Big fan, big fan. Green Earth Equities is buying foreclosed homes and greening them up. The result is increased tax base, improved indoor air quality, home ownership in areas traditionally populated with rentals, green jobs, and raising comps for entire neighborhoods. win-win-win-win.

Below was swiped from http://greenearthequities.com/

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(Reprinted from Nov, 2009)

There’s been a lot of talk about “Really Green” vs “Greenwashing.” The biggest hit has been taken by LEED with Henry Gifford’s blistering presentation in April this year. (Skip to the last paragraph for Henry’s true feelings.) Henry showed how LEED and other points-based rating programs can entice designers to specify gizmos that are currently popular at the expense of tried and true design concepts that dont garner as many points.

This results in many LEED buildings costing more to operate than the equivalent non-LEED buildings. Henry suggests that simply monitoring the energy usage (and continuing to monitor it and publish it) is the best way to move us toward energy independence.

What a great idea, Henry! That’s what we do here at GreenEarthEquities. Today I stopped by to pick up the utility bills of one of our buyers participating in our “We Pay Half” program. That’s where we pay half of the Utility Bills for a period of time, usually 2 years. It allows us to put our money where out mouth is and stand behind our claims of energy efficiency… and at the same time keeps the customer motivated toward efficiency because they are paying the other half.

Here are the first 6 months of bills, May thru October. The home is a 40 year old 1200 square foot tract home in Fresno where the summers are really hot. Perhaps even more important is that the homeowner was pregnant with her first child and kept the thermostat at 70 degrees all thru the summer.

Month Gas Electric Total

May 11.06 43.70 55.62

June 5.20 40.36 45.97

July 6.92 109.32 116.88

August 5.09 112.77 118.31

September 6.17 109.97 116.72

October 6.51 71.15 78.24

The home got no certification or plaque. No HERS rating required. No third party testing or computer modeling. The project was designed toward the main thing that counts = the bills. And the bills are about half of what the rest of the neighborhood experiences. Is the homeowner happy? Ecstatic is more like it. Sad that they didn’t get a rating or a plaque? Dont think so. So what’s to not like about that? The deliverable was delivered.