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Posted on Dec 20, 2006
By Ken Barlow
CBS4

Boston Looks To 'Go Green' To Curb Global Warming

BOSTON Green is definitely the color of the day in Boston as we are soon going to be the first major city in the country to require large commercial buildings to be constructed in an environmentally friendly way. It's all part of the effort curb global warming.

Future additions to Boston's skyline are going to be friendly to the environment. They'll be green buildings.

Boston will be the first city to require private developers of larger buildings to meet a series of environmental standards. Marc Breslow of the Climate Action Network thinks this is a great step in the fight against global warming

"It's actually quite significant," he said. "There are three major sources of greenhouse gasses in the country and those are electricity production, transportation, and direct fuel use in buildings and industry so when you affect energy use in a building, you are both affecting the direct fuel use and you are effecting electricity consumption."

And quality doesn't have to be compromised.

Take the MacAllen Building in South Boston. This luxury condo complex in South Boston has bamboo flooring which is a rapidly renewing resource and the skin of the building is made from 99 percent recycled aluminum

One downside is cost; building green can add up to 20 percent to construction costs, but environmentalists say it's important to see this as long term investment

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