COVER STORY, JULY 2008

GREEN IS GOOD
The West leads the way in the sustainability movement.
Brian A. Lee

The green wave within commercial real estate design and development continues to grow. The value of green building construction is projected to increase to $60 billion by 2010, according to McGraw-Hill Construction Analytics. There’s little wonder about this powerful movement when one considers that buildings account for 39 percent of the country’s primary energy use, 12.2 percent of all potable water consumption and 40 percent of the raw materials used globally (3 billion tons annually).

Western real estate companies and municipalities are leading the way in the fusion of green efficiency and responsibility in commercial development. According to the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), the West boasts 61 percent more LEED-certified (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) projects than the next best region of the country since the rating system was first released in 2000. Western Real Estate Business contacted various experts to learn about the latest in sustainable strategies and structures.

Green Goals

It is said that knowledge is power. In commercial development, more and more participants are pursuing the knowledge of green design and building to power their companies through times of unstable energy markets and into better agreement with the environment. Operational efficiency and environmental stewardship now come in the same color, but staying up with the rising tide of sustainability takes quality teamwork and know-how.

“There are many useful green products available and even more new ones emerging, but it takes a commitment on the part of the design firm to research and then utilize the appropriate technology,” says Timothy Boe, founder and president of BOE Alliance International.

Active in construction design and urban planning for the past 40 years, BOE is certainly showing its commitment to ride the green wave, starting a whole new studio, called Eco-Tects, dedicated to sustainable design and emerging green technology. Within this new green division and under the company’s latest “directed awareness” initiative, the goal is to find or develop the latest and greatest sustainable practices so that construction budgets, operational costs and environmental impact can stay in harmony with each other, which is to say as low as possible. It’s certainly an adjustment.

“In many ways, it’s like what the automobile industry is currently experiencing,” says Boe. “They need to build more fuel-efficient cars, but first they must re-tool their factories and educate their workers. The commitment, while being very satisfying and worthwhile in the long term, requires a great deal of additional effort and allocation of resources in the short term.”

The company made up of BOE Architects, Eco-Tects and RBA Studios is most active in the office and retail sectors, whose companies have shown a very strong interest in sustainable design as a key method for reducing operating expenses in their facilities. If these companies were initially only concentrating on the bottom-line benefits of going green, they certainly have welcomed the marketing and public-relations appeal of being environmentally conscious.

Boe says that, prior to 2000, specific requests by clients for sustainable design were rare, but the design firm was involved back then with many brownfield-reuse projects requiring a substantial amount of clean-up effort.

“Now with almost every project we work on, the client expresses an interest in sustainable design,” says Boe. “Their current motivation is undoubtedly due to many factors — uncertainty of future energy costs, concern for environmental impacts, the emergence of improved green technology, and finally the increased incentives of government and utility companies for green-building projects.”

Even with all those reasons for savng both kinds of green, Boe says some real estate firms still view the sustainable trend as just a marketing chip at the negotiating table, not something that relates to overall operational performance.

“With the flurry of new laws being adopted by the various municipalities, I feel that our clients would be taking an undue risk by not targeting sustainability at the outset of a project,” he says. “Time is money, and embarking upon a long design and entitlements process in the belief that the project will not be scrutinized for sustainability issues and held to that standard is risky at best. Smart approaches to design will anticipate the possibility that there may be energy shortages in the future, making self-sustaining buildings a premium commodity should shortages occur. Sophisticated clients will anticipate these factors and recognize that to not design green could result in costly delays and buildings that are antiquated long before their normal life cycle is fulfilled. In the case of tenant-occupied buildings, all indications are that the tenant market is expecting and will pay for sustainability as it will reduce their operating costs.”

Ways & Greens

Sustainable tools and technology within commercial developments are not achieving peak efficiency and conservation if they aren’t working together. A building’s architect, contractor, maintenance company and owner each has a unique role, but these component responsibilities must be evaluated comprehensively. To see the big picture, many firms have turned to Building Information Modeling (BIM).

“There is so much in green building that requires data, such as origin or recycled content,” says Pete Blakely, the president of BJG | Architecture + Engineering. “Since it is easy to put that information into the BIM system, we can then use BIM to calculate and update total project green attributes.”

How is this trend catching on within commercial real estate’s green movement? Blakely cited Autodesk’s 200 percent sales increase of its Revit Architecture software from 2 years ago. The company’s product is a “purpose-built solution” for BIM and thus key for sustainable design.

Before creating sustainability advantages, BIM allowed a construction project team to streamline its total approach versus the old, inefficient, piecemeal approach.

“Other methods require each part of the construction team to maintain their information separately,” says Blakely. “We are starting to look at using BIM to create digital building prototypes that can improve the construction process by optimizing the construction sequence and create just-in-time material delivery schedules. This will move building closer to factory-type efficiency.”

Sustainable Structures

ANC's first green development located in Henderson, Nevada.

American Nevada Company (ANC) has gone green in its Green Valley Corporate Center, a 90-acre master-planned office community in Henderson, Nevada.

