Watch the CNBC One Planet Communities Film here!
Crest Nicholson BioRegional Quintain’s OneBrighton, UK and Codding Enterprises’ Sonoma Mountain Village, USA, two of our fully endorsed One Planet Communities, were featured in last week’s CNBC Responsible Business Television series.
Pooran Desai OBE, the International Director for the OPC programme and Co-founder of BioRegional gave his views in the film on how to make sustainable living easy, attractive and affordable.
Geof Syphers from Codding Enterprises, the developer of Sonoma Mountain Village, USA, also shared his experience on creating a sustainable community.
Here is another chance to see what they said about these ground breaking sustainable projects around the world.
More Videos about One Planet Communities can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/1planetcommunities.
SOMO developer named best place to work
Santa Rosa. The North Bay Business Journal has recognized Codding Enterprises, the real estate developer behind Sonoma Mountain Village, as one of the best places to work in California’s North Bay region. An excerpt: Codding has transformed into an investment holding company with interests spanning construction, green building, clean energy and mixed-use community development…
The company provides the full spectrum of employee benefits, along with telecommuting, flextime and social events. “Wine and Worms” had the employees making composting worm bins, while enjoying local wines. Another event had them volunteering to plant native grasses along Cotati Creek. Read the full article in the North Bay Business Journal.
New Urban News on SOMO: A melding of new urbanism and One Planet Communities
New Urban News, a monthly online magazine at the forefront of new urbanism, recently featured a long and interesting article about Sonoma Mountain Village.
An excerpt: Factory and office buildings that Hewlett-Packard erected in the 1980s — extremely strong, they were built to accom- modate any HP product line — will end up serving a variety of purposes, including manufacturing, offices, theater, retail and live/work units, says planner Laura Hall.
“It’s a little like a redevelopment retrofit lab,” Hall says of Sonoma Mountain Village. “They’re figuring it out here in hopes it can be replicated throughout California.” Because business and industrial parks like this are numerous and because demolishing them would waste resources and generate pollution, “the retrofit aspect is really important,” she believes. To make the entire site walkable, pedestrian connections are being cut through the large buildings, which otherwise pro- duce excessively long blocks. One building has been cut open to insert the equivalent of a paseo into its ground floor, Fisher notes. A farmers’ market will operate there in the winter.
Read the full article at New Urban News.
Sonoma Mountain Village Approved
An existing light industrial "big box" building at SOMO, with a facade newly retrofitted with Genesis SFS steel framing..
America’s first One Planet Community is well on its way to realization – Codding Enterprise’s Sonoma Mountain Village project has been approved for entitlement by the Rohnert Park City Council. Included in the plan are new fire and police stations, a broader range of housing types, greater sales-tax revenues, precedent-setting green and sustainable environmental practices and significant employment opportunities for the city.
The project is “exactly what we need in terms of stimulating economic development in this city,” Councilman Jake Mackenzie said.
Slated to begin construction on new homes in 2011-2012, the plan consists of 1,892 homes and over 825,000 square feet of retail, commercial, and hotel space. There will also be 27 acres of open space, which is distributed among 12 small parks and a village square. The plan is expected to be built in three to six phases over the next 12 to 20 years.
Over 4,000 jobs will be created in SOMO which recently was named one of six Innovation Hubs in the state of California. Some of the companies that have located at the SOMO village are AT&T, Comcast, DC Power Systems and Genesis SFS (formerly Codding Steel Frame Solutions).
Codding Enterprises, the owner/developer of the project, strictly follows One Planet Communities guidelines.
More information about the Sonoma Mountain Village can be found at http://www.sonomamountainvillage.com/.
#1 US solar distributor relocates to Sonoma Mountain Village
Synergy Solar owner Jeff Mathias, left, installs a system with panels supplied by DC Power. (credit Synergy Solar)
ROHNERT PARK. In another leasing success for One Planet developer Codding Enterprises, DC Power has moved into 30,000 square feet of office and warehouse space in the Sonoma Mountain Village in Rohnert Park, and added 55 employees in the last six months. According to vice president of marketing Chris Phipps, at least 20 more will join the staff of 140 before the end of the year. DC Power supplies solar panels and system products to most of the North Bay’s solar providers and distributes local clean-energy products to 5,000 contractor customers throughout the U.S., Canada and South America. Read full article in the North Bay Business Journal.
