A New San Diego Homebuilder Takes a Chance and Sets a New Standard

In 2001, SheaHomes, a new national homebuilding company, built 306 homes called the Scripps Highlands development in northern San Diego. Not just another neighborhood of McMansions, Scripps Highlands marks the first time in the U.S. that a builder has set out to design and construct a development of highly energy efficient homes, also known as “high performance homes” (HPHs). Now, almost seven years later, the development has proven to be a success both financially and environmentally.

Set on the lots to maximize the position of the sun, the homes include solar technology to generate electricity as well as an energy-saving package with features such as tightly sealed-ducts, solar radiant barriers, and special heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning systems. The result: a whopping 30­–60% savings in energy costs.

In addition, the Scripps Highland development is also the first in the country to use “net metering,” an electricity policy in which homeowners receive retail credit for at least a portion of the electricity their systems generate. Watching your energy meter spin backward is not only exciting from an environmental standpoint, it puts money in your pocket.

What's perhaps most surprising about the SheaHomes venture is that according to a study by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL):

the Scripps Highland homes were profitable for the builders while still being competitively priced with the traditional homes in the area ($602,000 for a Scripps home; $615,000 for a conventional home)

the Scripps Highland homes have appreciated at a higher rate than the comparable conventional homes in the area (55% versus 44% from 2001 to 2005)

homebuyer satisfaction is higher for the Scripps Highland homes than for the comparable conventionally built homes

So, the builders are making a profit, people are buying and loving the homes, which are in turn appreciating nicely, and the environment is benefiting—sounds like SheaHomes has launched a trendsetting idea.

To learn more, read "A New Paradigm for Zero-Energy Homes: A Comparison Case Study" by Barbara Farhar and Timothy Coburn (Environment, Jan/Feb 2008).

When A Pig Gives Us the Finger, We Pay Attention

From the Yikes This Could Change Our Perception About Everything department comes an article from science writer Michael Rosenwald: "A Doctor, a Pig, and a Magical Pixie Dust That Could Regrow Fingers" (Esquire, September 18, 2007). If the report wasn't from a reputable writer, printed in a reputable source, we'd dismiss this as tabloid nonsense. Regrow a finger. Yeah, sure. But read the article and see for yourself. The before and after pictures on page 2 are vivid, to say the least.

We'll be keeping our nose to this story. If any of you run across any follow-up to this one, we'd love to hear from you! Email us at sueandpam@andnowforthegoodnews.com.

In Search of the Emerald (Green) City

In 1900, 10% of the world’s population lived in cities. In 2007, that number was up to 50%. By 2050, experts predict the number will be as high as 75%. There's a benefit to this migration, says Richard Burdett, director of the Urban Age program, organized by the London School of Economics and Deutsche Bank’s Alfred Herrhausen Society. While suburban areas demand larger, less-efficient electrical grids and extended public transportation systems, this is not the case with cities.

“The prospect of such an enormous urban boom in just a few generations offers a critical opportunity: to create cities that will improve, not diminish, the standards of living for millions of new city dwellers,” says Burdett (Foreign Policy, “Beyond City Limits,” Jan/Feb 2008).

The really good news is that many cities across the globe already are working toward sustainability. In fact, it seems that cities in over half a dozen countries are competing to become the first “eco-city.” Two cities, in fact, are being built from scratch. AbuDhabi, for example, has begun construction on Masdar, a 2.5-square mile city that will ban automobiles and rely on a solar-powered driverless taxi system for public transportation. In China, Dontang Eco-City, designed to house 500,000 people, is being built on an island near Shanghai. Sixty percent of the land will be designated green spaces and farmland for local food, most energy will be renewable (sun, wind, and biomass fuels), and the city’s design is planned around pedestrian villages, bicycles, and fuel-cell public transportation.

