NAA Green Blog Topics 

San Antonio is creating a perception change for how residents view zero waste. The change started with how businesses create products, how people use them, and how solid waste is managed. The City’s underlying goal has been that all discarded materials be reused or recycled back into nature or into the production cycle, reaching a 60% recycling rate by 2020.

Property owners and managers should be proactive with their maintenance plan. Its primary purpose is to prevent minor repairs from growing into expensive major repairs, so developing a plan is important. Preventive maintenance can range from cleaning the coils of your air conditioner to sealing parking lot cracks.

That dusty box in your closet or garage is filled with your most prized possessions, not to mention colonies of spiders and pincher bugs. You promise yourself that you will wear Aunt Mildred’s pink knitted Christmas sweater and you will master playing that banjo you bought five years ago at the flea market.

When your batteries, compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs), or computer equipment stop working, do you toss them in the garbage? Your first inclination might be to throw items like this away, but doing so has some serious consequences.

I sobbed hysterically when my parents dropped me off at college freshman year, so much so that my contact lenses were covered with bits of errant tissue fibers. This sentiment apparently was not felt universally on campus, as literal hoots and hollers could be heard from nearly every other one of my classmates who finally felt free.

Many companies would like to be more environmentally responsible, but lack the motivation, time, or expertise to implement changes on their own. Whether you work in a large organization with thousands of employees or in a two-person office, you can persuade your managers to “buy in” to a green program with the right positioning.

At the age of six or seven, I watched the movie “The Electric Grandmother.” It was a film that would shake me to my core. The 1982 horror movie masquerading as a “touching” made-for-TV special is about a family of children who learn to cope with the death of their mother in the most heartwarming and logical of ways: they go to a factory and order an electric (read: android freak) grandmother to serve as a new mother figure.

Ask your typical apartment maintenance person what a CFL is and they’ll tell you, why of course it’s the Canadian Football League, where undersized football stars go to finish their careers! While that is true, in the ever more green, sustainable, eco-friendly, low carbon footprint, renewable and recyclable world of business these days, a CFL is actually a compact fluorescent lightbulb.

In the words of music mogul P. Diddy, it’s all about the Benjamins. For those of you who are behind on your slang, the rapper was referring to the importance of earning those $100 bills. The song was released in 1996, but the message is timeless. And whether it’s the rap world or the multifamily housing industry, money makes the world go round. But does that mean sacrificing your social responsibility along the way? Not if you’re Ginkgo Residential.

U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan today announced this week that nearly 200 apartment units in New York City will become more energy efficient as the result of $3.6 million in funding being awarded to Jonathan Rose Companies, a New York-based property owner and developer. It is the first award to be announced under HUD's new Green Retrofit Program for Multifamily Housing, created through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

On Monday the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) took steps to issue regulations on greenhouse gases. This would enable the administration to limit emissions across the economy even if Congress does not pass so called “cap and trade” legislation.

I had the opportunity to attend the Apartment and Office Building Association of Metropolitan Washington (AOBA)’s 2009 Green Conference this week, and the event reinforced a belief I’ve held for quite a while. The buzz and fashionable allure of “Green” is fading. But what remains are pragmatic solutions to environmental problems that can benefit any company’s bottom line—including those in the apartment industry.

The California Green Building Code officially went into effect at the beginning of this month. Though now in effect, the CalGreen Code does not become mandatory until 2010, giving developers a one year transition period to ensure compliance. Does this represent the future for Building Codes across the country?

Just because your buildings aren’t built green doesn’t mean you can’t go green. I stumbled across a resource recently that could be utilized by almost any community across the country to promote green initiatives - www.localharvest.org provides a zip code search to find nearby farmers’ markets, family farms and others sources of sustainably grown food where your residents can buy produce, grass-fed meats, honey products and many other goodies, including gift baskets.

In its April 29, 2009 Washington Update the National Multi Housing Council provided a brief summary of recently proposed New York City legislation that would address building energy consumption. As NYC is often looked to by other localities as a model when creating their own legislation on a particular issue I wanted to reproduce NMHC’s brief here just in case anyone missed it in the Washington Update. Any questions regarding this legislation can be direct either to myself or NMHC directly.

More than ever, over the next two years, apartment companies need to focus on what they can control. Winning and retaining the right residents will make the difference...The final frontier of online leasing is signing the lease contract and move-in forms.

Does your community website say “Apply now!” but then link unhelpfully to a static form to be downloaded, filled out and faxed? If so, you’re not alone, but you’re also lying to your customer. Worse, you’re missing out on the majority of renters who prefer to do business online.

When the apartment business thinks of going green, it often means recycling programs, sustainable construction or eco-friendly gimmicks. Green leasing however, is the simplest shift you can make, and it offers two benefits that having nothing to do with saving the environment… winning residents and saving money. Tip #1: Find new residents on the cheap.

On April 1 I spoke at the Apartment Finance Today Conference regarding the future of green in the multifamily housing industry. At this roundtable panel session the question of what potential legal issues owners/managers may face due to green practices peaked attendees interest so I will address it here today. Green real estate methods are still fairly new in the U.S.; therefore little formal legal analysis exists regarding the subject. Nonetheless, a handful of civil suits have been filed in a few states, and most attorneys expect to see more in the coming years. With this in mind, below are a few (but certainly not all) of the legal issues multifamily developers and managers may want to consider when “going green.” In the future I will post more entries on other areas of this topic.

Sustainability and ‘Going Green’ have become a focal issue within our social, business and government entities over the past couple years. The heightened awareness and recognition of environmental concerns and the need for systemic global change buzzes across every form of media these days. Not to downplay the importance of systemic global awareness and change as it relates to improving the way we treat our planet, but this blog will focus on the real, tangible ways that companies in the multifamily housing industry can identify and address opportunities to improve the management and maintenance of their properties.

It's no secret the number of “green” regulation is exploding across the nation. In fact, experts predict that the number of localities with green mandates will at least double within the next four years. Many green regulations focus on new construction, for example requiring new buildings to meet Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification; however, there is one green regulatory initiative that will certainly affect the finances of all multifamily properties, both new and established...Cap and Trade.