Once identified, tax breaks and utility rebates offer apartment operators decent incentives to engage in energy-efficiency projects.
Adelaide Grady can point to one of the best green investments multifamily money can buy: For $6.35 at any big box retailer, you can get a tube of acrylic latex caulk and a caulk gun that can immediately begin saving the typical apartment community thousands of dollars in energy expenses. “A huge source of energy loss in a building is in air leakage: Drafts can be up to 30 percent of your total consumption at any given time,” says Grady, vice president of development and overseer of the “Green Team" sustainability unit at Atlanta-based Wood Partners. “If you can fill the gaps and holes in the sheathing as part of building or retrofitting much tighter than what typical construction practice calls for, you can quickly recoup significant savings for a very low-cost effort."
Read the full article at http://www.housingfinance.com/aft/articles/2011/may-june/0511-pipeline-Expending-Energy.htm
Author: Chris Wood | Publication: Apartment Finance Today | May/June 2011