Other established cities are implementing changes that will alter energy use and lower emissions dramatically, including the use of solar, wind, and even tidal power. “Cities have to be competitive,” says William Cobbett, manager of Cities Alliance an ICLEI, a UN Enviromentment Program. Not only is the environment becoming a major factor in more and more people’s choices of where to live (94% of professionals surveyed in Hong Kong, for example, ranked the environment as the top factor in selecting a place to live), it’s also a major factor when cities look for investment money. Cities, says Cobbett, “operate in a global marketplace, competing with other cities and urban settlements around the world for investment. A city cannot compete, however, if it cannot offer investors security, infrastructure, and efficiency. Hardly any city can offer these elements without incorporating environmental issues into its planning and management strategies” (United Nations Environment Program, “Cities Play the Green Card To Achieve Success,” December 11, 2007).

Many think economic considerations will be the ruin of the environment. The reality is, economic considerations may end up being the very thing that helps heal and sustain this beautiful Earth.

To learn more, read the UN’s “Liveable Cities: The Benefits of Urban Environmental Planning” report. It provides 12 case studies of cities around the world that are making important environment-based changes. We can, of course, learn from their example.

"A Major New Study Concludes . . ."

Isn’t it satisfying when we hear “a major new study concludes” something that we already know. Take love for instance. If you’ve read, watched, or heard, any news this week, you’re probably aware of this breaking news: “Nothing keeps the heart healthy like the feeling of being in love, says a Vanderbilt Heart and Vascular Institute cardiologist.”

Yes, it’s Valentine’s week and news media everywhere are pulling out their annual Love Research, this study and that telling us love is good for our heart health. Which, of course, we all know. Hold a newborn baby, meet someone who makes your heart sing, or look at that person you’ve been with for how-many-years-now and still adore, and you just know it’s good for that muscle in your chest.

Sure, Valentine’s Day, like so many of our holidays, can be cheesy and cliché, over the top and commercial. We can become jaded. But, really, is there a better thing in this world to celebrate than love?

So today, let’s be corny and cheesy and over the top, with people we know and people we don’t. Write that letter, make that call, send that donation, or just smile at the person in the grocery line behind you. Radiate love.

Studies show it’s good for your heart.

Daydreaming with Fortune Magazine

Feeling stifled in your current job? Feel you have talents that aren’t being used? Check out Fortune magazine’s “100 Best Companies To Work For” (February 4, 2008).

Times they are a changin’, so is the workplace. The innovations some companies are implementing will surprise you. Learn which companies are expanding in leaps and bounds and likely to be looking for fresh staff with leadership qualities (hint: see companies number 4 & 7 for starters). Learn which company offers valuable stock options to 99% of its employees (and is, again, #1 on the list); which company offers doggie daycare and an onsite farmers' market (surprise, it’s a techy company); and which medical employer offers an employee volunteer program called “No One Dies Alone.”

Browse and daydream, you’ll soon remember that your work can and should be a place where you contribute and grow and, yes, even have fun. Who knows, the list may even inspire you to initiate changes in yourself and the workplace you’re already in. Imagine the possibilities.

Corporations Are Hiring a New Kind of Executive

"Once top brass decide to integrate environmental goals into their company's business plan, someone has to be in charge of turning press releases into results," writes Dashka Slater in "Keep Your Eye on the Globe: The New World of Corporate Environmental Officers, (Sierra magazine January/February 2008). "Enter the new kids in the executive suite: corporate sustainability officers."

Sierra interviewed six sustainability officers in six different industries—Nike, Dupont, Dell, Herman Miller, Kraft Foods, and Goldman Sachs. Nike, for example, has switched to digital mock-ups of new designs, reducing waste, since most samples often wind up in landfills; Dell "has committed to recycling or reusing 99 percent of the waste from its manufacturing facilities by 2012 (it has already cut out 93 percent)."

What these companies, and many more, are discovering is that finding environmental solutions adds up to piles of that other kind of green. High-end furniture company Herman Miller, for example, found that reducing their waste saves them "about $50,000 per year, while income from recycling last year topped $1.8 million."

Read the full, solutions-oriented report at Sierra.