Several Florida commercial buildings are participating in the second annual “Battle of the Buildings” competition organized by the Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star program, according to the program’s website. Two hundred and forty-five buildings across the country are competing to reduce energy waste and improve their energy effiency.

The competitor that demonstrates the greatest percent-based reduction in weather-normalized energy use intensity between Aug. 31, 2010 and Aug. 31, 2011 will be recognized as the winner in November. The EPA has already released its top competitors as well as the progress of all the other participating buildings, which include office buildings and retail stores. – Miranda Neubauer [more]

Fifty-four Miami buildings have been awarded the Energy Star from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The buildings save approximately $12.6 million in energy costs, along with a 10,800-metric-ton savings in emissions of greenhouse gases per year. The total gives the city the 19th-highest number of Energy Star buildings of all U.S. cities. The number of such buildings rose 40 percent nationwide in 2009. Buildings must be in the top 25 percent of buildings in America to receive the designation. Lakeland, Fla., between Tampa and Orlando, came in at number seven on the list, with 120 Energy Star buildings, though their total floor space was only 11.5 million square feet, less than Miami’s 12.3 million. [SFBJ]

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Almost three-quarters of Florida’s Atlantic coastline has been or will be developed, despite concerns that rising global temperatures will elevate sea levels, a government study has found. The trend probably won’t put Miami underwater, said Jim Titus, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s project manager for sea-level rise and the author of the study, but the city will be forced to employ a slew of “shore protection measures,” including complex and costly engineering, that will help preserve coastal real estate. Daniel Trescott, a planner for the Southwest Florida Regional Planning Council and a co-author of the study, said he hopes the findings will encourage discussion among planners and politicians about the the impacts of global warming on potential coastal developments, since the financial implications may be enormous. [Miami Herald]

The Environmental Protection Agency is rolling out an expanded national plan encouraging homebuilders to create more water-efficient landscapes. WaterSense, the EPA’s existing conservation program, will expand to include voluntary labels for newly built homes that follow a set of EPA guidelines of acceptable outdoor water use. Homes will be eligible for certification if they consume 20 percent less water than the average home. The new plan will be similar to programs in states like Florida, where financial incentives are already available to homeowners. Several companies and trade groups, such as Scotts Miracle-Gro and the Outdoor Power Equipment Institute, have expressed outrage over the new plan, claiming that it demonizes grass. “It puts a label on grass as bad — that it’s not something to be used,” Kris Kiser, executive vice president of Outdoor Power Equipment, said.

Call it a low-cost flight to quality. Vacancy rates in Miami’s office market have eclipsed the 15 percent mark for
the first time in five years, and many landlords face a dilemma: make
concessions or face the possibility that vacancy rates could climb
higher. Most are choosing the former, attracting new businesses to the
urban core. “There’s no doubt about it. We’re seeing a flight to quality as
companies are in the market to trade up. Tenants, particularly those
who have been in their current premises for a long time or are in
multiple locations, are looking to do deals,” said Tere Blanca,
principal of Blanca Commercial Real Estate in Miami. The phenomenon takes center stage in the Downtown Miami office market,
which will have nearly 2 million square feet of Class A office space
freed up or newly completed in 2010. Blanca said market conditions
create what could be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for businesses to
move up in quality at a more affordable rate. [more]

A growing number of South Florida families must choose between health and housing. For most families whose homes were built with contaminated Chinese
drywall, it’s no decision at all. Some choose foreclosure over still
unknown long-term health impacts of Chinese drywall. Foul odors and
electric problems have been widely reported in homes containing Chinese
drywall, and class action lawsuits are rising. “This is a catastrophe,” says Mike Ryan, a partner at the law firm of
Krupnick Campbell in Fort Lauderdale who is representing clients in
Chinese drywall cases. “We are going to live with this devastation for
years. The Chinese drywall issue is equivalent to a hurricane, but
worse because insurance isn’t covering it. These homeowners couldn’t
sell their homes if they wanted to, and contractors can’t guarantee a
fix because we don’t fully understand the scope.”
[more]