Thoughts on the Copenhagen Climate Change Summit By Malcolm Lewis

Well, here we are. The successor to Kyoto has finally arrived, and yet it’s a murky outlook. What will happen? Will mankind pull together to act for the well-being of the planet and all species, or are we doomed by self-interest and the "tragedy of the commons" to argue and temporize instead?

Of course, only time will tell, but there are some hopeful signs. Both the US and China have committed to specific reductions in GHG emissions, though not to the levels needed to achieve equilibrium. Both Barack Obama and Hu Jintao are scheduled to speak in Copenhagen, and one can only hope and pray that statesmanship will be more appealing than chest-thumping. It is possible that some progress will be made in setting global targets for national emissions reductions. And this would be far more progress than was achieved in Kyoto in 1997.

As we await the outcome of the Copenhagen discussions and negotiations, there is another story that needs to be told ... one that has been unfolding for the past few years and is accelerating. This is the story of the parallel efforts to reduce GHG emissions through enlightened actions of both private (non-governmental) and public (governmental) sectors to reduce GHG emissions through policy and actions that don’t require federal law or international agreement.

There is a widespread agreement among scientists and observers around the world that we need to reduce GHG emissions to the point where we can maintain a maximum of 350 ppm CO2 in the atmosphere. This has informed countless public and private programs to drive down GHG emissions from every possible source: power plants, buildings, transportation, and industry. These programs range from the State of California’s AB-32 Global Warming Solutions Act to the global network of activists at http://www.350.org/ to commitments by major corporations to reduce their carbon footprints.

The portion of this activity in which CTG is most active is the built environment (buildings, communities, and related infrastructure). We have been working for years in the area of carbon emissions reductions, pioneering techniques that can make this achievable both technically and economically. A summary of some of these activities includes:

• CTG developed its Climate Ready™ services to aid property owners and managers to assess and manage the implications of climate change on real estate portfolios.
• CTG developed one of the modeling approaches for assessing carbon mitigation strategies that was recommended by the State of California Attorney General's office for real estate project entitlements.
• CTG is currently leading a statewide team under the California Energy Commission's Public Interest Energy Research (PIER) program to develop protocols for prediction and measurement of GHG emissions from buildings and land use, which it is anticipated will be the basis for the state's implementation of AB-32.
• CTG performed the analysis underlying the inclusion in LEED of carbon weighting for LEED 2009, and is currently doing the same for LEED 2012.
• CTG has provided support to many of its real estate clients in assessing the “carbon footprint” of their portfolios and determining economically viable ways to reduce those footprints.

The point of summarizing these activities is to make clear that the world doesn’t need to sit on its hands pending agreements reached in Copenhagen. There are many tangible and practical steps that can be taken (and are being taken) by individuals and organizations to reduce GHG emissions now. If you’d like more insight as to how, contact John Irvine at jji@ctg-net.com / 949-428-6267.

In our next post we’d like to offer ideas about what more can be done to reduce the impacts the built environment has on climate change.

-Malcolm

Malcolm Lewis is President of CTG Energetics

Greenbuild 2009 – Wow! By Malcolm Lewis

28,000 people traveled to Phoenix to attend Greenbuild in the midst of a major economic downturn! What is going on?

Well, the messages seemed clear:

• Even though the overall market is down, there is a lot of activity and growth in the "green space".


• As the markets come back, green will be much more prevalent in regulations, projects, and market demand.


• What started as a focus of USGBC on making individual buildings "green" has now morphed to include:
  
  
  • community scale development and re-development
  
  
  • widespread public policy (at local, state, and national levels – around the world)
  
  
  • climate change reductions (both mitigation and adaptation)
  
  
  • green products and green supply chains
  
  
  • transportation modes and policies
  
  
  • green best practices for corporate sustainability.


• » In other words, green is spreading out to encompass the entire real estate economy (and beyond).


• Even as innovations continue, the green industry has become "mainstream" ... no longer the purview of early adopters and environmental organizations, but widely embraced across many industries and sectors as the new approach to business.
  
  
  • In prior years, we have noted that it was clear that green building was not a fad but a major trend, and this was strongly reinforced this year, both in the hundreds of educational presentations and in the 1,800 exhibitor booths in the Exposition.
  
  
  • There were countless presentations describing actual projects and policies that have been implemented, in the US and internationally.


