R.E.preneur

From Jetson Green: Greenbuilding Financially Crushes non-green building

Jetson Green founder Preston Koerner shed some much needed light on a new study out by the CoStar group indicating that green buildings financially outperform non-green buildings, and it wasn't even close. 

From his write-up (and the study):    

Compared to non-LEED buildings:

• LEED buildings sell for $171 more psf!!
• LEED buildings command rent premiums of $11.24 psf!!
• LEED buildings have 3.8% higher occupancy rates!!

Compared to non-Energy Star buildings:

• Energy Star buildings sell for $61 more psf.
• Energy Star buildings command rent premiums of $2.38 psf.
• Energy Star buildings have 3.6% higher occupancy rates.

Above is a picture of Portland's Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) Building, certified LEED Platinum.

This is great news for the greenbuilding movement.   With this type of momentum, there will be few corporations and governments who will not invest a few percentage points on the front in order to make big gains on the back end. 

Does your company/developer/church/municipality have a building project in planning?  Will it be designed to be green from the start?  If not, why?  Ignorance?  Or are there major arguments against green building that we are missing?

LEED will evolve, and the standard will rise.  It will take more than just green building to fight carbon intensity and water resource depletion. But great strides are surely being made today. 

Aquaduct: Transporting + Filtering Water for the BoP

I love people who try to solve the world's challenges instead of just reflecting on how to avoid personally falling into their own problems. 

Check out this short, informational video from the creators of the Aquaduct. 

So what will you do to solve the problems of the world?  What will your legacy be?

Renewabuilt Energy Shines At University of Arizona's Innovation Day

My team in the McGuire Entrepreneurship program participated in the University of Arizona's Innovation Day on Tuesday.  During the trade show portion of the day 19 venture teams presented their companies to angel investors who came from across the southwestern US, met with members of the Tucson community to promote our businesses, and many were interviewed by local and regional media about the event. 

At the end of the show, the angel investors picked six of the 19 teams to make full venture presentations that afternoon.  Our Renewabuilt team was thrilled to be picked as one of the six teams.  We did not "win" our room of three presentations, but we did get some great feedback from the angels on how to improve our pitch and find funding for our company to launch. 

Here's some press coverage including a link to a short video about the event.

Rebecca Batterman and Kyle Cherrick, both with Renewabuilt Energy, talk with John Hughes from the University of Arizona's Nanotechnology program at UA's Innovation Showcase Tuesday.

UA student innovators meet investors

Camera phone lens, rural solar fields among 6 ideas to get chance at financing

ALAN FISCHER

Published: 03.26.2008

 

Student exhibitors at Tuesday's University of Arizona Innovation Showcase hoped to pitch their business plans to angels - the financial type, not the heavenly host.

Angels - investors who seek startup ventures to fund - from Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada and California attended, scouring the aisles to find the next great breakout business ideas.

The student entrepreneurs were eager to connect with them for advice, guidance and - hopefully - funding.

The group selected six UA teams to present their plans in greater detail following the showcase.

"There were two or three investable companies in there today," said John Chavez, president of New Mexico Angels in Albuquerque.

But no checks would be written Tuesday, he said, since due diligence to validate the companies, people, technology and intellectual property would take from six weeks to three months.

The student entrepreneurs were on their toes.

"We have to assume that everyone is a prime customer," said Kerissa Kelly-Slatten, marketing manager for Cookie Fusion, a company that bakes in four to six minutes custom cookies from a wide variety of ingredients.

"We have to persuade them, convince them, that we have a strong plan and a strong team to open the business," she said. Her team is seeking $750,000 to open its first store.

The six companies selected to give formal presentations were: Cookie Fusion; LenSense, which offers flat liquid crystal diffractive lenses for zoom optics in camera phones; FireGuard Industries which offers an aerator that fits between a fire hose and nozzle that allows firefighters to put out fires 40 percent faster with 50 percent less water; uBike, an automated bicycle rental kiosk for short-term commutes; Renewabuilt Energy, which plans to build solar fields to meet the needs of rural communities; and SystemGreen, which recycles shipping containers into affordable, stylish and environmentally friendly housing.

