A Belfast, Maine home by G.O. Logic was featured in the Portland Press Herald on September 21st. The house is a model of energy-efficient design, contemporary architecture, high-performance building techniques and exacting standards (LEED and Passivhaus, to name two). Once built, it will be living proof that a self-sustaining home that cuts energy costs by 90% can be beautiful and affordable, too.

The three-bedroom, 1,500-square-foot house is expected to cost roughly $225,000, minus land. That’s on par with typical custom-built homes in Maine. And costs could drop, the builders say, if the techniques being used here are adopted in mass production. (Portland Press Herald, Sept. 21, 2009)

Visit the G.O. Logic Website.

New research supports the claim that workers are more productive in green buildings. A team from CBRE and the University of San Diego surveyed 154 buildings, either Energy Star labeled or LEED certified, containing over 2,000 tenants. The study shows a decline in sick days and also an increase in worker productivity. The cost to provide healthier environments is modest in relation to the benefits gained. Also an important finding, healthier space need not be new space.

Visit the University of San Diego website to download the full case study.

ABC News broadcast an interview on Ahead of the Curve last Friday evening with Rick Fedrizzi, President of the U.S. Green Building Council. He spoke about the LEED rating system and Hannaford’s new LEED Platinum grocery store.

Click here to watch the ABC video. (Interview will air after the advertisement…..)

CityCenter announced [yesterday] that it has received three Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®) Gold Certifications from the U.S. Green Building Council for: 1) ARIA Resort’s hotel tower; 2) ARIA Resort’s convention center and theater; 3) Vdara Hotel. ARIA and Vdara will open in December on the Las Vegas Strip and are the first of CityCenter’s developments to be LEED certified.

Visit CityCenter’s website.

Learn more about CityCenter’s green initiatives.

CityCenter anticipates Gold or Silver LEED certification for its remaining developments which include Las Vegas’ first Mandarin Oriental; Crystals, a 500,000-square-foot retail and entertainment district; Veer Towers, the community’s only strictly residential buildings; and The Harmon (opening late 2010), a 400-room luxury boutique hotel. (CityCenter, September 15, 2009)

Learn more about the Fore Group’s work on CityCenter’s remaining developments.

LEEDuser, developed by BuildingGreen with support from the USGBC, is a Web-based tool used to guide project teams through the LEED 2009 certification process. Fore Solutions is providing expert advice and helping in the creation of LEEDuser by providing overall review of credit material for LEED NC, CS, Schools, and CI rating systems. Click here to try out LEEDuser. (Find Fore Solutions under the Meet the Team section.)

Efficiency Maine is raising Business Program incentives by 25% for all applications received between September 1 and December 31, 2009. This covers all prescriptive and approved custom incentives for energy-efficient equipment. In addition to the increased incentive levels, the cap on incentives a business can receive in one year has been raised from $100,000 to $300,000 for the foreseeable future.

Builders covet LEED certification — it stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design — as a way to gain tax credits, attract tenants, charge premium rents and project an image of environmental responsibility. But the gap between design and construction, which LEED certifies, and how some buildings actually perform led the program last week to announce that it would begin collecting information about energy use from all the buildings it certifies. (NYTimes, August 31, 2009)

Read the entire New York Times article here.

The Shocking (Old) Truth About LEED (read the Jetson Green article as well)