Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Friday, February 17, 2012
Green Business Expands in CT and across the Globe. Great article in The Bristol Observer today about The Green Marketing Company of Brookfield! A com
Green Business Expands in CT and across the Globe.
Great article in The Bristol Observer today about The Green Marketing Company of Brookfield!
A company that is concerned with helping other companies do well, is headed to Bristol, with its dual business model of marketing and energy efficiency. Steve Schappert is no stranger to everything “green.” He has an extensive background in energy efficiency, and knowledge of
making green profitable. Schappert has been a contractor, an energy builder, a broker, and has been recognized across the country Great article in The Bristol Observer today about The BIOS Organization, The Watercar and The Green Marketing Company!
He has been on the segment “Going Green” on NBC, has been a guest speaker around the country, and has had $1.3 billion worth of projects underway, just before the market crashed
in 2008. He had no life savings, no health insurance, and a building, The BIOS Center, that was in the middle of construction. Get the full story below
Kaitlyn Naples http://www.bristolobserver.com/02_17_12/6%20.pdf
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
The Green Marketing Company
The Green Marketing Company
We specialize in creating caring, passionate, affordable marketing campaigns that nurture your customers and help you business grow. The best news is we start working for free. Contact us today for a free consultation and $100 GOOGLE advertising just for saying hello. Thanks! http://TheGreenMarketingCompany.com
We specialize in creating caring, passionate, affordable marketing campaigns that nurture your customers and help you business grow. The best news is we start working for free. Contact us today for a free consultation and $100 GOOGLE advertising just for saying hello. Thanks! http://TheGreenMarketingCompany.com
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Now Is The Time For A New Energy Revolution
It is time for an energy revolution, and we must work together to change the world now. There is a crisis at hand that will effect the entire planet, in short order, it will endanger our very survival and the future of our children. It endangers our economy right now. We send our children overseas to protect oil reserves in foreign lands so those lands can hold us hostage for a gallon of gas. It is not right. We have the ability to become self sufficient, we must become self sufficient NOW!
It is time to take a stand, we don’t have 25 years for our automakers to catch up to China’s auto emission standards, that’s a joke! China does it today, we need to do it today. We need to start now, we need to change now, solar, wind, and hydro power are all clean and renewable and hydrogen is the most common element in the universe, we will never run out. Hydrogen powered fuel cells… great idea! Those are the answers, fossil fuel is going the way of the dinosaur and we will follow if we don’t wake up today. Nuclear… well if the plant doesn’t blow up, you still have all those barrels of waste to deal with. Burying the barrels to create another terrorist target, honestly is that really an answer we can live with? Ethanol, just another joke, either our farmlands are over taxed producing corn ethanol or we strip our topsoil everywhere by creating a market for cellulosic ethanol, either way, we loose. The biggest joke is the ethanol vehicles get roughly 27% less gas mileage than their all gas counterparts.
I challenge the world to work together to develop cold fusion without toxic waste. I challenge the world to put solar panels on every building with a sunny exposure. I challenge the world to develop safe hydrogen power systems and I challenge the governments to actually do the right thing!
I challenge everyone, everywhere to do one thing each day, spend some time alone and come up with a plan, a plan that may seem inconsequential, however when combined with everyone else, the tide will turn. Things have to turn and it won’t happen by itself, we have to make it change now!
Does anyone remember the 1984 Honda civic coupe, it got 67 miles to the gallon without a hybrid engine. It wasn’t rocket science, the cars were simply lighter. Gas is approaching five dollars a gallon and Detroit is re-launching their old line of heavy muscle cars, frankly they deserve to go bankrupt. The Prius is the flagship of the energy revolution and the Ford Escape hybrid is an SUV that gets 36 miles to the gallon. Why do we only have two, shame on us, for not screaming from the roof tops, “we want energy efficient vehicles and homes without oil tanks”!
MY QUESTION IS WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO, AND HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE FOR YOU TO GET OFF YOU’RE A$$ AND GET STARTED?
Frustrated? Worried it just doesn’t matter? It does matter and the only thing that has ever changed the world started with a small group of thoughtful committed people. People that understand that the only way you ever receive anything worth having, is by giving of yourself first. Don’t stand there holding your hand out, lend a hand, believe in yourself, believe in the cause, believe you can make a difference and tell one other person.
There really are only two valid choices left, step up and be the change you want to see, or just get out of the way. Standing still with business as usual is no longer an option. I am stepping up as a leader in this new energy revolution, and I am looking for a few good, committed people that believe you can change the world to work with me, not for me, with me. I am not the smartest or most successful person you will ever meet, I am not an angel, I have had plenty of mistakes to learn from and quite a few near death experiences to convince me I am here for a reason. I am man enough to stand up for what I know is right. No matter how many times I get knocked down I get back up again and try harder and smarter. I won’t let pride get in the way of admitting I am wrong. So there you have it, I am human, the most important part is I am going to try, and keep trying I need the help of people much smarter than myself. I have no doubt they will appear, this week.
