| IN THE
April 6,
2009 ISSUE |
Firms Share Successes in Greening Office Portfolios
While government works at a fevered pitch to generate
sustainability regulations and incentives for office buildings across
the country, the private sector is busy sharing the cost of research
that will ultimately yield best practices for the greening of office
building portfolios.
The research is being compiled by Cambridge, Mass.-based Sustainability
Roundtable Inc. (SRI), a private research firm whose goal is to
accelerate the adoption of best practices for more sustainable
buildings. Founded on Earth Day, April 22, 2008, SRI’s inaugural
research, which is being launched this year, will focus on practices
that demonstrate100% return on investment.
Empire State Building To Receive $20 Million
Retrofit
Commercial real estate services firm Jones Lang LaSalle
today announced a $20 million energy retrofit program that will reduce
the Empire State Building’s annual energy consumption and greenhouse
gas emissions by as much as 38%. The investment will trim energy costs
by $4.4 million a year, with a payback of less than five years.
The project is being completed in partnership with the Clinton Climate
Exchange, the Rocky Mountain Institute, Johnson Controls Inc. and The
Empire State Building Co. under the direction of Anthony E. Malkin,
president of Wien and Malkin LLC, which oversees the Empire State
Building. Chicago-based Jones Lang LaSalle will serve as program manager
for the project, which will become a pilot for sustainability programs
in other existing buildings around the world.
The Dean of Green
By
Carlo Wolff, a special to NREI from Lodging Hospitality
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Brian Scheinblum’s drive to turn a weary hotel belle in
South Beach into a laboratory for the latest in environmentally
sensitive operations has been lonely, but it seems he’s no longer a
voice in the wilderness. While change comes slowly in this trendy
section of Miami Beach, being in the forefront of the green hotel
movement may well pay off. In a city that puts a premium on appearance,
the Hotel Clifton renovation goes far beyond facelift.
Scheinblum is the soft-spoken head of Cambean Hospitality, a collection
of four South Beach hotels that total 205 rooms and share management and
operational practices. He hopes the Clifton, the imminent star of the
bunch and the only Cambean Earth property, kicks distinctively green
butt starting mid-April, when the 35-room, 61-year-old Collins Avenue
hotel reopens, potentially becoming the first Leadership in Energy and
Environmental Design-certified hotel in Florida and the first
LEED-certified historic hotel in the country.
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