Full Circle Real Estate Group: Athens Real Estate, Sustainable Real Estate

The Princeton Review named The University of Georgia as one of 18 colleges on its "2011 Green Rating Honor Roll" – a list of colleges that received the highest possible score (99) in its Green Rating tallies this year.

Known for its education services helping students choose and get in to colleges, The Princeton Review just reported its third annual Green Ratings of colleges: a measure of how environmentally friendly the institutions are on a scale of 60 to 99.  The Company tallied the rating for 703 institutions based its institutional surveys of colleges in 2009-10 concerning their environmentally related practices, policies and academic offerings. (www.princetonreview.com)

You can read an update on UGA's Office of Sustainability and the great strides they are making on campus in this week's Flagpole Magazine or click HERE.

As we’ve mentioned over the last couple of months, Full Circle and J.W. York Homes collaborated with a UGA LEED-Certified Professor and her design students to design a spec home for The Cottages at Hilltop, a sustainable-concept community.

The class designed 1,400 to 1,800 sq ft, 3BR/2BA spec homes for the development that incorporates sustainable principles and follows LEED for Homes guidelines. They recently wrapped up the project.

"This was such an exciting learning experience for the students,” said UGA Assistant Professor, Megan Lee. “Because this was their first time working with sustainability, working within a real world simulation, and working with community professionals, the students had many necessary and beneficial experiences.  They've begun to realize that sustainability is both a lifestyle and good design and not a passing trend in design.”

Dr. Lee continues, “I believe they've learned that sustainable design is as much about process of design and building as the products that are used. Most importantly, students learned to make decisions based on tangible restraints of budget, builder/client needs and sustainability.  Also, being able to have professionals at their final project presentations increased their learning and experience by seeing their growing knowledge it valuable in the community.”

Full Circle Broker Patrick O’Brien attended the student's recent presentations at UGA and was thrilled with the finished projects. 

Kudos to UGA students and The Go Green Alliance for showing some real gumption!

When UGA President Michael Adams told a grassroots group of UGA students the school could not fund a proposed Office of Sustainability, they decided to put it to a vote to see what kind of support they had from their peers.

The referendum passed with more than 80% of voters in favor of increasing student fees by $3 per semester (the price of a cup of coffee!) to raise funds for sustainability initiatives on campus.

Now the student-driven group, the Go Green Alliance, is drafting a proposal for an Office of Sustainability that has to pass a University fees committee, the president's office and the Board of Regents before the $3 fee is implemented and a director is hired. The proposal is expected to be finished next month. If it passes, it would be implemented next Fall.

The students want to establish an Office of Sustainability at UGA to help coordinate initiatives, collaborate with groups within and outside of UGA, and educate the UGA community about sustainability.

According to GreenReportCard.org, a website that grades colleges and universities on sustainability practices, UGA earned a C - overall. 

Sources: The Red and Black, Go Green Alliance

In the February issue of Traditional Building, nine distinguished architects discuss “The Changing Architectural Practice in the Age of Lean.” All of them cite a high level of client awareness on sustainability, particularly among governmental and educational institutions. All of them discuss the ways in which sustainable building practices imbue the culture of their firms. And to a person, they articulate the link between saving the planet and saving traditional buildings.

To read more about the role of traditional building in climate change from the President of Restore Media LLC, click HERE.