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  • LEED 2009 Creeps Into New York City's Greener, Greater Buildings Plan

    LEED 2009 Creeps Into New York City’s Greener, Greater Buildings Plan

    Although the costs of auditing were raised by opponents to the plan earlier this year, mandatory energy audits are now required every ten years, though buildings certified under LEED 2009 for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance or which receive EPA’s Energy Star label are exempt. It’s this exemption that’s of particular interest to us here at GRELJ.

    Feb 11, 2010 | 2 comments | View Post

  • Case Study on Enforcement Mechanisms in Green Leases: New South Wales Police Headquarters Building

    Case Study on Enforcement Mechanisms in Green Leases: New South Wales Police Headquarters Building

    If either the landlord or tenant breaches a green provision in a lease, what specific rights and remedies – if any – does the lease provide to the parties? The New South Wales Police Headquarters Building, just outside of Sydney, Australia, features a lease that gives the tenant a rent reduction if the landlord fails to maintain a certain level of third-party green building certification.

    Feb 04, 2010 | 4 comments | View Post

  • The Antitrust Implications of Green Building Legislation (Abstract)

    The Antitrust Implications of Green Building Legislation (Abstract)

    While California’s recent adoption of a state-wide green building code once again has green building legal practitioners focused on the legal issues surrounding green building legislation, the antitrust implications of incorporating LEED or other third-party green building rating systems into state- and local-level legislation has yet to be fully explored.

    Jan 28, 2010 | 2 comments | View Post

  • Top 5 Legal Issues in Green Real Estate: 2009

    Top 5 Legal Issues in Green Real Estate: 2009

    What were the top stories in green real estate law during 2009, but why was the most important one of all – the Northland Pines decertification proceeding – largely ignored by commentators?

    Jan 05, 2010 | 0 comments | View Post

  • Giveaway: USGBC's Green Office Guide for Integrating LEED Into Your Leasing Process*

    Giveaway: USGBC’s Green Office Guide for Integrating LEED Into Your Leasing Process*

    USGBC’s Green Lease Guide does much more than just discuss the split incentive that’s a major barrier to implementing a truly green lease; it provides tenants with a form environmental impact questionnaire designed to assist them in vetting potential properties, as well as eleven pages of sample green lease provisions. The Guide is primarily written for commercial office tenants, but landlords will find its background information useful as well.

    Dec 10, 2009 | 15 comments | View Post

  • "The Green Tragedy: LEED's Lost Decade" Now in Print

    “The Green Tragedy: LEED’s Lost Decade” Now in Print

    The Green Tragedy: LEED’s Lost Decade was released while I was away last month. Author and Community Solutions executive director Pat Murphy traces the historical argument promoting minimal green building cost premiums, reviews the ongoing marketing effort behind LEED, and concludes that policy makers should demand energy efficiency standards more akin to the German Passive House rather than “cheap quick ‘green’ solutions.”

    Dec 04, 2009 | 0 comments | View Post

  • Atlanta Restauranteurs Resisting Push for Green Building Legislation

    Atlanta Restauranteurs Resisting Push for Green Building Legislation

    Recent efforts by Atlanta’s restaurant industry to resist proposed green building legislation implicate the conclusions of NIBS’ report about state- and local-level green building policy which we noted last month here at GRELJ. The Atlanta Sustainable Building Draft Ordinance would require the city’s commercial buildings and residential dwellings three stories or higher to comply with either LEED or specifications drafted by the Sustainable Atlanta committee. What’s particularly interesting about the pushback is the extent to which it reflects the conclusions in the NIBS report; for example, Keisha Carter, director of public affairs of the Georgia Restaurant Association, stated in a recent piece in Nation’s Restaurant News that “[t]here needs to be more due diligence on this before the city council can even consider passing it. There is a lot of political play going on with this thing, but we’re trying to stay on top of it and be heard. There is major concern that it will pass, but the members of the city council must come to realize it’s not in any shape to be passed just yet.” This comment reminded me of language in the NIBS report which noted that “[a]t an increasing rate, state and local governments and their code/regulatory agencies are adopting building rating / certification systems, intended as voluntary systems, to be their code or regulatory requirements, often without fully understanding their benefits, tradeoffs, and costs.”

    Nov 05, 2009 | 1 comment | View Post

  • Winnipeg Developer Requiring Commercial Tenants to Sign Green Lease

    Winnipeg Developer Requiring Commercial Tenants to Sign Green Lease

    Back in June, a Winnipeg developer unveiled 1735 Corydon Avenue, a 2-story, 12,800-square-foot office building which is the first in Canada’s Manitoba province to require all potential tenants to sign a green lease.

    Oct 21, 2009 | 0 comments | View Post