Sign in to the New Energy Revolution BLOG and let us know how you feel http://thenewenergyrevolution.blogspot.com/
Send this story to all of your friends.
Steve Schappert
CEO, Connecticut Real Estate and Construction LLC.
http://ConnecticutRealEstateandConstruction.com/SteveSchappert
Office: 203-546-8127
Cell: 203-994-3950
Fax: 203-413-6473
It is time for an energy revolution, and we must work together to change the world now. There is a crisis at hand that will effect the entire planet, in short order, it will endanger our very survival and the future of our children. It endangers our economy right now. We send our children overseas to protect oil reserves in foreign lands so those lands can hold us hostage for a gallon of gas. It is not right. We have the ability to become self sufficient, we must become self sufficient NOW!
It is time to take a stand, we don’t have 25 years for our automakers to catch up to China’s auto emission standards, that’s a joke! China does it today, we need to do it today. We need to start now, we need to change now, solar, wind, and hydro power are all clean and renewable and hydrogen is the most common element in the universe, we will never run out. Hydrogen powered fuel cells… great idea! Those are the answers, fossil fuel is going the way of the dinosaur and we will follow if we don’t wake up today. Nuclear… well if the plant doesn’t blow up, you still have all those barrels of waste to deal with. Burying the barrels to create another terrorist target, honestly is that really an answer we can live with? Ethanol, just another joke, either our farmlands are over taxed producing corn ethanol or we strip our topsoil everywhere by creating a market for cellulosic ethanol, either way, we loose. The biggest joke is the ethanol vehicles get roughly 27% less gas mileage than their all gas counterparts.
I challenge the world to work together to develop cold fusion without toxic waste. I challenge the world to put solar panels on every building with a sunny exposure. I challenge the world to develop safe hydrogen power systems and I challenge the governments to actually do the right thing!
I challenge everyone, everywhere to do one thing each day, spend some time alone and come up with a plan, a plan that may seem inconsequential, however when combined with everyone else, the tide will turn. Things have to turn and it won’t happen by itself, we have to make it change now!
Does anyone remember the 1984 Honda civic coupe, it got 67 miles to the gallon without a hybrid engine. It wasn’t rocket science, the cars were simply lighter. Gas is approaching five dollars a gallon and Detroit is re-launching their old line of heavy muscle cars, frankly they deserve to go bankrupt. The Prius is the flagship of the energy revolution and the Ford Escape hybrid is an SUV that gets 36 miles to the gallon. Why do we only have two, shame on us, for not screaming from the roof tops, “we want energy efficient vehicles and homes without oil tanks”!
MY QUESTION IS WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO, AND HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE FOR YOU TO GET OFF YOU’RE A$$ AND GET STARTED?
Frustrated? Worried it just doesn’t matter? It does matter and the only thing that has ever changed the world started with a small group of thoughtful committed people. People that understand that the only way you ever receive anything worth having, is by giving of yourself first. Don’t stand there holding your hand out, lend a hand, believe in yourself, believe in the cause, believe you can make a difference and tell one other person.
There really are only two valid choices left, step up and be the change you want to see, or just get out of the way. Standing still with business as usual is no longer an option. I am stepping up as a leader in this new energy revolution, and I am looking for a few good, committed people that believe you can change the world to work with me, not for me, with me. I am not the smartest or most successful person you will ever meet, I am not an angel, I have had plenty of mistakes to learn from and quite a few near death experiences to convince me I am here for a reason. I am man enough to stand up for what I know is right. No matter how many times I get knocked down I get back up again and try harder and smarter. I won’t let pride get in the way of admitting I am wrong. So there you have it, I am human, the most important part is I am going to try, and keep trying I need the help of people much smarter than myself. I have no doubt they will appear, this week.
Sign in to the New Energy Revolution BLOG and let us know how you feel http://thenewenergyrevolution.blogspot.com/
Send this story to all of your friends.
Steve Schappert
CEO, Connecticut Real Estate and Construction LLC.
http://ConnecticutRealEstateandConstruction.com/SteveSchappert
Office: 203-546-8127
Cell: 203-994-3950
Fax: 203-413-6473
BIOS Museum
The BIOS Museum
Of Health & the Environment
Museum * Environmental Art Gallery * Conference Center
“ Leading the way in the new energy revolution”
Under construction at 72 Railroad Street New Milford, CT 06776
Featuring green building technologies, alternative energy,
holistic healthcare, environmental art gallery & organic products
The first Bios Center is now under construction at 72 Railroad Street in New Milford. The BIOS Center (TheBiosCenter.com) will serve as a Mecca that has already drawn interest from around the world with a unique array of offerings that can help people live lightly on the earth while bringing peace, prosperity, and balance to our planet.
