The nation’s buildings have traditionally been built around sustainable principles. But developers are investing in more sophisticated green tech, too. When KMD Architects was recently tapped to design a new ecofriendly headquarters for the Cinepolis cinema chain in Morelia, Mexico, the San Francisco-based firm joined a growing number of architects making their green mark south of the border. Mexican buildings have traditionally incorporated sustainable principles, including using local materials such as naturally insulating adobe, and using courtyards with fountains to cool indoor spaces. Recently, sophisticated green technologies—photovoltaic cells and on-site waste treatment—began working their way into development.

Throughout Latin America, only two buildings, one of them in Mexico, are LEED certified. But the list could grow. Six Mexican projects have registered with the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) for LEED certification. And in 2005, Mexico founded its own green building council (MexicoGBC), the first in Latin America. “Mexico’s building and construction industry is just waking up and realizing that we are big players,” says Cesar Ulises Previno, MexicoGBC president. “We have a lot of potential to make a difference.”

Some companies decide to build green because they want to set a precedent, says Carlos Fernandez del Valle. This was the case with Cinepolis’s 162,000-square-foot headquarters. Occupying just 10 percent of a hillside site, four low-rise buildings will feature rooftop gardens, daylighting through low-emissivity glass, and ventilation from windows that open onto interior courtyards. Cal;culated estimates that operating costs will be 30 percent lower than comparable-size buildings in Mexico. Another project among the fresh green crop is a $12 million, 119,000-square-foot office building in Guadalajara designed by TEN Arquitectos. The 14-story tower features a woven steel-mesh skin that protects it from the elements and reduces the strain on heating and air-conditioning. Behind this screen, operable windows in the glazed curtain wall allow for natural ventilation.

As energy costs rise alongside concerns about climate change, Mexican businesses are realizing that sustainable development is worth the investment. But the government has yet to define standards for determining efficiency, Previno says, let alone offer incentives to developers who go green. “There are buildings here incorporating solar power, recycling water, but how can we define what falls into ‘green’ and what doesn’t if we don’t have a formal checklist?”

MexicoGBC is currently creating a LEED program tailored to the country’s needs. There are also signs that the government is showing interest in sustainable development. It tapped Alberto Kalach to design the new Biblioteca Vasconcelos public library in the capital city. Kalach’s aesthetic features plain concrete and wood, which reduce the use of paint. “When you don’t spend energy making an extravagant facade, you consume less energy building it,” he says.

With ample daylighting and an on-site water-treatment plant, the 500,000-square-foot library campus embodies both traditional Mexican approaches to green architecture and more sophisticated technologies. “There’s a lot of intrinsic knowledge in the design features of Mexican architecture and construction,” Previno observes. “We need to rescue those good values.”

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For those in the green building industry, the annual pilgrimage to the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) Greenbuild Expo starts this year on November 19th in Boston with keynote speaker Desmond Tutu. Last year over 20,000 participants from 66 countries went to network and learn about the latest innovations and best practices for sustainable building. This year a unique voluntary rating system that incorporates LEED principles but goes beyond the application of LEED to address the nationally significant natural and cultural values of the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem will be unveiled.

The Yellowstone Business Partnership (YBP) has been invited to present an educational program on their Greater Yellowstone Framework for Sustainable Development (GY-Framework). YBP’s GY-Framework was designed to help the largest, intact ecosystem in America survive demands of rapid development. Taking lessons from LEED, over 80 volunteers from the YBP membership worked for nine months to develop a tool that defines sustainable development for the region. There are currently seven prerequisites and 57 credits that cover categories such as Land Use and Conservation, Biodiversity, Recreation Resources, and Public Service and Infrastructure.

The honor of being selected to present at Greenbuild is even more significant according to Mary Ann Lazarus, chair of the Greenbuild 2008 Program Committee: “This year’s selection process was the most competitive in Greenbuild history with over 1,400 proposals submitted and fewer than 100 accepted into the final program. This level of selectivity enabled the Program Committee to assemble the strongest and most robust educational program to date.”

YBP’s presence at Greenbuild 2008 will give them international exposure to their innovative rating system, showing the building industry around the world that by looking beyond the built environment, developers can help preserve the cultural and natural heritage of a region.

The YBP Greenbuild educational program will begin with Jan Brown presenting the GY-Framework, its history and a description of the eleven registered pilot projects that will test the new rating system. These pilot projects include two high schools, local and state parks, a ski resort, and several mixed use and neighborhood developments.

