Sure, sometimes we look up at Venus and wonder, "What if?" But, Earth, baby, you know we'll never stray. To celebrate your big day, we bring you news and green technology from across the country, starting in our nation’s capital, which leads the states in LEED certified buildings, with 25 SF per person. Let the tour begin!

The LEED Platinum USGBC HQ at 2101 L St. gets a whopping 4,500 visitors each year. Bisnow DC reporter Amanda Metcalf joined education manager Ana Ka’ahanui's for our own personalized tour and tells us her favorite part is the eco corridor. Rather than putting an office or desk along the coveted window space, a walkway with lighter carpet bounces sunlight back into the office. The office is designed for flexibility (a lesson learned when the org spent only one-and-a-half years in its previous location before outgrowing it). It’s got movable walls with coverings made of tucked fabric (no glue, no nails). But the wall behind Ana is an exception: Made from sweetgum wood from a Tennessee river (the darker it is, the deeper in the mud it was). The water flowing down in front of it is chilled to 55 degrees, helping control temperature and reduce humidity.

LAB WORK

Welcome to LPA’s “sustainability lab” Irvine, Calif., HQ where the architectural firm tests the latest in eco-friendly technologies, president Dan Heinfeld, center, tells our LA reporter Julie Nakashima. LPA designed the first LEED NC building in the US, and over the years it’s experimented with ideas like worm composting and fuel cells. Sadly, the worms have wiggled on (they didn’t want to end up like the office bee drones), but the HQ includes such items as a recycled milk bottle pivot door and solar-power auto faucet. The firm’s expansion space upstairs will have operable windows and skylights for daylighting, reducing its energy load by about 30%. A sustainable print lab will test innovations in reprographics technologies like zero-emission edible toner (we just ate).

BISNOW HOTEL INVESTMENT CONFERENCE!

And now a break for this announcement: May 10 in DC’s the day and place. We have several hundred top executives already signed up for our first Bisnow Hotel Investment Summit, being held at the Capital Hilton in DC, not just because it’s down the street from the White House and with this lovely view of the Washington Monument, but because DC seems to be the new hotel capital of America. It’s now the HQ of Marriott and Hilton, and of many of the REITs and other firms buying hotels left and right around the country. Join our remarkable speakers, including top officials of Marriott, Choice Hotels, Pebblebrook Hotel Trust, Hersha Hospitality Trust, Mesa West, LaSalle Hotel Properties, Crestline Hotels, Apple REIT, Ackman-Ziff, LW Hospitality Advisors, Humboldt Hospitality Advisors, Walker & Dunlop, Morgan Keegan, Allied Advisors, Arent Fox, Greenberg Traurig, and OPX. Sign up now!

LIBRARY SCIENCE

Need to charge your electric car while checking out a library book? No problem in Irving, Texas, where the city just opened the state’s first net zero library, which means the 25k SF building generates as much electricity as it consumes. City manager Tommy Gonzalez tells Bisnow DFW reporter Tonie Auer that the iPad-like Microsoft surface tables may be some of the coolest technology (as far as the gadget-lovers are concerned). The eco-friendly facility uses energy efficient technologies including a geothermal heating and cooling system, 1444 solar panels, and 40 electric car charging stations. There’s also a kiosk, which displays how the energy’s being used. Tommy tells us one of biggest benefits is the $55k savings on the yearly electric bill. (If you're going to squeal with excitement, just do it quietly.) The state also kicked in a $1.1M grant.

FREE OF CHARGE

Speaking of juicing up, yesterday Simon Malls' energy and procurement SVP George Caraghiaur told our Baltimore reporter Mike Leon that installing electric car charging stations at Florida Mall in Orlando (above) and Stanford Shopping Center in Palo Alto, Calif., will bring in customers (and cash). The move will bring early adopters of the technology to Simon properties, and George says “people need to stay a few hours to get a good charge." But people who don't plan to shop can find the stations on an iPhone app. Charging is free at first, and George says there could be 27 million electric cars on the road by 2020.