The six pillars of our center will include an environmental art gallery and museum, healthy living center, green building technology center, eco- friendly retail shop, real estate and finance center, and the BIOS service network of green contractors. BIOS, is the Greek word for life. “BIOS is more than a brand it is a philosophy”, said founder, Steve Schappert, “You can do well, by doing good.” By showing the world they don’t have to make sacrifices to do the right thing, you can change lives and change the world.” A unique combination of technology, art and literature are being brought together by artists, health practitioners and business people to assist you in creating a healthier, happier and wealthier life. Our center provides an eco-friendly atmosphere for enlightened businesses to showcase their products, services and wares. Our mission is to nourish body, mind and spirit with healthy food; enriching educational activities; green living, holistic healthcare approaches, and conscious consumerism.
The house that Goji built. If you believe in Karma than it only makes sense that the main investor in the project would be one of the largest distributors of Himalayan Goji juice, touted as the world’s most nutrient rich food on the planet. Keith Mceachern is the largest distributor for Freelife International a multi level marketing company that sells the Goji juice and other nutritional products. The solid income earned from Goji allowed Keith to qualify for the construction loan when many other investors couldn’t. When I read the back of his card said Schappert, “I knew it was a fit, Keith’s personal motto is”, “To serve each other by promoting good health, well being and the opportunity for an abundant life.”
The Bios Center will offer five levels and 15,500 square feet of mixed-use real estate, with three residential units featuring breath-taking views and no heating, cooling and electrical costs. The building will utilize green construction technologies such as panelized construction, solar panels, cellulose and icynene insulation, Windows with low E-glass, fiber cement clapboard siding, hi efficiency heat pumps with SEER ratings ranging between 20-22 it may actually be the first solar-powered building in an historic district in the country.
Connecticut Real Estate and Construction the General Contractor for the project, anticipates rapid domestic and international growth. Owner Steve Schappert created the BIOS concept 4 years ago initially as a brand of energy efficient homes and shipped his first home package to Germany in January of this year. The Bios Center will help expand that brand name around the world as a leader in the sustainable market. Schappert is now dealing with contacts in Germany, Bulgaria, Australia and Moscow.
Schappert says, “It is time to take a stand, we don’t have 25 years for our automakers to catch up to China’s auto emission standards, that’s a joke! We need to start now, we need to change now, solar, wind, and hydro power are all clean and renewable and hydrogen is the most common element in the universe, we will never run out. Those are the answers, fossil fuel is going the way of the dinosaur and we will follow if we don’t wake up today. Nuclear… well if the plant doesn’t blow up, you still have all those barrels of waste to deal with. Ethanol, just another joke, either our farmlands are over taxed producing corn ethanol or we strip our topsoil everywhere by creating a market for cellulosic ethanol, either way, we loose. The biggest joke is the ethanol vehicles get roughly 27% less gas mileage than their all gas counterparts. Does anyone remember the 1984 Honda civic coupe, it got 67 miles to the gallon without a hybrid engine. It wasn’t rocket science the cars were lighter. Gas is approaching five dollars a gallon and Detroit is re-launching their old line of heavy muscle cars, frankly they deserve to go bankrupt. My question is, what are you going to do? There really are only two valid choices left, step up and be the change you want to see, or just get out of the way. Standing still with business as usual is no longer an option. I am stepping up and I am looking for a few good, committed people that believe you can change the world to work with me. There are 6 key elements to my plan.”
The BIOS Museum
of health and the Environment
The Museum in conjunction with the sponsoring tenants will provide exhibitions, special events, festivals, educational workshops, symposiums, performances, and conferences. These events will often be organized along with neighboring businesses to create awareness for the Center and
"To translate knowledge and information into experience:
that is the function of literature and art." - Joseph Campbell
At The Bios Museum of health and the environment we will create an experience to translate information about the needs of our own personal health, and the well being of the planet, through the use of art, literature and various multi media, and technology displays. The Bios Museum will educate and inspire acceptance and understanding of the different ways in which we can live a healthier life while not taxing the resources of our planet. In addition to the Museum’s exhibit gallery learning space, the Museum will house: a Children’s Space, a Gift Store, and a school group/classroom facility. There will be a designated gallery featuring environmental art as well as displays throughout the building. The space will be filled with original works of art for sale and appreciation. Art will also be available for display and purchase online through The BIOS Center website.
Our Mission: Change the world and leave it a better place for future generations.
While this may seem like a lofty goal we firmly believe there is no better goal than to help people live better, healthier lives today while ensuring that future generations will be able to enjoy a better standard of living than we did.
