Posted by Wonderign, a resident of the Palo Verde neighborhood, on Nov 2, 2009 at 10:41 am

Without a doubt, its obvious Palo Alto is good at selling its sustainability and green ambitions. This proves how any business can simply upgrade to 2009 standards with new AC systems (which have been around since the early 90’s) and a few fluorescent lighting replacements will bring you to the spotlight.

Posted by Mrs. LEED Certified, a resident of another community, on Nov 2, 2009 at 10:47 am

I would like to say great job to the Palo Alto Office Center,for receiving Gold LEED certification. Even an older building can have sustainability.Good luck to any future LEED projects that will be in the area!!!!

Claire M.

http:// everblueenergy.com

Posted by Green-A'int-Cheap, a resident of the Duveneck/St. Francis neighborhood, on Nov 2, 2009 at 12:01 pm

And this will save the planet?

By the way, as the amount of electricity used by the Utilities customers goes down, the cost for the City to purchase blocks of power might actually go up. Smaller contracts are of little interest to primary power vendors, meaning that higher prices often are required to obtain at least 2-year contracts.

The Utility has run into this problem when buying gas in the past. One of the Utility's "dirty little secrets" is that the cost of gas in Palo Alto is often higher than PG&E because it has to deal with 2nd/3rd tier gas suppliers that deal with small purchasers--like Palo Alto.

Posted by lazlo, a resident of the Old Palo Alto neighborhood, on Nov 3, 2009 at 7:07 am

This is what happens when you start hiring employees who have no business education or training and who are essentially afraid to make decisions without consulting city council first. City council responds by hiring consultants who in turn suggest forming red, blue, or green ribbon committees who in turn offer a multitude of options that never really deal with the real reason they were formed and then send this information back to the council who in turn are unwilling to commit themselves to a concrete answer so as not to offend any of the citizen groups and end up shelving the orginal proposal until it comes back in a year and the whole process begins again. Better to not make a decision than to be held accountable for any decision that may present itself as unfavorable.