Skyscrapers and historical buildings going Green

While I have often admonished greed in this blog, sometimes financial motivation can lead to Green improvements.

Many iconic American buildings, including the Empire State Building, the Sears Tower in Chicago and the Christman Building in Lansing, Mich. (an 81-year-old Elizabethan Revival office that's listed on the National Register of Historic Places) have all modified their energy consumption.

This is primarily due to the fact that "Many high-profile tenants won't even consider moving into a property without the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification, said Allan Skodowski with Transwestern management group. They may not even know what the certification means, he said, but they demand it nonetheless," according to an article in today's Yahoo! News.

The renovations include:

- The Empire State Building has "blanket[ed] its towering facade this year with thousands of insulating windows."

- Many older buildings are plugging porous walls, adding high tech water systems and using recycled material in carpets and tile.

- Making use of long-life, high-efficiency light bulbs.

- At the Christman Building, the limestone exterior was repaired and unique details like the mica light fixtures were preserved, but "the building owners spent $8.5 million to add water-efficient plumbing and increased the amount of natural light. They also capped the building with a reflective "cool" roof."

- And "Chicago's Sears Tower announced late last month that it will embark on a five-year, $350 million green renovation. The 110-story, staggered skyscraper, which turned 36 this year, will crown its rooftops with solar panels, wind turbines and up to 35,000 square feet of sunlight-absorbing gardens."

While the motivation may be to lure tenants to the dozens of empty offices in these buildings, the outcome is energy saving and relies less on municipal energy, much of which is furnished by dirty coal power plants.

Who says capitalism and environmentalism can't scratch each others' backs?