Over the past couple of weeks, I have discussed how local communities will “LEED Change” in terms of energy efficient building design on the residential side and the importance of sustainable living as it relates to the “regionalization of alternative energy”. The legislation discussed last week in Charlottesville, VA was unanimously passed by the Albermarle County Planning Commission. The next step is to have the Comprehensive Plan Amendment and its recommendations approved by the Board of Supervisors on June 6, 2007.
Here is a quick summary of the recommendations made for:
Residential Building
- Encourage builders to pursue LEED, Earthcraft, EnergyStar or other comparable certifications
- Assist developers in locating and applying for EnergyStar tax credits for energy efficient projects
- Offer, facilitate, and/or support green building training for builders and provide information on programs and organization
Sustainable Living/Regionalization of Alternative Energy
- Investigate and pursue the purchase of energy credits for renewable energy.
- Continue investigating aggressive and viable strategies for green building, energy efficiency and alternative energy
Overall Investor Impact
Charlottesville is well on its way to becoming “green”. Just from the summarized details above, you can see the strategies/recommendations translating into a lot of government assistance in the form of subsidies/credits/incentives and possibly special economic zones for efficiency/sustainability.
This kind of effort will definitely need the support of both local and national investors which should be welcomed by Albermarle County with open arms. In these kinds of situations, investors have a lot of leverage in demanding investment benefits from the local and state government to deploy capital there.
Impact on Builders
Builders like Blue Ridge Home will begin to see more interest from the local community in energy efficient new-construction. This will require a higher level of expertise not just on the design side, but on the finance side of the cost of these projects (or incremental cost), careful planning will be necessary to make the switching costs very visible, and as low as possible (as compared to traditional builders or old-construction homes).
Impact on Alternative Energy
With the plethora of new green/clean technologies, start-ups all over the country are looking for their first “big win”. Cities like Charlottesville and others around the country will provide the perfect partners with which promising technologies can be tested on a grand-scale and ultimately proven as crucial to the “sustainability” of a community/town.
I suggest if you do have a promising start-up or functioning technology in the alternative energy space, you begin to form a marketing/investors plan to show that it can be integrated into a sustainable community.
An example of this would be Babson College entrepreneur Shane Eten’s Feed Resource Recovery operating out of Boston, MA. Feed has an innovative proprietary process that converts traditional food waste into usable clean/green energy. The savings Feed’s technology will provide to its customers over time creates a very healthy and much sought after ROI, creating a company that is not only green for the earth, but for your pocket as well.
Big Picture
Local government does need to spearhead change in the way we live. Charlottesville is proving that citizens are also interested and willing to make changes to become green. As the alternative/clean/green energy market becomes more saturated with new/proven/start-up technologies and companies, local governments will need to become more competitive to attract the “big winners” to their town.
In this game, the price must always be right, and Charlottesville seems to be moving in this direction.