Kath Williams, consultant for the GY-Framework, will then conduct an interactive Q & A with three of the eleven GY-Framework developers: Teton Meadows Ranch in Jackson, WY, Story Mill Neighborhood in Bozeman, MT, and Mountainside Village, in Victor, ID. These developers were chosen to participate because they represented all three states that YBP covers and they were comparable mixed use or neighborhood projects.

For more information on the Greenbuild Expo visit www.greenbuildexpo.org. For information on the USGBC and LEED visit www.usgbc.org. For information on the Yellowstone Business Partnership visit www.yellowstonebusiness.org or call (406) 522-7809.

The Yellowstone Business Partnership is committed to applying collaborative approaches to resolving multi-state challenges. YBP works with willing businesses to help them operate more sustainably, develop responsibly, enhance regional mobility and improve cross-boundary communications. The 5th Annual Conference at Jackson Lake Lodge entitled “Connecting the DOTs: Moving People and Promise across Greater Yellowstone” began the conversation on how to develop a concept of operations for a regional transportation network.

The US Green Building Council is a non profit organization that certifies sustainable businesses, homes, hospitals, schools, and neighborhoods. USGBC is dedicated to expanding green building practices and education, and its LEED® (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Building Rating System™.

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The real estate boom in Baja is still strong, in spite of the real estate drop in the U.S. Mexico’s stable and growing economy, its proximity to the U.S., reasonable land prices and new accessibility of title insurance are just some of the reasons why investors from all around the world as well as world renowned celebrities are looking to Baja for real estate investments and ownership.

Because of this combination of favorable factors coming together, including value and lifestyle as reasons for choosing Baja real estate, the Baja region of Mexico has become one of the prime areas for investment. As Baby Boomers look to invest their hard-earned equity and retirees seek comfortable lifestyles with quality health care readily available, real estate ownership in Baja makes more sense than ever before.

Celebrities are now coming to Baja not only relax in High End Resorts but to experience the Baja Lifestyle. People like Grey’s Anatomy star Patrick Dempsey who fell in love with off road racing in Baja and now is part of a professional team running the hardest race in the world, the Baja 1000. Their passion for the Baja experience also leads them to invest; Enrique Iglesias just completed selling his “Alegranza” development in San Jose del Cabo.

Legendary oceanographer Jacques Cousteau once described the Sea of Cortes as the “World’s Aquarium” because of the amount of extraordinary indigenous wild life in its waters. Whales, sea lions, whale shark and dolphin watching are favorite pastimes as are World Class fishing and Scuba Diving.Its warm waters are the perfect sanctuary for the Gray Whale and watching and interacting with them is one of the most humbling and amazing experiences you will ever have. Of the approximately 15,000 Gray whales in the world, it’s estimated that 11,000 of them make a 10,000 mile journey to bear their calves in the tranquil waters of the Sea of Cortes.

Baja is full of beautiful natural resources, from its amazing shorelines, immense deserts to mountains full of springs, Baja has an experience waiting for everyone. Whether seeking a luxurious getaway, a second home retreat or a perfect investment for developing, Baja is all about choices… Welcome to Baja!

One of the great development opportunities in La Paz is the diversity of product that we can offer to prospective clients.

We call these ¨Mixed Use Environments¨ and they are truly diversified.

This phrase is not new, but what it means is new, it is an evolutionary change. For years, this simply meant that the client would be in a Vacation Resort environment, that offered a full ownership Condominium product, a Fractional Ownership Condominium product, a conventional time share product and a regular hotel product.

Great for the developer! Not so great for the client.

For the Developer it meant that they were maximizing their marketing costs and had a higher client efficiency because there was always money being spent on one of the products available.

To the client however, the end result was an ownership in this mixed use environment that did not have any focus, or certainly did not focus on their needs. For example, it was not uncommon for guests who were renting at $200.00 per night, to share facilities with owners of Time Share weeks, who paid much more for their accommodation.

The next step was to offer ´value added features´ to for the time share owners and fractional owners. This added a level of services to for the owners that had paid more for their inventory, but it still all took place in a very busy, very high density environment, crowded pools, restaurants and beaches became part of an ownership, which was once defined as private and intimate.

As the vacationing population has a much more diversified schedule, so must the development offer a much more diversified schedule.

New Developments in La Paz will feature mixed use environments in much smaller ´clusters´. One area would be a boutique style hotel, with their own amenities including many services, and their own grounds and access to the beach. Another area, would be for the Shared Ownership owners, offering amentias more suited for clients staying three or four months. The third, the Condominium portion of the project, would offer services conducive to a the needs of full ownership clients. The fourth, single family dwellings, would offer different sets of amentias.

So development in La Paz, will offer true mixed use environments that are much more spacious, and offer amenities suited and designed specifically for that owners needs.