To the editor:
Re: "Greening of Beach Towers part of new normal," March 1 .
Columnist Allen Garr notes many green building features in his article are the new normal, but ends his piece by suggesting they cost more and so raise rents.
While this can be true of some such features, many are cost-neutral and some reduce costs. In the last category are efficient energy systems, which often have lower costs over the life of the building, potentially allowing owners to reduce rents while increasing profits.
Furthermore, high-performance buildings can actually cost less than conventional buildings because the wholesale reinvention of buildings literally design out costly equipment and materials.
As big business has learned, green can literally be gold - it's all in how you approach the problem, and how you run the numbers.
Peter Whitelaw, Vancouver