THE BIOS HEALTHY LIVING CENTER
We support balanced living by serving your most basic needs in a uniquely conscious and creative way that can lead to better health and increased happiness for you, your family and your community and, ultimately, a more peaceful planet for this generation and future generations. Our center provides an eco-friendly atmosphere for enlightened businesses to showcase their products, services and wares. Our center is a lively hub for people to meet, greet, retreat; educate, and awaken. Our mission is to nourish body, mind and spirit with healthy food; enriching educational activities; green living and holistic healthcare approaches, and conscious consumerism.
THE BIOS BUILDING TECHNOLGY CENTER
The Bios Building Technology Center will showcase the latest and greatest technologies as well as ancient secrets that have been forgotten over the years that can help you create a greener, healthier life. Office suites for businesses, such as building products and services will also be available on site to assist you with your projects. BIOS invites you to live a better life by living, working and playing in a green environment. BIOS can show you cost effective methods that can achieve your objectives without breaking the bank. BiosBuildingTechnologies.com is a resource designed especially for you -- someone who cares about the environment for the sake of the planet and its future generations as well as for the immediate health and wealth of you and your family today.
We are here to educate you in designing and building the green home or office of your dreams -- a space that is environmentally friendly, affordable and cost-effective in the near and long term. From solar/wind/hydro power to fuel cell and other energy-saving construction technologies, we are committed to sharing our expertise in the latest and greatest in what green building has to offer today. We can educate you and guide you every step of the way throughout your personal green building project. We are green-building experts who are committed to creating a better world for our children by helping people, saving the environment and boosting the economy.
BIOS RETAIL
The products that you’ll find in both our store and online are carefully selected with the principles of reducing waste, reusing unwanted or discarded materials, and recycling in mind. Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. Shopping with the planet in mind can make a big difference in many ways. Collectively, we can reward environmentally responsible practices, discourage waste, help close the recycling loop and reduce the amount of toxic materials entering our bodies and ecosystems. Shop like your life depended on it. Eco friendly and organic products that you will find in our store catalogue and website include; Leisure/Athletic Clothing, Bath and Body Products, Jewelry, Teas, Coffees, Assorted Health Food, Confections, Books, Cards, Crafts, Environmental Artwork.
REAL ESTATE AND FINANCE CENTER
You can be healthier, save on energy costs, and increase your equity. The Bios Center can show you how to save some green by going green, providing the tools and experience to assist you every step of the way. Steve Schappert is bringing together a group of highly regarded and established real estate and financial services professionals, contracting and design professionals, artists, independent store owners and specialty merchants, dedicated to a greener, healthier life, collectively interacting, networking and conducting business. Sherry Creighton of Flagstar Bank and Infinity financial secured the financing for The Bios Center and will be our preferred in house lender.
BIOS SERVICE NETWORK
"We are now looking for contractors to team up to create the areas most reputable and environmentally sound contracting company providing maintenance, remodeling, new construction and material supplies, for the residential and commercial markets.", said Schappert. BIOS will bring the best companies together and promote them under the BIOS brand, to create a shared pool of knowledge, provide a more stabile working environment, group insurance, profit share and retirement programs, as well as assistance with legal, accounting, marketing and human resources. The service industry is labor intensive and it is often very difficult for small companies to provide long term stability, growth opportunities and benefits for their employees. This creates a hardship for the families of the employees, an almost impossible task for business owners to grow and lower service for customers. Companies will initially maintain their independence and be able to pick and choose from a menu of services. The most important of which will be education about energy and environmental issues that affect their business. "16 contracting companies and a staffing company have joined the network this week and I expect things to fill up quickly" said Schappert.
When asked why, Schappert says, "People ask me why I do what I do, it has been a long hard road, with three years invested in the office design and many personal sacrifices. I firmly believe in my dream, my personal goal in life mirrors my business concept, creating a better world for our children by helping people, saving the environment, and boosting the economy. I am hoping that others that believe in the same concept will step forward and help make it a reality."
Please send this to artists and people interested in the health, wellness and green building technologies
Learn more at http://TheBiosCenter.com our website will go live on Tuesday September 15th.
Contact the founder of The Bios Center,
Steve Schappert
CEO, Connecticut Real Estate and Construction LLC.
http://ConnecticutRealEstateandConstruction.com/SteveSchappert
Office: 203-546-8127
Cell: 203-994-3950
Fax: 203-413-6473
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Numbers, Homelessness, and Renewables
169, 164, 5, 10, 2, 25, 19, 30, 0.
