Green at No Cost: Economic and Cost Control Strategies that Create No Cost Sustainability

Mitigate Climate Change with Economic, Cost effective, Sustainable Solutions Two thirds of our energy consumption which directly correlates to CO2, and climate change is a direct result of the built environment that the construction industry is responsible for. Vermeulen’s takes these economic design elements apart, examines them, identifies optimal pieces, and places these pieces in optimal relationships. Some of these relations and configurations are surprising; many are elegant in their simplicity, most appeal to us because we realize that success and sustainable prosperity are within our reach. These proactive economically viable sustainable solutions can reduce the effects of climate change, and increase our standard of living. 60% of Americans and 97% of scientists believe Climate change risk is one of the critical issue of our time. “Instead of being reactive to climate change, we can be proactive by mitigating the climate change risk at its source.” ~ Peter Lucking, Editor of Green at No Cost. Vermeulen’s book offers an in-depth look at practical planning and design strategies that provide substantial cost savings for city planners, developers, architects, designers, and policy makers based on quantifiable cost savings. From Mobility to Intensification, Green Taxes to Energy Conservation, and Retrofitting Suburbia, the book establishes a framework for achieving economic and environmental balance for a sustainable future. The Save-Save Relationship Climate change threatens our economy. So why are we not taking action? For decades, we have told ourselves depleting our resources was necessary in order to increase our standard of living, Impact = Population x Affluence x Technology. The main obstacle to protecting our environment and climate change initiatives has been the higher the costs of being ‘Green.’ This book demonstrates that these constraints are myths and rationalizations. The Prosperity Four: Choice, Access, Mobility, and Space When we start a building design, our clients prescribe their mission, vision, and values for their project. Once we have the guiding principles, our design teams have a metric they can engineer their solutions to, and fulfill their obligations. Time is Money is Energy Everyone accepts the business maxim that Time is Money. (Oh well, if you are an economist you have to start somewhere.) This means that if time is not leisure time, then it is measured in efficiency terms. What may be new to our thinking is that Money is Energy. The BARRIERS explores what is preventing us from achieving economic and environmental balance for a sustainable future. SAVE-SAVE IN ACTION applies the Prosperity four: choice, access, mobility and space using the equation, time = money = energy. From lower infrastructure cost to faster transportation systems that utilize 21st century technology, we can improve our daily lives. GREEN AT NO COST outlines how we can improve land use by 15%, save 60% on energy consumption in buildings whilst reducing transportation energy costs by 60%. The Parkway City introduces an interconnecting network of green spaces that conserve natural ecosystems and provide green infrastructure for transportation, recreation and the built environment. “Green at No Cost: Economic and Cost Control Strategies that Create No Cost Sustainability,” can help reduce the effects of climate change whilst increase our standard of living by over 50%, turning environmental degradation into environmental improvement. You will be surprised at how simple it is to achieve an economic and environmental balance for a sustainable future.

Richard Vermeulen is co-CEO, lead economist, and chief estimator for Vermeulens. Vermeulens works closely with construction design teams to determine the cost of initial concepts provide strategies to meet budget targets, and control costs throughout the design process. Richard has developed industry-leading standards for estimating and databasing complex construction projects throughout North America. In addition to consulting for thousands of major projects over 30 years, Richard has designed and built residential and commercial projects, from hammering nails to hound-dogging bureaucracies. He has traveled extensively, always with an awareness of how cities do and don't work. He has lived in Toronto ON, Boston MA, and currently lives in Georgian Bay ON and Santa Barbara CA with his wife and two daughters. “Green at No Cost started with walking the dog around the neighborhood. It always bothered me that the parks did not connect. Something about a continuous park made sense. It certainly made sense to my dog. Apparently, we were not alone, as the authorities have been trying to connect these parks by degree, because the demand and desirability is there. Another thing always bugged me. How do we make an efficient transportation system for both transit and automobiles? I lived in a town just outside Toronto, and as every year went by, the city got further away. Suburban growth meant that more traffic, and more congestion, intervened to the point that what was once a twenty-minute trip could easily take an hour. While zipping along a parkway from the airport to one of our many meetings in New England, I wondered, ‘What if linear parks and transportation were to get married?’ I put this question to the test and eureka, The Park City was born! Not only did the system save money at the outset, it saved over its life cycle… Save-Save. I became so inundated with Save-Save opportunities through work and research that I realized they would collectively have a major impact on our economy and a major improvement to our standard of living would emerge. There is a void in major sectors of our economy when it comes to hard numbers and I felt compelled to share this information with my office, my clients, developers, policy makers, and beyond, so by degree the Green at No Cost laboratory was born.” So here it is, and feel free to contribute. “When you see blue sky—go for it.” ~ John F. Kennedy.