Developers Buy Into Sustainable Building Boom

Kerry Trueman January 3, 2008 | 1:36 pm EST

Real estate developers are finding that it pays to save the planet, according to the CoStar Group, a commercial real estate news service. CoStar cites the The Year’s Top 10 Green Stories, including the news that the sustainable design rating system known as LEED certification “is now the clear-cut favorite among U.S. rating systems,” giving green building a big boost in this country.CoStar also singles out Wal-Mart for promising to reduce energy use by one-third in its stores by 2010 “via solar power programs, green roofs and an energy-efficient store prototype launched this year.” Wal-Mart may be the devil, but, hey, I guess even Satan can only take so much heat. If the big box behemoth wants to board the sustainability bandwagon, shouldn’t we scoot over and let them take a seat?