It’s an environmentalist’s shop/work center with a green roof, re-used building materials, more bike than car parking and tenants like Patagonia (sustainable clothing), Hot Lips Pizza (organic, local pies), Shorebank Pacific (an eco-bank) and World Cup Coffee and Tea (organic, shade-grown, fairtrade & relationship coffees). Portland, Oregon’s Natural Capital Center was the first historic redevelopment in the US to receive LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) gold status.

In this video, Howard Silverman of non-profit Ecotrust, the center’s owner/tenant, about all the sustainable building features and why Ecotrust advisor and Whole Earth Catalog founder Stewart Brand asked, before the redesign, “do you want a building that’s more like a showcase or more like a laboratory?

We also have a video about Shorebank Pacific and green banking.