Tuesday, May 16, 2006

No excuse now for not designing Green for everyone

Ask anyone who has not done a green building and the typical answer is that it costs more. This excuse is no longer valid due to some innovative financing and availability of federal tax credits to designers for public or non profit Clients.

In the past, public and non profit institutions had no use for tax credit incentives since they do not pay taxes. Now under the new energy bill, the designer or developer can take the tax credits based on the level of energy saved on such projects. The slightly higher capital cost of 2% to 5% is now being financed over 5 years and can be paid from the energy savings during the operation phase. It is a Win - Win for everyone. The Client gets a smart, healthy and energy efficient building at the same cost as ordinary building. The deisner / developer gets the tax credits and refund on additional capital invested from the savings.
So what is an excuse now for NOT dessigning Green buildings for everyone?
Our dependence from oil can only be achieved if we practice conservation of energy in every part of our life. The time has come to seriously push for Green. It is good for the long run.
Ram Shrivastava

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