• The USGBC has seen its LEED Green Building Rating System become the de facto international standard for certifying green buildings, and the growth in the quantity of buildings and square footage enrolled in the LEED program is staggering. This is creating enormous opportunities for LEED, including:
  
  
  • Much of the success and growth described above can be attributed to the successful uptake of LEED by the real estate industry. This has created extraordinary "brand power" of LEED that is truly transforming the practice of design, construction and operations of real estate.
  
  
  • The need to document the benefits and savings of operating LEED-certified buildings.
    
    
    • This is being addressed through LEED’s new requirement that all LEED 2009 projects report their monthly energy and water usage to USGBC once operations begin.
    
    
    • The new USGBC Building Performance Initiative, which was announced at Greenbuild, will take this benchmarking effort mainstream.
  
  
  • LEED-EB registrations this year now exceed LEED-NC registrations.

If you were at Greenbuild this year, what themes or trends did you notice? I welcome your comments and feedback, and am eager to learn what others took away from the conference.

-Malcolm



Malcolm Lewis is President of CTG Energetics

Energy Reporting Requirement Raises the Bar for LEED Green Buildings by Greg Shank

The new energy performance reporting requirements for LEED green buildings set forth by the U.S. Green Building Council has sparked a variety of reactions: joy, fear, misinformation etc. It seems like a good time to answer some of the most frequently asked questions about the new regulations and their importance to designing, constructing and operating more energy efficient buildings:

Q: Will my LEED building be decertified if it is an energy hog?
A: LEED buildings can be decertified for not reporting performance—not for poor performance. Being targeted as an energy hog is the most frequently repeated misunderstanding. The aim of the new rules is to evaluate buildings and learn from them. For example, what factors contribute to wasteful energy use that are not currently captured by LEED requirements? The aim is to improve performance by improving the USGBC LEED Rating System.

Q: Why is this data so important?
A: Collecting data is just the start. What counts is what you do with the data. Despite the tendency to immediately label a building as a high-performer or a hog, the greatest value is derived from reviewing daily, monthly, and annual trends to reveal performance slippage or anomalies. Some typical ways to benefit from the information:

• Pinpoint when filters need changing or controls need calibrating


• Discover HVAC equipment or lighting that is unnecessarily running 24/7


• Use building performance data from the months immediately following Commissioning to establish a baseline/benchmark


• Educate building occupants on the impacts of their behaviors

Q: How can my building perform poorly if it's achieved the LEED energy credits?
A: LEED-NC EA credit 1 requirements are based on a set of strict operating assumptions and rules to ensure apples-to-apples comparison of buildings across the country and throughout the world. The resultant energy model is effective at determining, on a percentage basis, the efficiency of your building's design compared to a minimally code-compliant building of the same size and shape. These models help designers compare, for example, the relative benefits of different glazing options versus lighting options, but they are not intended as predictors of actual energy use under real-world conditions.

Q: What about the Energy Star score as a predictor of energy performance?
A: Energy Star is a better measure of actual use, but it too has limitations. An Energy Star score of 90 means the building scores in the 90th percentile of a national database of buildings. That database of buildings is strong in some building types and regions of the country and weak in others. Furthermore, specialty building uses can dramatically skew results. For example, buildings with data centers need to take extra steps to properly account for the higher energy use intensity of those spaces to avoid skewing the building rating. Similarly, the presence of laboratory spaces in hi-tech or classroom buildings can dramatically influence the relevance of metrics that rely on "average" consumption data.

Q: How could my building end up way over code in losses?
A: There can be a number of reasons. The analysis has to include variables like equipment, occupancy and behavior. Some examples:

• Metered use in identical apartments can differ by 100%, 200% or more based on occupant behavior and computer/TV equipment


• Individual floors of a building with the same organization or tenant can vary by as much as three to one.


• An on-site laundry facility in a hotel or hospital can increase the total energy use by 25% or more.

Q: Isn't this energy performance requirement just another administrative boondoggle?
A: Of course only time can truly answer that question, but there are clear opportunities to make this a worthwhile program. One hope is that this information will serve as a critical resource for future technical committees as they work to continuously improve the LEED Rating Systems and strengthen the connections between credit requirements and dependable performance. A second opportunity lies simply in the coordinated creation of an intelligent data set with regional and building-type diversity. This type of information has not been readily available from utilities or government agencies. Information is power, especially in this internet age, and it is highly likely that third party consultants and organizations will be able to leverage this information in 5-10 years in powerful ways to inform the design of buildings, systems, and equipment.