Once "sick”, yesterday the former Saltonstall state office building in Boston received a green bill of health: The complex redeveloped for $200M was honored as one of only 12 existing downtown offices to be LEED certified (following last year’s sustainability upgrades planned by CBRE). Operating costs will now be cut by $136k per year, landlord MassDevelopment COO Nancy Howard tells us. (There for the ceremony were CBRE’s David Johnson, Theresa O’Brien, Ken Mitsui, MassDevelopment’s Zach Green, and CBRE’s Shawn Carroll.) In the redesign by Elkus Manfredi, the ‘65 tower shed its brutalist aloofness in favor of a brick, glass, and metal base that meets the sidewalk and a grand entrance with art by Sol Lewitt. Now called 100 Cambridge St, the 600k SF of offices are wrapped in retail and 75 condos and is fully occupied.

CONSERVANCY DEALS

Georgia's efforts to save more acreage for conservancy is about to get a big boost. And proponents say it could help owners of illiquid land holdings, including banks and developers. Among the provisions of State HB 346 is a proposal that will grant tax incentives to land owners for conserving land and allow them to transfer those credits to other parties, even those residing outside of Georgia. “There's significant sustainable philanthropic benefits created from this, in addition to the transferable tax credits,” Cambridge Capital Partners Ricky Novak tells our Atlanta reporter Jarred Schenke. If passed, Georgia will be one of a handful of states with transferable conservancy tax credits, including Virginia, Colorado, New Mexico, and South Carolina.

FIRST GREEN SEED

One S Dearborn in Chicago was the first LEED-NC pre-certified building in Illinois in 2005, but its simple green elements—outdoor plazas with trees and efficient mechanical systems—were already standards for Hines, general manager Skender Rugovac tells our Chicago reporter Maureen Wilkey. Recently, though, standards for LEED have changed. Hines' global sustainability head Gary Holtzer says its latest Chicago development (bought by KBS) at 300 N LaSalle has no cooling towers—it uses Chicago River water to cool its HVAC systems (building managers clean out the fish every day). And run-off from the green roofs flows into the river, not the sewers.

RE-ENERGY

As more people turn to green power, premiums—currently a cent to 2.5 cents over conventional fossil fuel-based power for residential and small business customers—will hopefully be driven down, says ConEdison Solutions CEO Jorge Lopez, whose firm supplies wind and hydro energy to more than 23,000 commercial and residential customers in NY, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. Last year, its renewable energy program cut fossil fuel consumption by an amount equivalent to 380,000 barrels of oil, with customers offsetting 5% to 100% of their conventional fuel usage. For one, Chelsea Piers, the country’s largest sports and entertainment complex, purchases wind energy in an amount equal to the entire energy usage of its 28-acre, 1M SF site.

BACK TO SCHOOL

The Monarch School in the Houston area has plenty to brag about. The 25k SF school is only the second K-12 school nationwide to receive a 2011 Energy Star label, and it’s the highest-ranked LEED Gold K-12 school in Texas. Our Houston reporter Catie Brubaker snapped school founder Marty Webb and Momentum Bay sustainability consultant Bay Mark Alan Robinson. Monarch is for students with neurological differences (like autism and ADHD), so design and operations focus on a healthy atmosphere and limited distractions. Students take part: they gave us the tour of green features and also shopped for the Plug-In Hybrid Electric Hymotion Prius used for field trips. Mark says operations are Monarch’s strength: It moved from an Energy Star rating of 52 to 85 through conservation and monitoring.

SHOPPING IS COMMENDABLE

When the credit card bill rolls in, just remember you were shopping for the planet when splurging at The Village at Gulf Stream Park in South Florida’s Hallandale Beach. GM Scott Laslo tells us the 400k SF shopping center (part of the first phase of a mixed-use development, which also includes 90k SF of office space by Forest City Enterprises and MI Developments) earned a mixed-use development certification by the Florida Green Building Coalition, which means the developers wanted to voluntarily reduce the burden on the environment and let people know about it, too.

WE’RE WITH YOU!

If you hear Mother Earth’s faint sigh of relief…yeah, that was us. Bisnow has partnered with Green Earth Services to supercharge our green operations at our HQ in DC, also known as Bisneyland (think Googleplex). We snapped Bisnow’s event coordinator Olivia Merlino and sidekick Marley as they greeted Green Earth Services’ president Demetrius Robinson on “recycle bin delivery day” (Yay). So from all of us greenies to all of you greenies, Happy Earth Day!

Today: Earth Day, Good Friday, and our national real estate editor’s oldest son turns 26. Happy Birthday Vincent! Send thoughts to sibley@bisnow.com.