Gay Guilott is the owner of Guilott Realty, Inc located in Bandera, Texas made a decision to go green with her company and did it in a big way. Guilott Realty, Inc built a brand new building and went as green as they possibly could.
Here is the list of things Guilott Realty has done:
- Renewable pine walls in the interior (no sheetrock)
- Implemented a new recycling program for waste
- Fluorescent light bulbs used throughout
- Composite plastic decking for the outside deck
- Rainwater collection (no use of city water at all)
This is a great set of accomplishments for any company that made a commitment to go green. There is a problem though. The rainwater collection part of that list is raising all kinds of stink in the small town of Bandera. The city is demanding that Guilott connects her building to the city water line and starts paying a bill even if it’s the minimum monthly bill of $16 a month. City officials have gone so far as to threatened arrest and a $200 a day fine if she does not comply soon. I think this is completely wrong. I’m not sure if it is part of the building code or what, but Bandera is a small enough city that it should be able to change with the times.
Mrs. Guilott had the ability to see that the time to go green is now. These cities especially small cities should be grabbing a hold on the green movement and using it to gain ground and a better tax base by giving incentives to go green. Threatening people for saving the city and its taxpayers water and probably money is just not the way to go about business Bandera.
I’m proud to see small businesses still leading the way in innovation and taking risks. I hope that the city does right by this woman, her business and the citizens of Bandera Texas by allowing and celebrating green building.
What do you think? Have you ever done anything green just to have some entity come and tell you that you couldn’t?
KSAT’s story about Mrs Guilott’s fight
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December 16th, 2008 at 2:14 am
Hi
Nice blog was looking around and noticed your from San Antonio
I’m over by Lackland and not from here originally.Anyway I just wanted
to wish you a Happy Holiday and wish you the best with the Blog etc
Cool niche should be real hot let’s hope
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December 19th, 2008 at 3:13 pm
Sounds like Guilott Realty is a fine company and kudos for the green strives in their new building. Hopefully their problems with the city can be worked out and they can be rewarded for their conservation efforts instead of fined.
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December 19th, 2008 at 3:17 pm
Well said absolutely believe they should be celebrated instead of threatened. Sometimes it takes someone to go the extra mile to get some changes rolling. I hope it works out as well. Thank you.
February 4th, 2009 at 5:43 pm
She should probably just follow the law first. If she wanted to not hook up to the cities water than she should have got the laws changed before building. I still applaud what she has done though.
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