The above series of numbers has real significance in a lot of lives, and I think they are the keys to the answers to broad questions about homelessness, the economy, and the environment. In my home state of CT, there are 169 cities, towns, and municipalities combined. 5, New Haven, New London, Waterbury, Bridgeport, and Hartford have the state mandated amount of affordable housing of 10% of all current housing stock. The other 164 have, on average, 2% affordable. There is opportunity right there. After doing a bunch of research on the internet, I found out an amazing fact: 25% of all evictions come from people who paid their rent, but couldn't pay their utility bills. The cost of energy put them on the street. What is the community cost for this problem? Other than having people living in alley ways and cardboard boxes, city streets are less safe with large amounts of homeless about. Because those cities are less safe, people with money are less likely to spend it in commercial areas of that city. Because there is less commerce, the local, and by assumption, the national economy suffers. Less jobs result. More unemployment. More unemployment results in greater homelessness, and on and on we go. So, for argument's sake, let's just address that 25% of the homeless who can't pay their energy bills, because if you had a way of curing 25% of all homelessness, you would lauded a national hero. Now, if all affordable housing were constructed in such a way that the units all had an R-value (meaning, the rate at which heating and cooling escapes from a dwelling) of at least 19, the cost of fueling these homes would decrease dramatically. If you were to build these dwellings with exterior wall integrity, and an interior wall within which you could put all your plumbing and electric, you could achieve an R-value of 30, nearly twice the energy savings. On top of that, if you were to put into place solar panels on the rooves of these housing complexes, with a fuel cell back-up and a geo-thermal HVAC system, you could well nigh get energy costs down to zero (0). Theoretically, 25% of all homelessness would disappear as a result of this renewable energy source design of affordable housing. OK, so now you, as a landlord of affordable housing and local hero for decreasing homelessness by 25%, let us say, you now have an additional 5 percent of revenues because folks don't get evicted for not paying their electric bill or because they don't have to choose between paying rent or paying for heat. Also, because tenants don't have to pay any utilities you can charge an extra 50, 100, 200 dollars per unit, and because tenants and housing authorities take these additional savings into account, thus you are making substantially more in general income. Fewer surprises, fewer disaster scenarios. More settled tenancy. Less stressed landlord. We are talking better conditions for everybody all the way around. The question before us then is what is that worth? If you look at it mathematically, it is worth a whole hell of a lot. Take a housing complex with 100 units. Say you would normally charge 600 dollars per month per unit, and utility costs per unit are 100 dollars per month per unit. Under that set of circumstances, you figure the value of a unit is approximately 100 times more than the monthly rent. So these above described units are worth 60,000 dollars a piece, and thus the entire complex is worth 6 million dollars. Not too far off from reality. So your pro forma gross income would be 720,000 per year. Take off 40% for traditional costs, insurance, heat and hot water, water and sewer, hallway electric, etc... and your net is 432,000. You have a cap rate of 7.2%. Fairly nice deal. However, let's say you invested in building this thing with solar, fuel cell, geo-thermal. Let's try to figure out what the value of those energy sources mean to you. OK, now, by conservative logic applied above, you prevent 5% on your vacancy rates. That's worth 36,000/year. Similarly, you can now charge an additional 50 dollars per unit. That's 60,000/year. You have no heat and hot water costs to speak of. You have no common area electric bill. Let us say you would save 50 dollars/ unit/month, which again is a very conservative estimate, but we will use it. That equals another 60,000. So total extra money in the landlord's pocket is 156,000 per year. If we were to extrapolate, using the above 7.2 cap rate, the additional income would embue your project with another $2,166,666.67 worth of value in your project. The issue becomes, would that utilization of renewable energy sources in building 100 units cost you over two million dollars above and beyond what you would spend on HVAC and electric systems in conventional construction. The answer is most definitely not! No way. You have units that cost you 60,000 apiece. Now they wouldn't cost you 81,666 per unit. What exactly it would cost would depend on a myriad of circumstances, but the point being made is building affordable housing with renewable energy systems seems to be the only way that makes sense. Love to hear a strong arguement against the above. I can't find one myself.
The Numbers Joke
A young comedian finally, after a series of successful stand-ups at the local nightclub, gets the invitation to join a bunch of comedians who get together every night at the local Friars Club to eat dinner and tell jokes. When he arrives at the Friars, he watches as comedians stand up in front of their compadres and start yelling out numbers, 11, 55, 1102, and such and the entire audience cracks up laughing after every single shouted number. The youngster leans over toward the comedian next to him and asks what's going on, and the elder answers, "We have been doing these dinners for so long, the jokes are such old hat, they now just call out the numbers of the jokes that we have at this point simply catalogued in our heads, and folks know what the joke is and they laugh." The youngster thinks this is great, so with a little gumption and a few strong drinks under his belt, he makes his way up to the dais, and leans into the microphone, takes a deep breath, and says, "112!" No response. He tries again. "400!" Nothing. He looks around the room and sees dozens of comedians staring at him with straight, somber faces. He takes another deep breath, and blurts, "2!" Silence. Defeated and stunned, he returns to his seat and sits down completely done in by his failure. He sits and stares dumbly for quite sometime, unable to gather his thoughts let alone say anything. Finally, the elder comedian next to him pats him on the back for consolation. With that the youngster asks, "Why didn't they laugh? I gave out numbers just like everybody else, and when they said numbers, people laughed like crazy. Why?" The elder says with a sad grimace, "It's all in the delivery, kid."
