The Untapped Green Within Graying Buildings

We always say that renovation is the greenest form of construction; now we learn from Tilde Herrera of GreenerBuildings that it is a good investment, too. She writes about Seattles 80 year old Joseph Vance Building (covered in Treehugger earlier) and its green makeover by New York developer Jonathan Rose Companies, which has started a Smart Growth Investment Fund to buy existing buildings and make them green. "In terms of the building stock, only 1 percent is new construction annually, so it is critical to focus on the existing 99 percent, which are huge consumers of energy," said Nathan Taft, who manages acquisitions for the Rose Smart Growth Investment Fund.

Herrera notes that "Using the existing building inventory goes to the heart of a core sustainability argument: it is often more wasteful to tear down and replace buildings, even if the replacement is green, than it is to improve what's already there." ::Greener Buildings