-Greg
Greg Shank is the Vice President of CTG Energetics

Cutting costs in existing buildings By Jim Meacham

CTG is excited to be attending this year’s IFMA (International Facility Management Association) annual conference, the World Workplace 2009 Conference & Expo at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida. Along with my colleague Natalie Bodenhamer, CTG will be hosting a booth in the exhibitor hall, attending some of the presentations & workshops, and hosting a book signing at our booth.

Find out how industry leaders are cutting costs

One of the areas of focus at this year’s conference that we’re particularly excited about is related to cost cutting in existing buildings, and that it CAN be successfully accomplished - even in today’s challenging environment. In CTG’s practice of working with clients to green their facilities, the concept we emphasize is that sustainable changes can be implemented and significant savings realized at any point in the building lifecycle.

More and more owners and facility managers are embracing this concept. For every client and every building we work with there are always opportunities at any point in a building life-cycle and at a wide budget range to achieve a substantially more sustainable facility and yield significant savings to your organization’s bottom line.

The relationship between greening a facility and the resulting cost savings is an important focus. At CTG we’ve helped scores of clients develop programs that have generated surprising ROI, and part of our goal for attending the IFMA conference this year is to share these stories of savings and get more building owners and facility managers on board with a sustainable facilities program.

Some of the key points are:

• Sustainability can play a surprisingly positive role in scaling back operating costs.
• Choosing portfolio vs. single-building approach depends on your organization’s specific goals.
• Actual results are now available in recent case studies.
• Measures can be implemented at any point in a building lifecycle, and a wide range of budgets.
• Greening a building will prolong a building’s life, increase the asset’s value, and provide for a healthier, more comfortable working environment.

If you happen to be attending this year’s conference, please stop by and visit us - we’d like to hear about the challenges you’re facing. We’re at booth 1025, near the main IFMA booth in aisle 1000.

New book on cutting costs debuts at IFMA

At IFMA an important new handbook on smart cost-cutting makes its debut. Cut It Out, an exciting new approach to overall cost management is being released on October 7 and will make its debut at the IFMA World Workplace. According to the authors, "This handbook is designed for all those who face these management challenges in buildings today, it is the GPS for driving innovative cost reductions and it template for sustainable answers demanded by today’s environmentally minded occupants."

A book signing will be held by the authors at the CTG booth (1025) on Wednesday, 10/7 at 4 pm. Come and hear firsthand how leading organizations have structured, implemented and duplicated successful cost cutting projects and programs. Download a summary for the “Cut It Out” presentation series at: http://www.ctg-net.com

We look forward to seeing you at the conference. And if you’re not at the conference, feel free to give us a call or send an email anytime.

-Jim
Jim Meacham is Director of Advanced Energy Systems at CTG Energetics

LEED in the Hospitality Industry By Ryan Gaylord

To some, the concept of a sustainable 17 million SF -resort development in the Las Vegas desert doesn’t make sense. Isn’t such a project inherently non-sustainable? The owners, developers, and design team for MGM MIRAGE sought to challenge this notion when they set out to build CityCenter. As designed, the vision for the project was to create the world’s largest environmentally sustainable urban community.



CTG was hired as the executive LEED consultant on the project to oversee the sustainability efforts of approximately 10 different architectural, planning, and design firms. As one of CTG’s project managers for this development, I’ve observed firsthand over the past three years the unique challenges and obstacles facing a resort of this size and scale. For example, when it came time to choose wood products for CityCenter, including cabinets, doors, countertops, casework, flooring etc., it became apparent that the global supply of wood certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) was limited. Due to the immense size of CityCenter, multiple international vendors obtained FSC chain of custody certification in order to supply wood products to the project. Furthermore, these vendors changed their manufacturing processes to exclude resins containing urea formaldehyde, a toxic substance to humans. The list of examples for market transformation on CityCenter is endless, and the positive impact that this has made on the sustainability industry is immense.

The project will open to the public in December, 2009 – complete with hotels, residences, a casino, convention center, showroom, restaurants, and retail venues. The sustainability features of the project include cool roofs for 7 of the 8 buildings, water efficiency measures amounting to a 33% reduction in potable water use and an incredible construction waste diversion rate from the landfill of 94%. While CityCenter has not received certification yet, the project is targeting a combination of LEED-NC and LEED-CS ratings on 8 distinct projects.

