(post by Dee) Green buildings. Sustainable development. Energy efficient design. LEED certified. These are hip words these days, and green or efficient is no longer just for office buildings. Everybody wants to be “green” because it gives you certain cache and makes you looks good. So much easier to market, so much better PR, not to mention (in same cases) local government tax credits and subsidies, as well as ability to charge premium price for a green property.

There has been time that green and LEED-certified applied strictly to large commercial buildings. Well, no more. Residential developers have jumped on the bandwagon, and, with the energy prices sky-rocketing in the past year, more and more residential buildings are going up as green. For now, only the blue chip developers and builders have the funding and the expertise to build truly green. But every property now being built or renovated includes some mention about conserving energy, improving use of natural light and air circulation and, at the very least, comes with energy-efficient appliances and high-efficiency individual boilers, etc.

The other day I received an email from Toll Brothers (see our post about their 5SL condo in LIC) marketing “a green condominium”, 303 East 33^rd Street condo in Murray Hill (NYC). This will be an “environmentally responsible, LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) registered building”. Knowing this developer’s projects, they will charge a nice premium for buying a green apartment in New York City. But more about this building another time. This post is to simply note that the green movement now has a serious grip on residential development.

Here is a short list of notable residential developments around the city with LEED certification. Not merely environmentally-friendlier, but really, really green, as recognized by U.S. Green Building Council :

Torren Condo in Brooklyn

The Laurel condominium at 400 E 67^th Street

The Lucida at 151 E 85^th Street

One Jackson Square at 122 Greenwich Avenue

GREENBELT at 361 Manhattan Avenue (Williamsburg)

Edge at 22 North 6th St and 34 North 7th St (Williamsburg)

Scanned in a couple of real estate magazine covers from BOMA, Sustainable Development Magazine (hello!) and New York House… Going green movement is no joke. It’s everywhere!