Sorry, there are no polls in the database.

Across the nation, an increasing number of municipalities face water shortages from over-development and prolonged periods of drought.

According to the Wall Street Journal, new water saving technologies and the Environmental Protection Agency’s WaterSense program are spurring a rise in “low-use” communities.

As a result, developers are now finding that incorporating water saving features such as irrigation systems and landscaping, allows them to obtain permits more easily and to attract an increasing number of environmentally conscious buyers.

Water saving strategies include certification programs for irrigation professionals and use of myriad water saving technologies including irrigation timers and synthetic grass, eco smart toilets, and water saver shower heads.

As more eco friendly technologies and products continue to infiltrate the market, we will see more of these low-use communities thriving and becoming more affordable for a larger number of homebuyers.

If it takes shortages and desperation to spur change and new ideas, so be it. Perhaps without desparation, there can be no innovation.

Straight to the source (paid subscription required):
Wall Street Journal Online

Before you can design sustainable buildings, you have to build a sustainable business through prudent financial management. Financial Management for Design Professionals: The Path to Profitability by Steve Winter, AIA and Michael Tardif, Assoc. AIA, shows you how to do just that.

Financial Management “offers guidance on everything from developing an annual budget and profit plan to calculating your firm’s overhead and break-even rate.”

This indispensable guide addresses the critical—but often overlooked—aspects of running a successful design firm. So before you get to work on sustaining the built environment, you may want to first make sure you can sustain your business practices and grow your bottom line.

Already read the book? Tell us what you thought.

The SDF green book of the week (and this editor's personal favorite) is Worldchanging: A User's Guide for the 21st Century.

What is the best book on sustainability you have read? How has it affected your work or lifestyle?

Share your thoughts and find out what others are reading.

GreenSpec is an online resource for green products. Another great source is Green Building Materials: A Guide to Product Selection and Specification

However, you the green building professional are also a great resource. What are the best green products you’ve worked with? Why?

Responses will be collected and posted to this site March 2007.

The Sustainable Design Forum has just released Environmental Sustainability: Collaboration and Marketing Best Practices in the Building Industry—free to SDF registered users. This eBook features articles by A/E/C professionals, exploring how to leverage sustainability for market advantage, communicate its many benefits, and break through in today’s competitive economy.

Environmental Sustainability represents the first in a series of eBooks addressing challenges, strategies, and best practices in green building and development.

Be sure to download this reference full of case studies, resources, tips, and tools.

Are there specific topics you would like to see developed in-depth? Does the eBook format/design work for you? We’d love to hear from you so that we may better tailor future publications to your needs.

See also Being Green Is Easy: 5 Tips for Keeping Your E-Book Online

Yet another progressive—and really cool—idea coming out of Europe… The Sustainable Dance Club is opening for business in Rotterdam, Netherlands.

Electricity is provided compliments of the club’s patrons as the dance floor converts the dancers’ movement to electrical power. Other green features include rainwater toilets, walls that change color in response to temperature changes, a rooftop garden, and more.

The architecture firm Döll, the Technical University of Delft, the Development Board of Rotterdam, and Enviu collaborated to build a club that will be appealing, profitable, but will have minimal impact on the environment. Let's dance to that!

YouTube videos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzb3VFi3Sew

BBC report: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6147410.stm

If you have a green business in need of capital or are seeking to do some eco-friendly renovations, take heart. There’s finally a bank out there willing to take a chance on you.

San Francisco’s New Resource Bank is putting its bucks into green ventures. The bank’s backers made their fortunes in the 90s tech boom and are now looking for new growth sectors, according to a Marketplace report by Sara Gardner.

New Resource has embraced sustainability wholeheartedly, boasting water-saving toilets and recycled counter tops. Bank vice chairman and founder Peter Liu “…has a passion for clean technology. He says New Resource will specialize in alternative energy, organic food, and green building loans.”

This is good news for the A/E/C industry, where clients and other stakeholders typically meet green projects with suspicion or dread. Perhaps New Resource represents a growing wave of forward thinking investors who realize that energy efficiency and productivity actually save—and make—money.

To hear the Marketplace segment or read the transcript, go to
http://marketplace.publicradio.org/shows/2007/01/12/PM200701124.html

The University of Nottingham is helping to battle climate change on the home front -- with the construction of a new experimental house on campus that will cut 'greenhouse gas' emissions by 60 percent.

This groundbreaking research project is similar to the DOE Solar Decathlon in that it pairs students with corporate sponsors to develop new technologies and applications for sustainable living.

Hopefully such labs will spur more competition among universities and corporations in a push to take these research projects to market more quickly in practical application.

Visit PhysOrg.com for details.