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Energy-efficient heating and cooling, super high-tech skylights and water-saving restrooms are some of the items that used to be reserved for only the most environmentally conscious. But now building green is a growing trend.
A growing number of buildings are being constructed to the highest environmental standards. Even a new auto dealership in Salt Lake is building green.
It's another sign of the rising green movement: Mark Miller Toyota decided to build its new facility to the highest sustainable standards called LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.
"Everybody's kind of thinking that way. We're the same way. We spend a huge amount of money on energy to run a facility like this. If we could reduce that cost and have less of an impact on the environment, why wouldn't you do that?" Mark Miller said.
The green features are memorable, like the 300-mile-per-hour paperless hand drier, carpeting with recycled windshield glass, cubicle fabric made from corn, bamboo panels, and glass garage doors that can open and close quickly so the building maintains a steady temperature.
Green building is not longer just a fad. It's becoming the standard, and Salt Lake's mayor plans to speed up permitting for green projects to encourage more.
"It's cost savings. That's really it. You can talk all you want about climate change and energy savings and all the rest, and it comes down to dollars and cents," explained Vicki Bennett, director of sustainability for Salt Lake City.
The cost for the new Toyota facility will be $26 million to $27 million, with hundreds of thousands of dollars going toward green items that will eventually pay for themselves. The skylights, for example, are under a parabolic lens made of fighter jet-type Plexiglas, and a micro-processor tracks the sun across the sky and reflects the light into the building.
"Right now, in this showroom, we're probably using 20 percent of the energy to have this much light; pretty remarkable," Miller said.
Utah has 16 LEED-certified buildings and another four more in the works just in Salt Lake alone.
The people building these structures say some of the devices used are more expensive, but they end up saving money in the long run.
E-mail: jdaley@ksl.com