The above series of numbers has real significance in a lot of lives, and I think they are the keys to the answers to broad questions about homelessness, the economy, and the environment. In my home state of CT, there are 169 cities, towns, and municipalities combined. 5, New Haven, New London, Waterbury, Bridgeport, and Hartford have the state mandated amount of affordable housing of 10% of all current housing stock. The other 164 have, on average, 2% affordable. There is opportunity right there. After doing a bunch of research on the internet, I found out an amazing fact: 25% of all evictions come from people who paid their rent, but couldn't pay their utility bills. The cost of energy put them on the street. What is the community cost for this problem? Other than having people living in alley ways and cardboard boxes, city streets are less safe with large amounts of homeless about. Because those cities are less safe, people with money are less likely to spend it in commercial areas of that city. Because there is less commerce, the local, and by assumption, the national economy suffers. Less jobs result. More unemployment. More unemployment results in greater homelessness, and on and on we go. So, for argument's sake, let's just address that 25% of the homeless who can't pay their energy bills, because if you had a way of curing 25% of all homelessness, you would lauded a national hero. Now, if all affordable housing were constructed in such a way that the units all had an R-value (meaning, the rate at which heating and cooling escapes from a dwelling) of at least 19, the cost of fueling these homes would decrease dramatically. If you were to build these dwellings with exterior wall integrity, and an interior wall within which you could put all your plumbing and electric, you could achieve an R-value of 30, nearly twice the energy savings. On top of that, if you were to put into place solar panels on the rooves of these housing complexes, with a fuel cell back-up and a geo-thermal HVAC system, you could well nigh get energy costs down to zero (0). Theoretically, 25% of all homelessness would disappear as a result of this renewable energy source design of affordable housing. OK, so now you, as a landlord of affordable housing and local hero for decreasing homelessness by 25%, let us say, you now have an additional 5 percent of revenues because folks don't get evicted for not paying their electric bill or because they don't have to choose between paying rent or paying for heat. Also, because tenants don't have to pay any utilities you can charge an extra 50, 100, 200 dollars per unit, and because tenants and housing authorities take these additional savings into account, thus you are making substantially more in general income. Fewer surprises, fewer disaster scenarios. More settled tenancy. Less stressed landlord. We are talking better conditions for everybody all the way around. The question before us then is what is that worth? If you look at it mathematically, it is worth a whole hell of a lot. Take a housing complex with 100 units. Say you would normally charge 600 dollars per month per unit, and utility costs per unit are 100 dollars per month per unit. Under that set of circumstances, you figure the value of a unit is approximately 100 times more than the monthly rent. So these above described units are worth 60,000 dollars a piece, and thus the entire complex is worth 6 million dollars. Not too far off from reality. So your pro forma gross income would be 720,000 per year. Take off 40% for traditional costs, insurance, heat and hot water, water and sewer, hallway electric, etc... and your net is 432,000. You have a cap rate of 7.2%. Fairly nice deal. However, let's say you invested in building this thing with solar, fuel cell, geo-thermal. Let's try to figure out what the value of those energy sources mean to you. OK, now, by conservative logic applied above, you prevent 5% on your vacancy rates. That's worth 36,000/year. Similarly, you can now charge an additional 50 dollars per unit. That's 60,000/year. You have no heat and hot water costs to speak of. You have no common area electric bill. Let us say you would save 50 dollars/ unit/month, which again is a very conservative estimate, but we will use it. That equals another 60,000. So total extra money in the landlord's pocket is 156,000 per year. If we were to extrapolate, using the above 7.2 cap rate, the additional income would embue your project with another $2,166,666.67 worth of value in your project. The issue becomes, would that utilization of renewable energy sources in building 100 units cost you over two million dollars above and beyond what you would spend on HVAC and electric systems in conventional construction. The answer is most definitely not! No way. You have units that cost you 60,000 apiece. Now they wouldn't cost you 81,666 per unit. What exactly it would cost would depend on a myriad of circumstances, but the point being made is building affordable housing with renewable energy systems seems to be the only way that makes sense. Love to hear a strong arguement against the above. I can't find one myself.
