Last week, Steve Jobs pre­sented to the Cupertino City Council Apple’s plans to build their new single-building, spaceship-shaped cam­pus to house up to 13,000 employees.

What stands out about this announce­ment is Apple’s clear man­date to go green despite the sig­nif­i­cant increase in cost. Highlights of this build­ing project include a 90% reduc­tion of asphalt, a 60% increase of trees (with an empha­sis on native), and a 30% decrease in build­ing foot­print. While going green is cer­tainly a main­stream idea by now, to have a mar­quee com­pany make such a mate­r­ial invest­ment to do it well is land­mark. Jobs claims it will be the best office build­ing in the world. Read the rest of this entry »