Emre Toker of Tucson's Desert Angels said he was impressed with the entrepreneurship and thoroughness displayed by the students.

"Some of them piqued my interest to look at them in more detail," Toker said.

The Abuse of Optimism & Hope: ZAP

A few weeks ago, my brother Kevin blogged about business card cartoons that depicted his closest friends and family.  This was mine:

At first I thought "that's really great, I want to sell things that people can believe in, and the market for these is infinite, so I am going to do quite well".  More on this later.

If you've read the REpreneur blog at all, you've no doubt read that I'm a big fan of electric vehicles and plug-in electric vehicles. 

So how could I not love the cars "soon to go into production concepts" from EV manufacturer ZAP!

It has happened before, and it will probably happen again.  I've been duped!

Sometimes my youthful optimism blinds me from doing as much due diligence as I should.  I read through their website and loved the concepts, the promises, and the hope of electric vehicles. 

Unfortunately, I was being duped, and I wasn't the first.  WIRED magazine released an in-depth article chronicling the FULL history behind Steve Schneider and Gary Starr who had been collectively running the company into the ground and ruining the lives of anyone they could convince to invest and/or open dealerships or join the company since the middle of 1994.

Everyone loves green vehicles.  We hate filling up at the pump, we hate knowing we are dependent on oil from the middle east, Venezuela, and the dirty tar sands of Canada. 

So its sad to read all the stories of people who have put their faith and fortunes in the promises made by ZAP executives. 

I applaud WIRED magazine for their thorough investigative reporting.  I would recommend anyone thinking about doing any business with ZAP to please read the WIRED article first.  I personally would not touch that company with a 10 foot extension cord.

On a brighter note, the EV industry is not all bad and I still believe in the long term prospects of companies who have worked hard to execute on their promises such as Tesla, Aptera, and Project Better Place. 

As for my brother's business card cartoon about me.  Teamed with this article, it is a strong reminder that it takes a lifetime to build a good reputation, and only a few poor decisions to ruin it.  That if you make promises, you better be able to execute.  Excuses don't matter, execution is king.

Cartoon Photo Credit: www.ecadamy.streetcards.com

Hype Machine Photo Credit: Jason Lee and WIRED Magazine

Think Green Live Green Update

Its Spring Break for myself and my fellow Arizona Wildcats.

Fortunately, Apple shipped me my Macbook faster than their specified 7-10 days.  Good news.

But my hard drive is wiped. Music, Documents, Pictures.  Surprisingly, I really don't care. 

Anyways, update on the documentary.  I've completed quite a few interviews, about 2.5 hours worth.  But since I'm not a professional documentary maker, I have very little idea of when filming is going to be "done".  I feel like I have good interviews, but I feel like there are lots of other people I'd love to interview.

I feel like themes are emerging, but I feel like different things could be discussed.  I have no concept for how this will all come together.  I love watching documentaries.  When I watch them, I notice how well they flow, how they spend time on different subjects with audio and visual clips spliced in from different interviewees and mixed with pictures/film of the topic. 

I'm not sure how I will do this, but I would like the film to be interesting, we'll see how that goes. 

So the update is: I've done quite a bit of filming, I may do more.  I'm still to busy to expend proper effort on the project, but I've met a lot of great people in the process, had some fun discussions.  Ineed some direction and some editing ability.  This should get interesting.  Not to mention lots of mid-terms approaching. 

But for the wait, here's a treat.  I interviewed Chuck Albanese, the dean of the College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture.  They just built a brand new building that meets LEED standards, they are working to get it certified. 

As a preview to the film, here are some great pictures of the building.  Download CalaRoof_preliminary3.pdf