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From the San Francisco Business Times
More Green for Green?
Gruendl said there's mounting evidence that home buyers will pay more for green homes.
"We want to be part of the green community, but people typically haven't paid for that," he said. "Now they are."
Others are still skeptical that green fervor will translate into a willingness to pay higher home prices.
"I don't think it can quite be proven yet, at least on the premium
side, whether someone would actually pay more for a green or
sustainable building or house versus one that isn't," said Matt
Anderson, a partner at Foresight Analytics in Oakland, which studies
the green building industry. "On the cost-savings side, I think there
obviously is something to that."
There are measurable savings due to energy efficiency and operating
costs that can cut the financial outlay for constructing green
buildings and developments. As more people understand those savings,
that will drive growth in LEED certification, Anderson said.
Neighborhood Development LEED certification is a natural next step
for the LEED program, said Dan Geiger, the Bay Area executive director
for the U.S. Green Building Council, which developed LEED certification
process.
"LEED began as a certification for buildings. But what we were
really focused on is how do we build a green community: Not just a
building in isolation, but how do we design and build and develop
neighborhoods that are sustainable?" Geiger said.
Get on the Bus
One way is to place those neighborhoods near public transportation.
That was a factor BayRock considered when developing Oak Walk. It's off
of San Pablo Avenue and where AC Transit's bus routes have 13,000 riders a day along the corridor between Contra Costa College
in San Pablo and Jack London Square in Oakland. Increasing both
ridership and reliability of that bus system has been a major focus at
AC Transit.
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