Preservationist Sounds Aspen Vacation Home Alarm

Aspen's big, empty, always-on vacation homes are gassing the planet with more carbon dioxide per home than homes that are always occupied.

by Broderick Perkins
© 2008 DeadlineNews.Com

Deadline Newsroom - In a growing number of areas in the tiny, historic town of Aspen, CO it feels a lot like an empty movie set. The lights are on, but in many cases, well, nobody's home.

That's not just a cheap shot, but what local Joanne Ditmer would consider fair criticism of county planners who've allowed parts of Aspen to resemble a ghost town most of the year.

Of the nearly 6,000 homes in and around Aspen, more than half of them are luxury vacation McMansions occupied less than three months out of the year, typically during high snow season.

Ditmer is a preservationist awarded by Colorado Preservation Inc. as a pioneer in saving historic buildings.

Also an environmental and urban issues columnist for the Denver Post since 1962, Ditmer says, while the empty vacation retreats certainly threaten the fabric of Aspen's historic, small-town way of life, there's a more global problem to consider.

Aspen's Sopris Foundation says one sprawling vacation home emits more than four times the level of carbon dioxide per day from a full-time home. The vacation homes, says the foundation, are responsible for more than 60 percent Aspen's total residential carbon footprint.

That's because, in many of the newer, often-vacant luxury crash pads, not only are the lights really on around the clock when nobody's home, the homes also come with heated driveways and roofs to melt the snow, heated swimming pools, heated towel rods and heated hot tubs --- not to mention the heated expanse of square footage.

Aspen's vacation homes are a prime example of the kind of residential real estate over-indulgence recently described in Daniel McGinn's "House Lust: America's Obsession With Our Homes" (Random House, $24.95).

Among them is the nation's most expensive, perhaps most infamous residential listing, Saudi Arabia Prince Bandar's 56,000 square foot, 96 acre estate, currently listed for a cool $135 million.

Part-time Aspen residents also include: Victoria Beckham ("Posh Spice"), Kevin Costner, Felicity Huffman and Jack Nicholson.

Granted, most of the homes are a mere 10,000 square feet or less, but there's more -- the Sopris Foundation says the county's master plan is only 40 percent built out.

With a remaining 60 percent yet to come in the urban core, Aspen may be just getting started as a more than mile-high vacation home playground for the rich and famous.

"With 60 percent more growth, would anything be left of Aspen, and the Roaring Fork Valley, that is unique and splendid?" laments a saddened Ditmer in a recent column.

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© 2008 DeadlineNews.Com

Broderick Perkins, an award-winning consumer journalist of 30 years, is publisher and executive editor of San Jose, CA-based DeadlineNews.Com, a real estate news and consulting service, and the new Deadline Newsroom, DeadlineNews.Com's new backshop. In both cases, it's where all the news really hits home.

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Dual Green Gains From Working At Home

by Broderick Perkins
© 2007 DeadlineNews.Com

Deadline Newsroom – It used to be working at home was a way to tell the boss to shove it, exit the rat race, work in your jammies and get a few tax benefits in the process.

Now home workers can also boast a green stamp of approval.

That's not just because of the more energy efficient technology today's consumers typically use at home, though that helps, but because staying off the road reduces carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions that contribute to pollution and climate change.

The Consumer Electronics Association says if a worker with a one-way commute of 22 miles, instead telecommutes five days a week, he or she would save about 320 gallons of gasoline and reduce CO2 emissions by 4.5 to 6 tons per year.

Also, one telecommute days saves the equivalent of up to 12 hours of an average household’s electricity use, saves 1.4 gallons of gasoline and reduces CO2 emissions by 17 to 23 kilograms per day.

In a year, the individual's energy savings would amount to approximately 4,000 to 6,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity -- an amount comparable to the electricity consumed by an average household in 4 to 6 months.

And that's just counting telecommuters -- not home-based businesses.

The study "Energy and Greenhouse Gas Emissions Impact of Telecommuting and e-Commerce," focused on workers who spend one or more days working from home each week and considered the energy consumed by telecommuting compared with traditional methods.

CEA commissioned TIAX LLC of Cambridge, MA to determine energy savings and CO2 reductions that result from the nation’s increased use of electronics, such as personal computers and wireless networks.

TIAX found that the estimated 3.9 million U.S. telecommuters reduced gasoline consumption by about 840 million gallons, while curbing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by nearly 14 million tons.

That's equal to removing 2 million vehicles from the road every year.

Using electronics to kickback and telecommute instead of gasoline and road rage saves the equivalent of 9 to 14 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity per year — the same amount of energy used by roughly 1 million U.S. households every year.

"This report demonstrates that consumer electronics are part of a climate change solution, as the use of electronics is preventing greenhouse gas emissions and reducing fossil fuel consumption," said Gary Shapiro, president and CEO of CEA.

"Statistics have been available to detail how much energy electronics use, but less was known about the environmental benefits of consumer products developed by our industry when used to communicate and conduct business," Shapiro said in prepared statement.

There's also another "green" benefit associated with telecommuting and working at home -- a $3-a-gallon gasoline savings.

Other studies have shown potential health benefits that come with not being exposed to office workers who refuse to stay home when they are sick.

• DeadlineNews.Com offers more green news that hits home.

• DeadlineNews.Com offers more global warming news that hits home.

© 2007 DeadlineNews.Com

Broderick Perkins, an award-winning consumer journalist of 30 years, is publisher and executive editor of San Jose, CA-based DeadlineNews.Com, a real estate news and consulting service, and the new Deadline Newsroom, DeadlineNews.Com's new backshop. In both cases, it's where all the news really hits home.

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DeadlineNews.Com's Editorial Content Is Intellectual Property - Unauthorized Use Is A Federal Crime

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