The Numbers Joke
A young comedian finally, after a series of successful stand-ups at the local nightclub, gets the invitation to join a bunch of comedians who get together every night at the local Friars Club to eat dinner and tell jokes. When he arrives at the Friars, he watches as comedians stand up in front of their compadres and start yelling out numbers, 11, 55, 1102, and such and the entire audience cracks up laughing after every single shouted number. The youngster leans over toward the comedian next to him and asks what's going on, and the elder answers, "We have been doing these dinners for so long, the jokes are such old hat, they now just call out the numbers of the jokes that we have at this point simply catalogued in our heads, and folks know what the joke is and they laugh." The youngster thinks this is great, so with a little gumption and a few strong drinks under his belt, he makes his way up to the dais, and leans into the microphone, takes a deep breath, and says, "112!" No response. He tries again. "400!" Nothing. He looks around the room and sees dozens of comedians staring at him with straight, somber faces. He takes another deep breath, and blurts, "2!" Silence. Defeated and stunned, he returns to his seat and sits down completely done in by his failure. He sits and stares dumbly for quite sometime, unable to gather his thoughts let alone say anything. Finally, the elder comedian next to him pats him on the back for consolation. With that the youngster asks, "Why didn't they laugh? I gave out numbers just like everybody else, and when they said numbers, people laughed like crazy. Why?" The elder says with a sad grimace, "It's all in the delivery, kid."
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Lecture Series/ Krune Building
Last Thursday I began attending a lecture series at Yale in the School of Forrestry and Environmental Science. It was strange, returning to where I spent four years of my life over twenty-five years ago. Funny thing about it is, when I was an undergraduate, I never stepped foot in that building, or for that matter did I venture into that part of the university altogether. Science hill is the area of the university where the math, science folks went, and I was an artsy, writing guy.So we drove up to Science Hill, got out of the car and headed into the F&ES building. Harassed only one person for directions, and we entered Bowers Auditorium, where, oddly enough, it reminded me of being in a lecture hall in college. The only differences were 1) there were refreshments in the back, and 2) after grabbing a cup of coffee, I sat towards the front because I was actually interested in being there. The lecturer was Gus Speth, the Dean of the F&ES. His introducer went through the many incredible things Speth has done in his career, then ta-da, Speth stepped up to the podium, and to be totally honest about it, gave a pretty mediocre lecture. Not to say he's a bad lecturer, but the topic was pretty dull. It was about the multiple administrative difficulties he faced over the previous 5 years getting the University to capitulate to the building of the new Krune building, and on the gloriousness of the plan for the building.I learned a lot about the resistance to new ideas during the lecture even within a supposed bastion for new ideas. Speth seemingly engaged in the academic form of open warfare with the temporary provost of the University for a multi-year stretch. After finally outlasting the temp, he actually got what he wanted, which was to have the university agree to get rid of the Pierson-Sage power plant, virtually an energy dinosaur, which of course, sat adjacent to where the Krune building is to be built. Throughout the lecture there were several references to the environmentally ground-breaking nature of the building and how those element will provide leadership for the rest of the university and the community at large to move toward a "greener" future. And I sat there and thought about it for a long time, and I realized this is exactly what is wrong with universities and right with them at the same time.Let's tackle what's right first. The Krune building is a brilliant building. Brilliant design, brilliant lighting, floor plan, usage of renewable energy sources. All that good stuff. Further, it is in some respects a beacon, a lighthouse offering direction through the fog of grants and red tape and construction costs and varying reports on the virtues of different forms of fuels and energy and passive solar design and fuel cells... on and on and on. Further, in one sense it cost the university nothing. Yale told Speth, "Go ahead, but you have to raise the money," and Speth did, got costs broken down, got estimates, hired architects, designers, construction teams, and tallied it all up and then went out to find private donations. Got donations, and hence, the name "Krune." (I guess that is better than say the Southwest Airlines Arena, but not much.) Further, went after the power plant, fought the good fight, threatened "the power plant or me!" The power plant had to go. Well done.But let us talk about leadership for a moment. What does it mean to be a leader? I wonder about that because for the first time, I saw my alma mater as the ivory tower I am sure it always was, but I guess I was too self-absorbed or inebriated to know it. As I look at the design for the Krune building, I realize that it is unrealistic for anybody but a Yale, or Harvard, or University of Texas, or the Brookings Institute, or Bill Gates to consider building a building like the Krune building. The cost per square foot must be nearly a thousand dollars, whereas I am a principal in a company that aspires to create green homes for under a hundred dollars a square foot. Now, if you are playing follow the leader, yeh, the Harvard might follow the Oberlin who might follow the Brown who might follow the Sacremento Museum of Fine Art (I'm just pulling these names off the top of my head and they have no correlation to reality other than I know these places exist.) But when you are talking about global warming, what you are shooting for is the entire human population, particularly virulent polluters like the US, to change its behavior. Walking around in a library that uses solar energy is not going to make you wander home and cry out to the misses, "Hey, honey, we need to throw some solar panels on top of this sucker." But I think if someone is buiding a new house and you, as a builder say, "Hey, you know what? I can build your house pretty cheap and still do your electric system solar, cut your bills way down near nothing, and it will be just the house you want. Cost you less than Joe Blow was going to charge." Now that will get people changing. Cheaper, better, greener? I am not saying Yale is not doing a good thing by building the ultimate green building. But who is going to follow? The question is already out there: how do we face the impending global warming crisis? Al Gore got it out there, and I'm sorry to say, he went to Harvard. But the point is, Yale, we know already. Green is good. Now how do we bring everybody to the table? Making a spaceship modern building, cool and all, but 7, 8, 9 hundred dollars a square foot just is not dealing with the real world.
