Green Options

Britain’s eco-towns have a number of ‘firsts’ to encourage their creation:

General Electric and Mubadala Development have just announced a multi-billion dollar partnership that will give a huge financial boost to a plan to develop a clean-energy walled city in the United Arab Emirates. Masdar City, scheduled for completion in 2015, will get all of its energy from sustainable sources, and will create zero net greenhouse gas emissions. It will also be completely car-free.

As part of its partnership with Mubadala, GE will fund a giant research center in the heart of the city that will house a think tank of technologists working to develop sustainable energy and water technologies. The company will also commit up to $50 million to Masdar’s cleantech investment fund.

Z-Squared is an example of an office building whose net energy consumption is zero. In addition to being a zero energy building, it is also a zero carbon building. "It’s one of the first commercial buildings in the United States to be designed to a ‘Z2′ energy efficiency goal; that is, net zero energy, zero carbon emissions."

The building owner, Integrated Design Associates, Inc. (IDeAs), is a San Jose CA based

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