Countless innovative sustainable building projects are in the works on the Peninsula, in San Francisco and throughout the U.S.
Future State: San Francisco Public Utilities Commission Building
Both corporations and consumers want to construct, renovate and work and live in “net zero” buildings that do not make them ill. A net-zero building has zero net energy consumption and zero carbon emissions annually.
Why should anyone care?
Regardless of darts thrown at Al Gore, Michael Moore or any other climate-concerned politician or movie-making celebrity, the risks of global warming are for real. The dangers – both current and future – are indisputable.
Having worked with dozens of organizations and individuals who invest significant dollars in building best practices and provide sustainable products and services – from architects and green builders to wind turbine and electrical product distribution companies – it is obvious that the return on investment is significant.
According to a four-year comprehensive investment study conducted by the Capital Markets Partnership (CMP), green building promotes real estate investments and can help invigorate the securities market.
Andy Karsner, former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Energy (2005-2008), spoke at WESCO’s Sustainability Summit, September 10, 2009, Doubletree Hotel, San Jose. WESCO, formed in 1922 by Westinghouse Electric Corporation, distributes and sells environmentally friendly electrical products.
Karsner spoke about the fact that there has been a change in thinking on important policies – e.g., the Energy Independence Security Act, lighting standards, building codes and the greening of federal buildings.
“Efficiency is about doing more with less,” said Karsner. “It is the same founding fathers that encouraged the U.S. to pursue happiness and the same quills that wrote ‘a penny saved is a penny earned.’ The same concept applies to kilowatt hours saved versus earned. It is all about empowering consumers and companies to profit from gains in efficiency and productivity. We will realize gains as a nation in efficiencies at the rate of the margin of profitability. The more profitable it is to be efficient, the more it will happen and it will happen faster.”
The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission recently completed a project in San Francisco’s Tenderloin. The new LED lighting offers a 50 percent return in energy savings. A maintenance planner with San Francisco PUC, Power Enterprise Division, said that similar projects are planned or underway for Belmont and Palo Alto.
Hopefully, Burlingame and other Peninsula neighborhoods are on the short list for future PUC projects.
Comments