The Inspired Economist

In designing The Cobb as apartments, Unico Properties, Inc sought to "design a building that would provide sustainable benefits to residents, the community and the world around it."

Unico began with one of the city’s most beautiful buildings, The Cobb, built in 1910, which they renovated with careful preservation of historic elements including the façade’s hand-laid brickwork and the original art deco style elevators.

The sustainable attributes of The Cobb include:

• Meets 28 pre-defined criteria, achieving a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified Green Building rating from the U.S. Green Building Council.
• Preserves a historic building.
• Encourages synergy of existing resources.
• Cleaner indoor air, through the use of a heat system that limits the spread of allergens, and low VOC carpets, adhesives, sealants, paint and composite wood.
• Waste reduction through a recycling program for residents, as well as the reuse of many items during construction, and recycling 95 percent of construction waste.
• Environmentally friendly outdoor gardens, with plantings designed to provide habitat for birds and butterflies.
• Garden space converted from rooftops, which will reduce water runoff by 38%
• Reduced water usage by 30 percent and sewage by 40 percent through dual flush toilets, lavatory fixtures and Energy Star appliances.
• Noise reduction and better air quality through its air conditioning system.
• Use of recycled products in construction including metals, wallboard, insulation, concrete and acoustical ceiling tile.

(Photo: Point-Travel.com)

As Hotel Online reports, aloft, a new vision of Starwood Hotels and Resorts’ W Hotels, have announced details about their new "See Green" program.  The "See Green" program was created to introduce and promote ecologically friendly products and services.  Highlights of the project include:

• A landscaping plan that redesigns standard parking lots into outdoor park-like environments, with a variety of deciduous trees and shrubbery.
• Depending on the location, the plan also includes a grassy area known as the "backyard."
• Special area of parking spots that will be reserved specifically for hybrid cars, raising awareness of the benefits of environmentally friendly vehicles.
• Hybrid aloft "house car" at each location, available to interested guests.
• When guests want to tidy up their cars, they’ll be provided with eco-friendly cleaning agents as well as reusable cleaning cloths instead of paper towels.
• Guest rooms will feature eco-friendly dispenser units in the oversized showers. The dispensers hold shampoo/conditioner and body wash to reduce the use of non-biodegradable plastic materials.
• Laundry Facilities with Seventh Generation, eco-friendly detergent.
• The "splash" pool will be cleaned with Clarity Water Products or Sal-Chlor cleaning agents.

"Our vision is to empower each guest to make ecologically-responsible choices and to provide the operators the tools to help reduce our overall impact on the environment," says Brian McGuinness, vice president of aloft hotels.

Click here for the full story from Hotel Online

This tip came from IE reader Melinda Lewis, thank you Melinda!

When:  October 17-20, 2006

Where:  Colorado Convention Center- Denver, CO

Click here to Register

Denver’s planned Justice Center complex , one of the first major successes of Greenprint Denver and the city’s High Performance Building Policy, will be built and certified to LEED® standards.  The building will incorporate green building techniques such as using environmentally-friendly refrigerants, minimizing the use of non-renewable resources and waste production, incorporating natural daylighting, and landscaping with drought-tolerant native plants.

Click here to learn more

Starting in 2008, Wal-Mart will begin a program to reduce packaging, a move that is forcasted to save the company billions and divert millions of pounds away from landfills.  According to the BBC News,

"The amount saved overall in the supply chain could be $10.98bn, Wal-Mart said.

UK supermarket Sainsbury’s said earlier this month 500 of its own-brand goods would be in compostable packaging.

Unveiling the programme, Wal-Mart chief executive Lee Scott said packaging was an area "where consumers and suppliers come together and can have a real impact on both business efficiency and environmental stewardship".

From 2007, the retailer will give its buyers a "packaging scorecard", providing information on alternative forms of packaging, which will influence decisions on which products to stock."

Via (BBC News, The Conscious Earth)

In his State of the City address on July 12, 2006, Mayor Hickenlooper announced a long-term, citywide initiative called Greenprint Denver to promote the importance of sustainable development and ecologically-friendly practices throughout the community.

With a comprehensive action plan, the city aims to integrate environmental impact considerations into its programs and policies.  Below is a brief overview of the action items outlined by Greenprint Denver:

• Reduce Greenhouse Emissions
• Increase City Forest Coverage
• Reduce Waste
• Utilize Renewable Energies
• Increase Green Built Affordable Housing
• Implement City Green Building Policy
• Expand City’s Green Motor Fleet
• Promote and Leverage Mass Transit
• Improve, Protect and Conserve Water
• Promote Green Industry Economic Development

Click here to download the complete Greenprint Denver Action Agenda

President Clinton announced that Global Green USA has been selected to receive a grant from the Bush Clinton Katrina Fund for its novel approach to help rebuild Green Schools in New Orleans. President Clinton was joined by Global Green President Matt Petersen, New Orleans Director Beth Galante, and Program Assistant John Moore for the announcement.

The funding will help Global Green rebuild at least two damaged schools in the New Orleans School District using green building design criteria and work to insure all school construction and renovation in New Orleans and Louisiana is built green. Creating green schools in neighborhoods impacted by Katrina will be a major contribution to the recovery efforts of New Orleans and help in attracting teachers and families back to the region. Green schools will increase student performance, reduce sick days, improve teacher retention, and save on school operating costs through energy savings that will also reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Click here for the full press release from Global Green

This tip came from Brady Demarest, thank you Brady!

Ecologic 3 is a commercially available software package that allows project teams from across the world to collaborate in the analysis of the LEED-NC rating system and the various levels of certification.  The software creates a path through the USGBC’s LEED system credit by credit as if lead by a virtual consultant.  The software also provides cost/benefit analysis of building green and allows users to define the variables in addition to life cycle values.

By providing owners and developers the information they need to better understand the financial benefits of green building this software will help to make green building the standard. 

The Denver Post offered an interesting article exploring both sides of Global Warming, providing perspectives from both skeptics and proponents.

Click here to read the entire article and decide for yourself.

This tip came from Nolan Cella.  Thank you Nolan!

With illustrative and detailed examples drawn from throughout the country, Green Infrastructure advances smart land conservation: large scale thinking and integrated action to plan, protect and manage our natural and restored lands. From the individual parcel to the multi-state region, Green Infrastructure helps readers look at the landscape in relation to the many uses it could serve, for nature and people, and determine which use makes the most sense.

In this wide-ranging primer, leading experts in the field provide a detailed how-to for planners, designers, landscape architects, and citizen activists. 

This book is important because it discusses methods that can help to foster the coexistence of development and conservation.  It recognizes the need for development that takes place in a responsible and holistic method. 

Click here to purchase Green Infrastructure