HBA Newswatch
March 12, 2008
NOT JUST FOR TREE HUGGERS
Despite the free fall in housing prices nationwide, green homes are still red hot
Rob Moody didn't set out to be a builder. After graduating from college with a biology major, he began work as an environmental-science teacher in Asheville, N.C. On weekends, though, he spent long hours fixing up the classic shingle-style home his family had owned for nearly a century. Then, after seven years in cinder-block classrooms, he decided to make a change. "My love for old houses fell together with my love for the environment," says Moody, 34, who launched The EcoBuilders to construct environmentally friendly houses. Today Moody's foremen drive pickup trucks that run on used grease from fast-food fryers. And whether he's building new homes or renovating old ones, he insulates them to the hilt, uses sustainable materials and recycles so much debris that he requires only the smallest Dumpsters. Clients love the approach. "We doubled production last year, and we'll probably double again this year," Moody says.
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PHILADELPHIA GETS POOR MARKS ON BEING 'GREEN'
By Sandy Bauers
Inquirer Staff Writer
Philadelphia does a poor job when it comes to green building, the Pennsylvania Environmental Council said yesterday in a report that outlines steps for improvement.
The advocacy group identified numerous barriers to green construction in the city, the greatest being a "lack of political will and strong leadership at the top levels of city government."
Among other impediments were an outdated zoning code and what Sandy Wiggins, author of the 21-page report, called a "not-my-job mentality" among employees of the city, which he said has no department "that is a champion of the environment."
The report, based on a year of research, suggested dozens of solutions, from establishing a cabinet-level sustainability position to requiring that all municipal buildings go green to their very rooftops - roofs constructed as mini-gardens that insulate the building below rather than made of traditional materials.
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FORECAST SEES PROLONGED HOUSING WOES BUT NO RECESSION IN 2008
By By ALEX VEIGA, AP Business Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) _ The U.S. economy will suffer as the slumping housing market eats away at job creation and consumer spending, but the nation should avoid slipping into a recession this year, according to a new economic report.
A recession could still happen though, if the credit crisis that has stifled the housing market deepens, preventing consumers from buying big-ticket items like cars and businesses from spending on equipment, according to the quarterly Anderson Forecast by the University of California at Los Angeles.
"We don't see that happening," said Edward Leamer, director and co-author of the forecast released Tuesday. "This is a tough call, but I will be very surprised if this thing actually precipitates into recession."
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TOLL SHAREHOLDERS RE-ELECT CEO AMID CRITICISM
By Alan J. Heavens
INQUIRER REAL ESTATE WRITER
Robert I. Toll was re-elected CEO of Toll Bros. today at the Horsham-based luxury-home builder's annual stockholders' meeting.
A proposed bonus plan for Toll also was approved.
The noon meeting, closed to the public, lasted about an hour and was attended by about 30 people - evenly divided between Toll executives and proxyholders, according to Jacob Hay, spokesman for the Laborers International Union of North America, who attended as proxyholder for the union.
Despite recommendations against the bonus plan by three proxy-voting services - Proxy Governance Inc., Glass Lewis & Co. L.L.C. and RiskMetrics Group Inc. - and three major pension funds, company officials said during the meeting that the plan had been approved by more than 50 percent of votes cast by proxy.
In addition, more than 67 percent of the votes were cast for Toll's re-election, even though the pension funds - the California State Teachers' Retirement System, the New York State Common Retirement Fund and the Laborers International Union - had promised to withhold their votes.
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