“We saved the best for last,” says Ed Schiel, senior vice president of ANC’s Commercial Division. “2360 Corporate Circle was built on the last remaining parcel within Green Valley Corporate Center. This new building serves as the premier product in the development and represents the green design and building commitment we have made for all future projects of this nature.”

The $40 million, 134,400-square-foot Class A office building is ANC’s first green development. Slated for completion last month in the southeast part of the Las Vegas valley, it will feature facilities that use 30 percent less water and landscaping that requires 50 percent less water. Photo-voltaic panels on the building’s reflective roof will generate enough electricity to operate the lights in the parking garage. The construction of 2360 Corporate Circle utilized more than 33 percent recycled content, and more than 75 percent of construction waste was recycled. ANC has also committed to buying Green-e certified renewable energy credits.

“It is important to ANC and The Greenspun Corporation that our developments not only serve a need in the market, but that they are built and operated in a way that is sensitive to the environment,” says Schiel. “ANC is an efficient operator and manager of our buildings. This building is our most efficient to date. Certainly, the green movement is a step in the right direction, and ANC will continue to strive to develop the most efficient and ecologically friendly building projects possible.”

When it came time for homebuilder Matarozzi/Pelsinger Builders (MPB) to find itself a new home in San Francisco, there was no doubt what color it would be. Long devoted to green/sustainable practices, the company will move into its new headquarters and first complete, sustainable commercial building this summer.

“We have been integrating sustainable features into homes for years,” says Dan Matarozzi, MPB’s co-founder and owner. “However, in most projects we are limited to the directives of the designer and client. This project [in San Francisco’s SOMA district] has enabled us to incorporate sustainability into many aspects of the building. The biggest factors were that we had control of the design and were able to take advantage of economies of scale based on the large footprint of the building.”

Slated for completion this month, the 14,000-square-foot building will be the first approved under San Francisco’s accelerated permitting process with expected Gold LEED certification as recognized by the USGBC. Sustainable building features include responsive, energy-efficient lighting; a 30-kilowatt, solar photovoltaic-power roof system designed to provide 70 percent of the projected energy load for the building; and more than half of the wood used either recycled or Forest Stewardship Council-sourced. The historic nature of the property and the diversification of its space appealed to MPB’s principals.

“The site used to be home to the Jackson Street Brewing Company,” says Matarozzi. “We liked the idea of taking a historic site and renovating it with the latest sustainable building techniques and features. The building demonstrates that style, comfort and sustainability can co-exist.”

Having outgrown its old location, MPB’s latest expansion was destined to be a smart-growth move.

“This project is a culmination of a long developing approach to building,” says Matarozzi. “Environment has always been a focus of MPB. This project gave us a chance to use all of our accumulated knowledge to conceive, design and construct a sustainable office building.”

Sources: U.S. Green Building Council; 2003 U.S. DOE Buildings Energy Data Book; U.S. Geological Service, 1995 data; Lenssen and Roodman, 1995, “Worldwatch Paper 124: A Building Revolution: How Ecology and Health Concerns are Transforming Construction,” Worldwatch Institute.

GREEN LIGHT: ASU Brightens Day and Development In what will be the largest deployment of solar power infrastructure by any university in the country, Arizona State University (ASU) has awarded energy contracts to Honeywell Building Systems, Independent Energy Group and SolEquity to install two megawatts of solar electric modules on approximately 135,000 square feet of rooftop space and some parking structures on its Tempe campus. The installation will begin next month with completion scheduled for December. According to the university, the solar panels will meet up to 7 percent of the energy needs for the Tempe campus. Generating approximately $425,00 worth of energy, the two megawatts of electricity can run approximately 4,600 computers. The reduction of ASU’s carbon emissions by 2,825 tons per year is equivalent to removing the annual emissions of 523 automobiles. ASU’s commitment to green pursuits like renewable energy is evident in both its practices and programs; the university’s School of Sustainability was the first of its kind in the nation. — Brian A. Lee

GREEN LIGHT: Protecting the Ranch in So. California In May, Tejon Ranch Co. and many of the nation’s foremost environmental organizations announced one of the largest conservation and land-use agreements in California history. The unprecedented compact would provide for the permanent protection of 240,000 acres of the historic Tejon Ranch — approximately 90 percent of the entire landholding. Tejon Ranch is located at the confluence of four major ecological regions — the Sierra Nevada, Mojave Desert, Coastal Range and San Joaquin Valley. The area protected under this agreement is eight times the size of San Francisco, and in Southern California, would stretch from Santa Monica to Seal Beach and from Burbank to Brea. The environmental groups involved included The Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council, Audubon California, the Planning and Conservation League, and the Endangered Habitats League. The Tejon Ranch Company was joined by its partner Scottsdale, Arizona-based DMB Associates Inc. The agreement guarantees Tejon Ranch Co.’s right to proceed with its existing development plans in three locations on the western edge of the ranch.

©2008 France Publications, Inc. Duplication or reproduction of this article not permitted without authorization from France Publications, Inc. For information on reprints of this article contact Barbara Sherer at (630) 554-6054.