In response to growing concern over the reliability and pricing of power, the national commercial real estate firm of Julien J. Studley Inc., headquartered in New York City, has developed a study on electric power in the United States. The 32-page report, National Outlook on Power: Supply, Demand & Economic Risk, provides a detailed analysis of electric power in 12 U.S. markets while offering solutions for tenants seeking to protect themselves from outages and price spikes.
Economic growth in the United States during the past decade has pushed consumption
of electricity to new heights. At the same time, the development of new generation
plants and transmissions systems has not kept pace, creating the potential for
future outages and price spikes devastating to businesses and prospects focused
on future growth. Notes CEO and Chairman Julien J. Studley, "Many national
corporations have already begun to examine power when contemplating a move."
The report includes an industry overview and sections on deregulation, price
volatility, reliability, technology, tenant savings solutions, strategies for
the future, a focus on selected U.S. markets, and more. For more information,
call (212) 326-1000 or visit (www.studley.com).
France Designs for Waste Management
What can be done with 31 million metric tons of waste generated every year by
building sites in France, at a moment when the demolition of 15,000 low-rent
housing units is planned for the country in the year 2003? According to the
French Technology Press Office Inc., based in Chicago, the risks and rewards
of sustainable development and the toughening of European legislation will progressively
cause manufacturers to recycle as much waste as possible and to limit the amount
that is dumped.
For this purpose, the CSTB (French Research Center for Building and Construction)
has developed an overall approach to waste management, ranging from the design
of construction products to demolition operations. It has two objectives:
- To limit at the source the amount of waste generated at sites by studying the environmental characteristics of construction products as soon as they are designated.
- To improve the management of such waste by anticipating their production
and collection, and by determining relevant recycling applications during
construction, improvement, and demolition operations.
The approach depends on tools developed by CSTB for the acquisition and organization of data aimed at assisting decision-making during the various phases of a building's lifetime.
The CSTB is evaluating the overall environmental performance of construction
products using Equity 2 software as a life-cycle analysis tool. It makes it
possible to evaluate ways to reduce the amount of waste generated by a product,
depending on the execution process, the type of maintenance, or building demolition
involved. The GRADE 2 software program currently under development makes it
possible to organize improvement and deconstruction sites by predicting procedures
and materials required to manage waste, hygiene and safety measures to apply
to a site, and ways to limit pollutant emissions and nuisances. To help manufacturers
identify a waste recycling activity, CSTB has also designed a "Recycling
Diagnosis," which makes it possible to estimate the technical, economic,
and environmental feasibility of any raw process that uses secondary raw materials
into construction products.
Interested in more information? Contact the French Technology Press Office at
(312) 222-1235; Fax (312) 222-1237.
Etcetera
Equity Office Properties Trust, the nation's largest publicly held office building owner and manager has reached an agreement with Atlanta-based FacilityPro, a builder and operator of private procurement marketplaces for the real estate industry. By implementing FacilityPro's procurement marketplace, Equity Office expects to streamline the purchasing process for its maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO) products.
Nashville-based MagneTek Lighting Products, a leading manufacturer of electronic
and magnetic ballasts, recently announced its name change to Universal Lighting
Technologies. For energy-saving solutions, visit the company website (www.universalballast.
com).
Recently, Milwaukee-headquartered Johnson Controls Inc. launched its e-business portal solution to the U.S. real estate market. Called "Bosmart," the portal design integrates reporting tools to create a platform where a corporate real estate team and the outsourcing partner can work more collaboratively. Visit the Johnson Controls' website (www.johnsoncontrols.com).
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