August 15, 2008—Real estate owner American Assets, Inc., announced today that plans for its landmark redevelopment project in Novato, California, show that carbon-neutrality could be achieved in less than 10 years, exceeding the performance targets of the 2030 Challenge and marking an important milestone for one of the first such efforts for a mixed-use commercial project in the United States.
“The technology has been available but most efforts to date have been hindered by the lengthy period before seeing a return on investment,” said John Chamberlain, CEO for American Assets. “Our sustainability engineers are telling us that we are now at a point where both environmental and financial ROI can be achieved relatively quickly.”
American Assets submitted plans to the city of Novato in July for a project that would be renamed The Commons at Mount Burdell and would add nearly 800,000 square feet of uses to a 65-acre site including residential, a first-class hotel, retail, health club, daycare, restaurants, meeting venues, community amenities, as well as upgrade of the 710,000 square feet of existing facilities.
In addition to implementing strategies to achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Platinum certification, the redevelopment aims to exceed the performance targets of the 2030 Challenge by designing the project’s water, waste and energy systems to achieve carbon neutrality by 2020.
For more information visit American Assets Web site.
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