May 15, 2009
CNNPolitics.com, May 14, 2009
Rachel Gutter, of the U.S. Green Building Council, says the benefits of an eco-friendly school will pay off economically.
"The typical green school saves $100,000 a year on direct operating expenses. In school terms, that's enough to hire two new teachers, purchase 200 new computers or 5,000 textbooks," Gutter said.
"So these are major savings. And that's just one year. The typical school lasts 40 years. And when you do the math, it starts to become some serious savings. ... It pays for itself after a few years of operation."
The council, on its Web site, lists several benefits of green buildings, such as improving air and water quality, conserving natural resources, reducing operating costs and improving employee productivity.
But Gutter says that part of the concern over green schools is the fear over construction costs.
"The research shows the greatest barrier to getting more green schools built is the perception that they cost more up front to build," she said. "The fact of the matter is that they don't. ... Building green doesn't have to cost more, and then everything else, all the savings over the lifetime, are just savings you get to put back in your community's pocket."
The legislation, if signed into law, would also help to create new jobs -- around 136,000 positions, according to calculations by the Economic Policy Institute.
But much more is at stake, Gutter says.
"It's about raising a new generation of leaders who inevitably are going to inherit the problems we will leave behind," she said. "So when you're actually able to use the school itself as a teaching tool, as an opportunity for learning, that's when the connections with curriculum really start to happen."
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Mother Nature Network, May 15, 2009
LEED version 3, which was unveiled in late April and explored today in D.C. has updated checklists for both new construction and existing buildings, allowing owners of old inefficient buildings to go through LEED v. 3. New technologies like super insulating curtain walls (which were on display at the Expo) and high-efficiency HVAC (heating & cooling systems) allow a building as old as the Empire State Building to become LEED-accredited.
LEED v. 3 has 3 major advances -- harmonization of checklists, credit weightings and most significantly Regional Priority Credits.
The LEED revamp included a detailed restructuring of HOW points are calculated. The previous congeries of different LEED systems for different project types has been "harmonized" to be more universal, with weighting given to the specific efficiency strategies that have the BIGGEST positive environmental impact.
In other words, LEED has evolved out of an abstract checklist of points, and into a real weighting system tied to real impacts, in particular CO2 emissions. It also gives "extra credit" to strategies that have a particularly desirable impact in a climatic region (i.e. passive cooling in the desert southwest).
This marks a major turning point both in the standards that define "green building" as those standards inch closer each day to becoming a federal mandate. The federal government currently owns 139 certified LEED buildings and has an additional 1,560 registered projects, totaling over 263 million square feet.
One speaker at the Energy Expo said that if Obama wanted to really kick-start the green economy he should simply require the thousands of buildings currently operated by the DOE to become LEED-certified. This would create the demand necessary to scale (through private investment) the many great energy efficiency technologies that are currently available.
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Michigan Business Review/Kalamazoo Gazette, May 15, 2009
Grand Rapids has become known for its focus on sustainability, as has the city's mayor, George Heartwell.
Heartwell is looking forward to attending the U.S. Green Building Council's Greening the Heartland conference in Detroit at the end of May (see related story) because he attended the conference when it was in Chicago in 2005. He spoke on a panel with Chicago's Mayor Daley, Mayor Wynn of Austin, Texas, and Albuquerque's Mayor Chávez.
"I had some fun with them," Heartwell said. "Here's the big boys up there -- what's Grand Rapids doing sitting at the table with the big boys? (I) just talked about what truly Grand Rapids is doing. And if we're doing it here, then every city has to do it."
Heartwell spoke with Business Review reporter Olivia Pulsinelli about some of his efforts in sustainability.
How did you become interested in sustainability?
"I think people come to sustainability generally through one of the windows of the triple bottom line -- through the economic window, the environmental window or the social equity window. So prior to being mayor, my work with the homeless poor in Grand Rapids through Heartside Ministry had given me a sharpened and deep appreciation for the need for any community that wants to call itself sustainable to care for the poorest among us.
"I'm an outdoorsman. I've grown up fishing and hiking, canoeing and kayaking. I just love the outdoors and I appreciate the value of the natural assets.
"So when I became mayor in 2004, I put together a group of key environmental leaders, my mayor's environmental advisory council -- 32 of the leading environmentalists in our metro area here. And I began to work with them to begin to shape my policy directions for the city, as well as to serve as an accountability body to me, to keep me on track.
"They really turned me on to the notion of a balanced triple bottom line. You can't just pay attention to social equity, or you can't just pay attention to environment, or just the economy, you really have to look at policies that address all three areas if you're going to imagine Grand Rapids being a sustainable community for generations to come."
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GlobeSt.com, May 7, 2009
Sustainable buildings also can serve to attract a younger workforce, said Vance Voss, managing director-portfolio management of Principal Real Estate Investors. "A building that is not green will be harder to lease," Voss said.
Relationships can improve, too, as owner/managers educate their tenants on both the building improvements and how the clients can modify their own behavior to help save resources, Hansen said.
"I still think more and more companies will want their facilities to be green," Hansen said. Brownfields will provide ample opportunity for redevelopment, and municipalities increasingly are looking for LEED-certified projects, he added.
Knowledge is the key. Voss recommended that landlords give tenants real-time feedback regarding their energy usage, much as hybrid cars display their fuel efficiency while in motion. "We have to educate and incentivize the tenant to behave better," he said.
It's also important that owners promote their green efforts--tenants won't know a project is sustainable if they aren't told. The result can be higher rents, and better retention of existing tenants.
"We believe you market everything you've done to make your project green," Hansen said. "Put it in your brochures, talk it up with tenants, mention it on your property tours."
All of the efforts will combine for major savings in the short-term, and additional benefits over time, the speakers said. AMB's green buildings achieve the highest rates in their markets, and are more appealing to buyers, according to Hansen.
In addition, they should be more attractive when the acquisitions market comes back. "You don't want to buy an asset today that's one of the least efficient in the market," said William Hankowsky, chairman, president & CEO of Liberty Property Trust.
"The capital markets are very constrained from a debt and equity perspective. Sometimes you have to have a longer-term view," Voss said. "Green buildings are going to lease up quicker, will have a higher tenant retention ratio, and will appeal to a broader swath of buyers in the future."
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