Positive Power of Principled Profit
Volume 3, Number 2 — October, 2005

Positive Power Spotlight: The Helena: Green Principles in a Luxury NYC High Rise

Luxury high rise housing in one of New York's toniest neighborhoods is not typically what I think of when I think about building along environmental principles. But the Helena, on West 57th Street, near Carnegie Hall and Columbus Circle, claims to be just such a place.

I've long felt that if, back in the days of the 1973 oil crisis, we as a country had embarked on a serious plan to slash energy use while maintaining/increasing lifestyle comforts, we'd have been in far better shape as a society. All through the 1980s and 1990s, I watched with horror as rampant sprawl development chewed up farms and forests, throwing up cookie-cutter housing and retail with little or no attention to energy conservation...and meanwhile, the fuel-efficient cars of the early 1980s were crowded out by gas-guzzling behemoths like the Ford Expedition.

Unfortunately, backward-thinking building codes and the desire for short-term profits through cheap construction techniques largely outweighed any momentum to create eco-friendly buildings, especially in the residential sector. Yes, there were a handful of architects and builders using green methods. But except for changing to low-consumption toilets, the industry as a whole didn't see much progress in this area.

So it's quite refreshing to learn about the Helena, going after a very high-end tenant, and not only incorporating many environmental features, but basing its marketing efforts on those ecology-oriented systems. The building is partially solar and geothermal powered, includes charging stations for electric cars and a shuttle to the subway station, uses individual-room heat pumps for efficient and comfortable heating and cooling, has graywater recycling through an on-site water treatment plant to reduce discharge, instituted various pollution-minimizing systems during construction, heats all its water with recaptured waste heat, used recycled and certified-sustainably-grown woods in construction, etc., etc.

You can learn more at http://www.thehelena.com/

Thanks to my PR colleague Peter Shankman, who recently moved in, for telling me about this fascinating experiment.

Another Recommended Book: "What Do You Stand For?: Stories About Principles That Matter," Jim Lichtman, Editor (Santa Barbara, California: Scribbler's Ink, 2004)

This fascinating book looks at the critical moments each of us faces as we go through life: where we have to choose between what's comfortable and convenient, or what's right...or, the harder decisions, between two paths that follow different, and conflicting, ethical principles. Lichtman has collected stories of those moments from both the famous (Mario Cuomo, Mother Teresa, the Dalai Lama, and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., among others) and the unknown.

Unusual among ethics books, many of which seem to have a political agenda in one direction or another, "What Do You Stand For?" is resolutely nonpartisan. For me, one of the most interesting sections was the story of three board members of a Boy Scout troop, who had to struggle in different ways--and made different choices, all grounded in their personal ethics--with the issue of a gay Scoutmaster and an anti-gay national organizational policy.

I did face a challenge with this book. Several times, while reading it, I thought about ethical decisions I've made in the past...and more than once, I thought to myself, it would have been better if I'd chosen differently. So if you pick up this book, be prepared to confront your own demons.

Order from Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0964859114/qid=1124026932/ref=nosim/globalartstravel (hardcover).