Better Than A Tax Cut | Green Energy News

November 28, 2004 – Vol.9 No.36

BETTER THAN A TAX CUT.

Imagine living without the expenses of a car. Imagine drastically lower utility bills. Together, imagine reducing your cost of living by a one, two, three hundred dollars a month, or more. That’s what living a green life could do: At least make it easier to make ends meet, at best let you retire early.

Green living may prove a better way to improve one’s economic status than a slightly larger paycheck.

The Enterprise Foundation has launched the Green Communities Initiative, a five-year program to build more than 8500 environmentally-friendly affordable homes across the U.S.

In partnership with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the American Planning Association (APA), and other leading corporate, financial and philanthropic organizations, $550 million will be made available to finance the construction of rental or for-sale homes that promote health, save energy and natural resources, and are within walking distance to jobs, schools and services or mass transit to eliminate the need for a car.

The first Green Communities project will be the 50-unit Denny Park Apartments in Seattle, Washington. The six-story building will face east-west for warm morning and late afternoon sunlight, be built of panelized wood construction, use 50-year exterior materials such as metal roofing, have non-toxic finishes, and include centralized hydronic heating, high efficiency domestic water heating as well as energy-efficient lighting.

The apartment building, which also includes commercial space, will be built at an urban infill site on a public transit route.

In a different program which will have the same effect - to improve people’s economic lives - the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) has announced the completion of the first Zero Energy Homes in the Premier Gardens subdivision in Sacramento, California.

The 50 completed homes each have 2-kilowatt solar systems, energy-efficient lighting, appliances, and windows, as well as tankless water heaters. The solar systems, provided by GE Energy Solar Systems (once AstroPower), along with the energy-efficiency enhancements, are expected to reduce energy bills by as much as 60 percent on an annualized basis.

(The U.S. Department of Energy defines Zero Energy Homes as those that are expected to realize energy savings up to 60 percent and be as nearly affordable as a conventional home of the same size.)

Visit Green Communities at http://www.enterprisefoundation.org/ , SMUD at http://www.smud.org/