Green Real Estate Development

by Todd
(New York)

Hi Colm,

Is it worth it to build with "green" or sustainability in mind? What about paybacks?

Hi Todd,

The essential motivation driving Green Real Estate Development is environmental and not money.


So it tends to be a personal rather than a corporate issue at this stage of general real estate development.


That is not to say that there are not any trail blazing developments that incorporate Green Technology; because there are.


In my City of Brisbane about five years ago a major city center office development used technology that converted sunlight to make ice and that became the driver for the airconditioning system.


One of the problems with Green and your 'payback' question is that they are not 24/7/365 and so the losses become a major issue.


The facts are that if the human mind could devise cheap constant power it would already be invented.


I am not being defeatist here, but if you consider all the solutions being put forth right now around the world, they are all combinations of solutions.


Like Wind Power; Sea Power; Sun Power etc. All of them work, but none of them individually or in combination produce the 'Base Load' power we need in our advanced economies.


We humans are a weird lot and get a bee in our bonets about issues like nuclear power and point to one or two bad power station failures (Russia and the US) of 'early first grade technology' and/or bad management and the waste storage issue, as though we have not moved on and improved.


Advanced societies will change their attitudes when out fundamental life style has to change and change dramatically. That will take us to the point where we will change.


Hope this helps,


Colm
www.realestatedevelopmentcoach.com