Last Thursday I began attending a lecture series at Yale in the School of Forrestry and Environmental Science. It was strange, returning to where I spent four years of my life over twenty-five years ago. Funny thing about it is, when I was an undergraduate, I never stepped foot in that building, or for that matter did I venture into that part of the university altogether. Science hill is the area of the university where the math, science folks went, and I was an artsy, writing guy.So we drove up to Science Hill, got out of the car and headed into the F&ES building. Harassed only one person for directions, and we entered Bowers Auditorium, where, oddly enough, it reminded me of being in a lecture hall in college. The only differences were 1) there were refreshments in the back, and 2) after grabbing a cup of coffee, I sat towards the front because I was actually interested in being there. The lecturer was Gus Speth, the Dean of the F&ES. His introducer went through the many incredible things Speth has done in his career, then ta-da, Speth stepped up to the podium, and to be totally honest about it, gave a pretty mediocre lecture. Not to say he's a bad lecturer, but the topic was pretty dull. It was about the multiple administrative difficulties he faced over the previous 5 years getting the University to capitulate to the building of the new Krune building, and on the gloriousness of the plan for the building.I learned a lot about the resistance to new ideas during the lecture even within a supposed bastion for new ideas. Speth seemingly engaged in the academic form of open warfare with the temporary provost of the University for a multi-year stretch. After finally outlasting the temp, he actually got what he wanted, which was to have the university agree to get rid of the Pierson-Sage power plant, virtually an energy dinosaur, which of course, sat adjacent to where the Krune building is to be built. Throughout the lecture there were several references to the environmentally ground-breaking nature of the building and how those element will provide leadership for the rest of the university and the community at large to move toward a "greener" future. And I sat there and thought about it for a long time, and I realized this is exactly what is wrong with universities and right with them at the same time.Let's tackle what's right first. The Krune building is a brilliant building. Brilliant design, brilliant lighting, floor plan, usage of renewable energy sources. All that good stuff. Further, it is in some respects a beacon, a lighthouse offering direction through the fog of grants and red tape and construction costs and varying reports on the virtues of different forms of fuels and energy and passive solar design and fuel cells... on and on and on. Further, in one sense it cost the university nothing. Yale told Speth, "Go ahead, but you have to raise the money," and Speth did, got costs broken down, got estimates, hired architects, designers, construction teams, and tallied it all up and then went out to find private donations. Got donations, and hence, the name "Krune." (I guess that is better than say the Southwest Airlines Arena, but not much.) Further, went after the power plant, fought the good fight, threatened "the power plant or me!" The power plant had to go. Well done.But let us talk about leadership for a moment. What does it mean to be a leader? I wonder about that because for the first time, I saw my alma mater as the ivory tower I am sure it always was, but I guess I was too self-absorbed or inebriated to know it. As I look at the design for the Krune building, I realize that it is unrealistic for anybody but a Yale, or Harvard, or University of Texas, or the Brookings Institute, or Bill Gates to consider building a building like the Krune building. The cost per square foot must be nearly a thousand dollars, whereas I am a principal in a company that aspires to create green homes for under a hundred dollars a square foot. Now, if you are playing follow the leader, yeh, the Harvard might follow the Oberlin who might follow the Brown who might follow the Sacremento Museum of Fine Art (I'm just pulling these names off the top of my head and they have no correlation to reality other than I know these places exist.) But when you are talking about global warming, what you are shooting for is the entire human population, particularly virulent polluters like the US, to change its behavior. Walking around in a library that uses solar energy is not going to make you wander home and cry out to the misses, "Hey, honey, we need to throw some solar panels on top of this sucker." But I think if someone is buiding a new house and you, as a builder say, "Hey, you know what? I can build your house pretty cheap and still do your electric system solar, cut your bills way down near nothing, and it will be just the house you want. Cost you less than Joe Blow was going to charge." Now that will get people changing. Cheaper, better, greener? I am not saying Yale is not doing a good thing by building the ultimate green building. But who is going to follow? The question is already out there: how do we face the impending global warming crisis? Al Gore got it out there, and I'm sorry to say, he went to Harvard. But the point is, Yale, we know already. Green is good. Now how do we bring everybody to the table? Making a spaceship modern building, cool and all, but 7, 8, 9 hundred dollars a square foot just is not dealing with the real world.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
