Obama to Propose Better, Greener Commercial Buildings

[kpete]

Source: ABC

ABC News' Sunlen Miller reports: President Obama travels to State College, Pa., today to build on his plan to “out innovate” as first proposed in his State of the Union address last week. The president will be announcing initiatives dubbed the “Better Building Initiative” to make American commercial businesses more energy-efficient in order to create jobs.

While visiting the “energy-innovation hub” at State College, which focuses research on building efficiency, the president will outline his goals: to achieve a 20 percent improvement in energy-efficiency by 2020, reduce energy bills for companies and business by about $40 billion annually, and save energy by creating new incentives and challenging the private sector to serve as a catalyst for progress.

“This is going to be a high impact proposal,” a senior administration official said. “We believe this initiative has the potential to really unlock a large amount of investment, some of which is sitting on the sidelines right now, in an area that is a win-win: it helps reduce energy costs and saves businesses money and creates jobs.”

Read more: http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2011/02/obama-to-propose-better-greener-commercial-buildings.html

[hedgehog]

1. Notime for links, but a green roof - one covered in sod and plants,

lasts longer and is cheaper to maintain than a typical commercial flat roof. Bonus: It also helps cool the building!

I think there are also designs out there to eliminate the asphalt deserts we call parking lots.

[kentauros]

3. Here's one alternative to asphalt parking lots:

Grasspave2
Grasspave2 porous pavement allows you to park, drive, walk, ride, or lounge on a beautiful grass surface. It performs the functions of asphalt or concrete pavement, but with the aesthetics of a lawn – all while enhancing the environment.

I know Reliant Stadium here in Houston has used this on some of their parking lots, but only a small percent when compared to all of it. When you consider how badly people drive in most parking lots, driving on slick grass is probably the last thing you want under their tires ;)

[SkyDaddy7]

2. Excellent!

My brother works for GSA & they have been retrofittng Federal Buildings making them "greener" & installing Green Roofs which save enormous amounts of money! Private business is starting to see the cost savings & are beginning to think this Green Stuff might not be such a bad idea after all.

Green Tech is called a useless stupid LIBERAL idea by the Right in this country...Which is just one more example of literally how ignorant they are. It seems the Right is actually proud to be stupid! They really are!

[jwirr]

4. Our reservation built a new resources management building the is

certified as totally environmentally sound. I cannot remember the name of the board that does the certifying but it is a beautiful building. Now if they would just do as much for their house it would really save energy.