Green Cleaning

Financial Incentives to go GREEN…

Financial incentives are a highly successful means of encouraging developers to follow green building practices. And while financial incentives necessarily require a financial investment in cleaner, healthier buildings, state and local governments are finding that these investments pay dividends to the community’s Triple Bottom Line: ecology, economy, and equity.

Tax Credits and Abatements: Many municipalities already offer tax credits and abatements as a means of advancing specific policy agendas. Abatements work by exempting property owners from paying taxes for a period of time. Credits work by crediting specific tax liabilities back to owners of these properties.  And while this incentive has an up-front cost to the municipality, the increased assessed property value from an energy-efficient, greener building frequently offsets any reduction in tax revenue over time.
For examples click here.

Fee Reductions or Waivers: Some municipalities that charge fees for permit review or other permitting processes are offering reductions or waivers for developers or contractors who commit to verifiable green building practices. While this incentive comes at a marginal cost to government authorities, the benefits of a healthier and more efficient building stock pay dividends the entire community. In many cases, this incentive can be paired with a structural incentive such as expedited permitting.
For examples click here.

Grants: Grants for green building developers and homeowners are being established by state and local governments to entice construction and renovation project teams to go green in markets that may otherwise be resistant. These programs can be funded through taxes or fees, or through federal and state funds. Such grants are usually awarded to homeowners or developers to subsidize or render more profitable the design and construction of high-performance buildings. Grant programs often require homeowners and developers to submit a proposal for the grant funding, or meet specific program goals.
For examples click here.

Revolving Loan Funds: While the long-term benefits of building smart, efficient and healthy buildings are well documented, so too are the concerns over the up-front costs of a green building retrofit. Revolving loan funds allocate low interest loans from a large fund to those seeking to build or renovate to verifiable green building standards. These loans are then repaid to the fund at a rate lower than the operational cost savings from the improvements so that both the building owner and the fund, collects on cost-savings in the first month. The result is the removal of a major financial barrier to green building and a constantly-replenished fund that can continue to provide additional loans to the community.
For examples click here.

Read More

Environmental Incentives to go GREEN…

Saves Energy

• Reducing energy consumption has gone from being a “good idea” to a business necessity. It’s not just that energy conservation has a positive lifecycle cost impact, but also that it offers a direct reduction in an organization’s “carbon footprint.” A number of studies have shown that energy conservation not only also offers a positive “life-cycle-cost” investment, but that it’s the most cost-effective way to lower society’s carbon dioxide output.

Happier Employees & Occupants

• Green building owners reported an increase in occupancy by 6.4% for new construction and 2.5% for existing building projects.
• People in the U.S. spend about 90% of their time indoors. EPA studies indicate indoor levels of pollutants may be up to ten times higher than outdoor levels. LEED-certified buildings are designed to have healthier, cleaner indoor environmental quality, which means health benefits for occupants.
• Significant associations exist between low ventilation levels and higher carbon dioxide concentrations – a common symptom in facilities with sick building syndrome.
• In terms of health care costs, building retrofits which improved the indoor environment of a building resulted in reductions of: communicable respiratory diseases of 9-20%; allergies and asthma of 18-25%; and non-specific health and discomfort effects of 20-50%.
• LEED-certified buildings are also demonstrating increased recruitment and retention rates and increased productivity benefits for employers. 2.5 million employees are currently experiencing better indoor environmental quality in LEED buildings. This group of employees is expected to exceed 21 million by 2030, resulting in an economic value of $90 billion from increased productivity.
• LEED-certified buildings are found to enhance worker productivity and reduce absenteeism.
• Office workers with the best possible view, as opposed to no view, performed 10% to 25% better on tests of mental function and memory recall.