial real estate as well as IT. I was able to have discussions with notable commercial real estate professionals such as Don Peebles (CEO of Peebles Group) and Greg O’Brien (CEO of Jones Lang LaSalle) .

Smaller LEED Projects

Rick Walker — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:35:35 +0000

As I roam around and speak to different LEED architects across the country, I am seeing an interesting occurrence. I am seeing really small, almost micro-LEED, projects pop up. I spoke with someone in Washington state earlier this week who is working on a 3,000 sq ft brewery. That’s amazing that a company would care so much about their carbon footprint that they would pay the application fee for such a small project.

This could have a profound impact on mid-sized commercial facilities, specifically 20,000 to 40,000 facilities. How will the valuation of these micro-LEED projects change when the cost for compliance greatly escalated the constructed price per square foot?

Houston Tax Abatements for LEED

Rick Walker — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 19:21:01 +0000

Here’s another reason to build green: a one-year tax break from the city.

To offset some of the costs associated with applying for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification from the U.S. Green Building Council, the city is giving a 1 to 10 percent tax abatement depending on how green a commercial building operates.

And the builder or owner must have spent at least $100,000 on making the building more environmentally sound.

Ordinances governing tax abatements must be renewed every two years, and the city recently updated its policies to include the green incentive.

The city made another change relating to accountability.

Companies that receive tax breaks — which typically last 10 years — do so based on their promises to make certain investments and create jobs.

Now those companies must provide an annual report to the city demon-strating that they’re holding up their end of the bargain.

“If they don’t, we ask for it back,” said Tim Douglass, deputy director of finance for economic development for the city of Houston.

Harris County also offers a green building tax abatement.

This is a repost from chron.com