Going Green

Welcome to our Property Management blog, an insider diary of property management where we look for interesting issues in the apartment, commercial and retail property world.

A while ago, I was watching an interesting program on cable TV where the subject was a “green building” in Atlanta. It was fascinating to see how many small design changes created huge savings in energy. Most of the design changes were not radical at all. Most were simply tweaks of what is done already. The result of green structures in a place like Atlanta could be very beneficial. The Atlanta Metro area is such a hot spot for real estate development that the increase in temperature caused by all the glass, stone, steel and concrete causes thunderstorms to the east and south of the city. Wow.

I was just looking through Business 2.0 and saw an article on how much money people might make replacing oil as our main energy source. Can you imagine how much energy you could produce if you had all your building coated in and roofed with material that made electricity from the sun? This is present day technology. Another year or two and the price will come down as production and design of these materials become more efficient as they become property management trends. You owe it to yourself to do some research on the topic and start plugging these technologies into future projects. The pay back is long term in most cases. But the payback will shorten as the technology becomes more available.

Let me know what green design elements you are already using. I’d be interested in sharing that with readers.