The Green Building Top 5 - May 13, 2015

Do “Living Buildings” Make Economic Sense for Commercial Developers?

The Bullitt Center earlier this month lived up to its billing as the world’s greenest commercial office building. It earned certification through the Living Building Challenge after a year of operations in which the six-story, timber-framed edifice—and its tenants—consumed less energy than was generated by its rooftop solar array, drew no water from the municipal pipes, and discharged no waste or stormwater runoff to the sewers.Read Full Article

Greater Aims Than Marketing With a Film Starring Green Luxury Apartments

The film shows a man in a leather biker jacket and a woman in an oversize black parka leaning against the gunwale of a boat, staring up at the huge icebergs floating by, dressed more for the cobblestones of SoHo than for the shoals of Greenland. The camera captures their amazement at the drifts of glacial beauty. Just then — crack! — both jump as a piece of ice the size of a townhouse cascades into the water.. Read Full Article

Millennial Conservatives: We Want Conservation

As an adult, I have come to appreciate what my grandparents taught me about the value of conservation. A Pew study showed that 48% of millennials who identified as Republican also thought that some government environmental protection is worth the cost. I am one of them, but I also believe that as individuals there is much that we can do in the private sector by supporting programs like Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Certification. LEED certified buildings are constructed to be sustainable, energy efficient and leave a smaller carbon footprint. Read Full Article

State of Green Business: Money flows where sustainability grows

The last year has ushered in a number of encouraging developments that are increasing the flow of capital toward more sustainable business models — a trend with interesting implications for corporate sustainability executives, chief financial officers and investor relations teams alike. Read Full Article

Unique ‘Treehouse’ awarded double LEED Platinum

The Treehouse Memorial City, a 14,700 square-foot building that serves as MetroNational’s development office, meeting space and showroom for current and future Memorial City projects, has been certified double LEED Platinum by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). With a score of 95 points, The Treehouse Memorial City has achieved LEED BD+C: CS (Core and Shell) Platinum Level, marking this project as the highest credit point total in Texas and the second highest in the U.S. for this rating system. In addition, The Treehouse received LEED ID+C: (Commercial Interiors) Platinum Level with a score of 80 points. Read Full Article