First LEED-CI Platinum in the North Bay area of San Francisco: Comcast’s New Operations Center at Sonoma Mountain Village
Comcast’s new zero-carbon Operations Center at Sonoma Mountain Village, managed and built by the developer, Codding Enterprises, has received the first LEED® (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Platinum certification – the top honor available from the U.S. Green Building Council – in the North Bay area of San Francisco.
The Operations Center is the first Platinum LEED certified facility for Comcast, and it is a natural fit for Sonoma Mountain Village where Codding plans to create a complete neighborhood with jobs and housing within an easy walk of daily basic needs, like groceries, daycare and restaurants.
“A significant factor in Comcast’s decision to move to Sonoma Mountain Village was Codding’s vision for the future community, as we are constantly looking for ways to improve the lives of our employees and customers,” said Paul Gibson, Area Vice President for Comcast. “The facility generates operational efficiencies, and gives Comcast’s technicians newer tools and resources to better serve customers in the same communities where our employees work and live.”
The plan for Sonoma Mountain Village is ambitious – 100 percent renewable power and ultra-efficient water use, for example – but it is already starting to pay off. Tenants receive green power for no extra cost and 41 companies have moved into the first phase.
“Rohnert Park is proud of Sonoma Mountain Village’s progress toward sustainability and applauds their LEED Platinum certification on the Comcast facility. Green jobs and green buildings go hand in hand, and we need more of both.” said Mayor Pam Stafford.
Ariel view of Comcast buildings
Comcast’s 35,000 square foot Sonoma County Operations Center is home to more than 150 employees, including maintenance technicians and field service representatives who install and repair Comcast’s advanced digital video, high-speed Internet and telephone communications services. The facility also includes warehouse space and houses technical support vehicles.
“The green building movement offers an unprecedented opportunity to respond to the most important challenges of our time, including global climate change, dependence on non-sustainable and expensive sources of energy and threats to human health,” said Rick Fedrizzi, President of the U.S. Green Building Council. “The work of innovative building projects such as Sonoma Mountain Village is a fundamental driving force in the green building movement.”
LEED is an internationally recognized green building certification system, providing third-party verification that a building was designed and built using strategies aimed at improving performance across all the metrics that matter most: energy savings, water efficiency, CO2 emissions reduction, improved indoor environmental quality, stewardship of resources and sensitivity to their impacts. The U.S. Green Building Council administers LEED and related green building training programs and events.
Comcast’s LEED Platinum facility generates no greenhouse gases at all from building energy and uses just 46% of the water for a typical new office building. Some of the sustainable design features of the property include:
- A record-setting 98% of all waste from construction was recycled
- Irrigation with reclaimed water
- Advanced lighting and controls using 35% less energy than a typical new California office
- 100% solar powered from an on-site 1 megawatt array
The 1MW onsite solar PV array being installed
- Efficient heating and cooling with a central plant using special economizers
- Climate-friendly refrigerants in the cooling system
- Advanced testing and verification of lighting and HVAC systems
- Sustainably harvested woods for doors, lockers and finishes
- Natural linoleum flooring
- Low-emission paints, glues, carpets and furniture
- Recycled content carpet with end-of-life recycling guarantee
- Advanced air filtration with 30% more fresh air than typical
- Green janitorial chemicals and practices
- Bicycle storage, showers and changing rooms
- Salvaged materials such as fencing and bathroom partitions
- Local sourcing of materials
The project team, led by Codding and Codding Construction, includes Wix Architecture, 15000 mechanical engineering, JRA electrical engineering, KEMA commissioning services and Codding Maintenance.
Contact: Geof Syphers, Chief Sustainability Officer, Codding Enterprises
geofs@codding.com
Mata de Sesimbra gains planning approval
A demonstration house at Mata de Sesimbra
Pelicano have received approval for the Mata de Sesimbra development in Portugal.
For more information about what is planned for this One Planet Community, and details of the strategies being employed for each of the 10 One Planet principles, please visit the development page here.
