Mashable released their annual list of new Green Living Sites this week. GreenRenter made the list under Search Engines, Directories and Guides. Other topics include carbon calculators, charitable giving, dating, and local information. I met the founder of Rate it Green at the West Coast Green conference last week. I was happy to see this great resource on the list. Rate it Green has some spunk and a lot of detail. Keep your eyes on them! 

View the complete list

GlobeSt.com, a real estate investment website, contacted us last week for an interview. It was a great chance to discuss how the company got started and where we are heading.

GreenRenter wants to make it easier for owners of green buildings to find potential tenants. Launched earlier this year, the site lists commercial and residential properties in Portland, OR, the hometown of the site's three founders--Pam Neild, Lev Tsypin and Marti Frank. "We're working out the kinks, refining the site and improving functionality. Once we've got our concept down, we'll expand to other US cities," Neild says. In the first of a two-part article, GlobeSt.com asked Neild to explain the origins of the site.

Read the complete interview.

I'm so proud to live in Portland. As this article aptly states, about the only thing keeping half the country away from Portland is our ridiculous 40 inches of rainfall a year. Today, SustainLane announced its US City Rankings for 2008. You guessed it, Portland is numero uno!

The Oregonian reports on the law which requires that recycling be provided to all multifamily residents. GreenRenter is mentioned as a resource.

Great news!  

The Oregon State Plumbing Board last Friday passed new
standards that will allow homeowners to install systems that reuse wastewater
for flushing toilets. The board also created a statewide standard for rainwater
harvesting in residential and commercial buildings.

The new ruling for alternate methods will make it easier
for building owners to save water and will ultimately help the state meet its
goals for energy savings and water conservation through new green building
standards, said Mark Long, administrator of the state Building Codes Division,
which oversees the Plumbing Board.

The following from http://www.buildinggreen.com demonstrates the value of going green.

"Buildings that carry LEED or Energy Star certifications have higher occupancy rates and lease for more dollars per square foot than their peers, according to the CoStar Group, a company that provides information services to the commercial real estate industry. CoStar tapped into its database covering billions of square feet of commercial buildings for a study released in March 2008. CoStar’s summation of the study, which noted consistently better financial metrics for green buildings, argues that, “Non-green buildings are going to become obsolete. As described, however, the study shows a correlation between higher value and green labels, but it lacks evidence that LEED and Energy Star are the cause of that increased value. These results could just be reflecting the tendency for higher-value properties to pursue certification. Either way, however, it shows that the commercial real estate market associates green performance with value."

Two
recently released studies validate that third party certified buildings, like LEED, outperform their conventional
counterparts across a wide variety of metrics, including energy savings,
occupancy rates, sale price and rental rates.

According to the CoStar study, LEED
buildings command rent premiums of $11.24 per square foot over their non-LEED
peers and have 3.8 percent higher occupancy. Rental rates in ENERGY STAR
buildings represent a $2.38 per square foot premium over comparable non- ENERGY
STAR buildings and have 3.6 percent higher occupancy.

Find the studies at http://www.usgbc.org/DisplayPage.aspx?CMSPageID=77#usgbc_publications.

And, http://www.costar.com/News/Article.aspx?id=D968F1E0DCF73712B03A099E0E99C679.

We are being picked up by bloggers around the country, but SeeingGreen is local. It's a nice write up and a great blog.

In April the American Institute of Architects announced their "Top Ten Green Projects" for the year. A multifamily condominium project in Boston is one of the winners proving green building in the multifamily sector is achievable.  Macallen Building Condominiums

What stands out for me is a local project that steals it's thunder. Mississippi Avenue Lofts is state of art using 40% (or more) less water and energy than a conventional project of it's size. It's already a LEED Gold standard and the developers are diligently working toward Platinum. There are more innovative green features on this site than I could list here -- really, it's amazing.  You can't visit the lofts yet, but the website is designed with extreme transparency in the building process. It's an excellent learning tool for anyone interested in cutting edge green technologies in the mixed-use sector.  www.mississippiavenuelofts.com

Sustainable development is about more than just supporting the triple bottom line. It's about transparency, collaboration and shared knowledge. It's about moving us all forward while still making a profit for ourselves, our families and our coworkers. The developers of this project really sustainability. They are just one of the many reasons why I'm so proud to live and work in Portland.  

This event is the West Coast's version of Green Build, but it's local and more stringent in criteria for exhibitors.

If you visit the exhibitors page, there are many local and regional businesses worth learning about.

www.westcoastgreen.com