Indianapolis government leaders, according to IndyStar.com, are making it easier to build green buildings. A new program provides incentives for property owners and developers to renovate or construct new buildings in a sustainable manner. What are the incentives? The program allows for projects built after August 1 to receive up to a 50 percent rebate on building permit fees associated with the green project. The incentives encourage building owners and developers to integrate sustainable design techniques and practices into their projects.

According to the Indianapolis Green Building Incentive Program website, buildings participating in the project must meet criteria principally based on the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program. The Indianapolis program, however, does not require a building to be LEED registered or LEED certified. 

Indianapolis joins a long list of other cities that either offer incentives to build green or require green building for all new projects. Only a few weeks ago, the City Council in Vancouver, British Columbia, approved a policy that requires all new building rezonings to meet the LEED Gold standard. The change will take effect January 31, 2011.

"By bringing in a LEED Gold standard, we'll reduce our greenhouse gasses, create new job opportunities for our local green building sector, and continue to take a leadership role on urban planning in North America," said Mayor Gregor Robertson. 

Vancouver's new policy supports the Greenest City 2020 goals of leading the world in green building design and construction, as well as creating 20,000 green jobs in Vancouver by 2020.

Even though Independence Station will not include a hotel component per se (although it will have units for daily and weekly rental) when it is completed in 2010, the mixed-use structure is most definitely a project worth checking out. Located in Independence, Ore., Independence Station is on track to become the world's greenest building, according to Aldeia, LLC, the building's developer. The 40 percent complete, 57,000-square-foot structure will house offices, retail space, a restaurant, research facilities, classroom space and 15 residential units. Aldeia is pursuing the world's highest (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) LEED rating ever awarded for new construction.

What makes Independence Station unique? The building will boast a 120-kilowatt installation of photovoltaic panels. During sunny months, the panels will produce more than enough energy to run the building, store extra energy in a large battery bank for nighttime use as well as feed power back into the grid. In cooler, cloudier months, the building will rely more on a biodiesel-fueled cogeneration and thermal storage system, including a retired tug-boat engine affectionately named Mabel, which will serve as a backup and run on waste vegetable oil from local restaurants.

Radiant floor heating and cooling, displacement ventilation, solar water heating, day lighting design, an ice-based cooling storage system, water-based ground source heat pump, and extensive use of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are some of the systems that will minimize Independence Station’s “off the grid” energy consumption.

Independence Station is expected to exceed the strict Oregon Energy Code by 74 percent. In fact, Independence Station is expected to operate in a carbon negative manner. Because enough rainwater is stored in the winter to supply 100 percent of the building’s needs for laundry, toilet flushing and irrigation of the both the green roof and planned 40-foot interior vertical “urban garden,” water consumption records are expected to fall as well.

The current LEED record holder, a Canadian project, has a score of 63 out of a possible 69 points. At its completion next year, Independence Station will likely earn between 64 and 66 points, bringing the top score back to the United States.