Sonoma Mountain Village – progress update
Increased renewable energy generation
In December 2009, a contract with Stellar Energy was signed to provide an additional 1,000 kilowatt solar photovoltaic array on the roof of one of the existing commercial buildings on-site. Work began on this project in late February and should be completed by the end of 2010.
Job creation
Among the new businesses at Sonoma Mountain Village is Codding Steel Frame Solutions.
Job creation at Sonoma Mountain Village (SMV) has increased and there are now over 850 jobs onsite in commercial buildings and the successful green business incubator. In 2009 almost 100% of all new leasing activity in the municipality of Rohnert Park occurred at SMV, making it the city’s largest source of new jobs. In November 2009 DC Power Systems, one of the nation’s largest suppliers of solar components, announced its headquarters move to SMV. We have also found cases where conventional tenants at SMV have been influenced by the One Planet culture at their new workplace to establish new or improved sustainability goals for their on-site operations. By attracting jobs – particularly green jobs – to Rohnert Park, the SMV project is helping to compensate for the loss of 2,500 local high-tech manufacturing jobs when the original owners of the SMV site left the property.
Local business
A detailed development agreement between Sonoma Mountain Village and a coalition of local labour, housing and environmental groups called the Accountable Development Coalition on the use of union labour and living wages, construction of affordable housing and environmental requirements has been completed, receiving praise in the media for its “far reaching” impact on local business practice.
Environmental Impact Review
SMV’s public Environmental Impact Review (EIR), an in-depth process mandated by the State, has also been completed. SMV has set important precedents in California for using a per capita approach to carbon footprint in their EIR, and for earning a “less than significant” GHG impact finding (representing the lowest carbon impact finding in California to date at the neighbourhood scale).
Vancouver Sun: Urban eco-village concept moves from Europe to North America
January 30 – Vancouver. An excerpt: Already frustrated by the process and results he was seeing in his own LEED projects, Geof Syphers of Codding Enterprises welcomed the challenge One Planet Communities offered when developing the Sonoma Mountain Village. “Even in the very best-case scenario, under an LEED Platinum project, we were only reducing CO2 emissions by 15 to 20 per cent relative to the status quo,” says Syphers.
“Even if we were beating stringent codes by 40 per cent, and we’re supplying half of the power with renewable energy, we’re still providing the other half with fossil fuels and causing a net detriment to the planet.”
Syphers says the One Planet framework was attractive, in part, because it lays out exactly what is needed to achieve sustainability.
“It makes no claim that you’ll succeed,” he says, “but if you fall short, you’ll know exactly what the gap is and why, and then they publish that widely.
“Instead of patting ourselves on the back for reducing waste by 89 per cent, we say we made good progress, but still have a long way to go, and if you can help us, that would be great. It allows real science to happen.”
Sep 3-4 2009, Bellingham WA: “Green Buildings are Not Enough” lecture, keynote
Sept 3 2009 @ 7:00PM PST – Bellingham, WA. Greg Searle is to provide a free community lecture on Smart Growth and One Planet Communities, hosted by Sustainable Connections.
Location: Bellingham Cruise Terminal, Bellingham
Sept 4 2009 @ 830am : Greg Searle is to provide the keynote address for the 2009 Smart Growth for Sustainable Communities Conference.
The 4th Annual Smart Growth Conference will be a catalytic agent for finding common ground among diverse perspectives and forging consensus on common issues related to land use policy and practice. Together, this diverse group of community leaders can see to it that growth management and real estate development creates a quality built environment which adds long-term economic, environmental and social value to our community that benefits citizens today, and future generations. Topics will include: True Urbanism, Density Done Right, One Planet Communities, Sightline Scores Smart Growth, and updates on Green Factor Analysis and how this relates to the FIVE/12 initiative and Urban Villages.
Location: Bellingham Cruise Terminal, Bellingham
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"Our partnership with BioRegional has helped us to deliver high quality homes and lifestyle packages for residents and visitors to our developments. Sustainable solutions such as fossil fuel-free transport, ecosystem restoration and new building technologies are essential to meeting this target, and to Pelicano's success in the market place."
Joaquim Mendes Duarte
Chief Executive
Pelicano