LEED and Hospitality Projects

It’s certainly hard to define a one-size fits all green building rating system for all industries and building types. For example, the energy and water requirements of a hotel are dramatically different from that of a commercial office building. To this end, USGBC has continually developed their LEED Green Building Rating System to better evaluate buildings in different sectors.

In April of this year, USGBC introduced LEED v3 – the newest version of their rating system. The new system allows for more consistency between different rating systems, and credit interpretations are more likely to be considered project-specific (rather than the traditional model of precedent-setting). The new system also includes new credit weightings based on environmental impact, and regional credits, which can be achieved by addressing environmental issues specific to a project’s location.

On the 27th of August I’ll be visiting the Montage Resort in Laguna Beach, CA to speak at the 1st Annual Green Hospitality Conference, an event sponsored by the Orange County Chapter of the US Green Building Council. The event will focus on issues specific to the hospitality industry and how hotels and resorts can cost effectively implement sustainability, and my presentation will focus on the newest version of the LEED Rating System, LEED 2009. Feel free to join if you can: http://www.usgbc-oc.org

There is a lot more to share on this topic, and more interesting stories from CityCenter, but for now I’ll keep it brief and hope you can join us at the Montage on 8/27!

-Ryan
Ryan Gaylord is a Green Building Consultant at CTG Energetics

Greening Future Generations By Karen Blust

What do you get when you combine broken toilets, used tires, old train tracks, and pieces of bamboo with 250 elementary school kids? Lots of questions, that's what!

For the second year in a row, I made a trip to a local elementary school to give a presentation to kids about green building and recycled products. Interest from teachers was particularly strong this year, so what started out as a small presentation with a couple classes was moved to the cafeteria and before I knew it there were nine 4th and 5th classes in front of me!



Hands-on, interactive presentations are always the best to keep everyone interested and demonstrate what's being said. After running through a slideshow about what green building is, we broke the kids into groups and showed them examples of different recycled and renewable products – counter tops made from old toilets and sinks; insulation made from cotton; carpets made from corn; and floor tiles made from cork.



It can be difficult to explain what a green building is, how it is better for the environment, and how recycled products can be incorporated. The hands-on portion was great, because it had the kids guessing and asking questions. The most pointed question of the day came from a 4th grade student: "What materials in my classroom are green?" Looking around, I noticed particleboard desks and vinyl flooring ... not many green products. I found a thin strip of cork above the whiteboard and pointed it out. The students seemed unimpressed. Why weren't their desks made of sunflowers and their floors made of toilets? That's a good question.

At the end, we left each of the kids with reusable shopping bags. The kids were tasked by their teachers to write letters to their parents about what they learned and how they were going to be friendlier to the planet. Now if only their schools could have desks made of recycled content, corn carpets, and bamboo floors ...

-Karen
Karen Blust is a Green Building Consultant at CTG Energetics

Carbon Mapping – Online Calculators By Noah Goldstein

Online calculators: Dipping our toes in the stream:


In the past few months, we have seen an explosion of online web calculators that model a plethora of sustainability-related issues, from carbon to water and beyond. The calculators typically enable users to enter data, and out pops some sort of metric, or number of the impact of their actions, lifestyle, or event. This post is the beginning of a series of posts referring and reviewing web calculators. Given the wide variety of topics and depth of these calculators, we will do our best to highlight the good, the bad, and the backbone of these web-tools. We would love to have your feedback, and of course any additional links that are relevant to the calculator. Happy Calculating!

For our first post on this thread, we are looking at the Community Footprint Tool, an online carbon mapping tool from JustEnvirons, a consulting firm run by C. Scott Smith. This tool allows people to enter a place in California (address, city, zip code, etc.) and examine the corresponding zip code’s carbon footprint in a variety of dimensions. For example, if I look up the new CTG office’s zip code (94612) in Oakland, I get this little map of downtown Oakland with the area code highlighted:

You also can use the “map indicator” pull-down menu to compare how each California zip code fares among 7 dimensions to the California Average. For example, if I pull down “Household electricity usage”, I get the following map, with big orange “+” signs for where electrify usage is above average, and big blue “-“ symbols where it is below the state average:


I also get an interesting table that enumerates the “map indicators” down to metric tons of CO2 equivalents (mTCO2e).




Why is this so interesting? For a number of reasons … first, it is a great introduction to per capita carbon footprints, and brings it down to a local level. People can connect to their zip code (not in a fuzzy way, the same way they connect to Pandas (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charismatic_megafauna), but we write it all the time (or at least we enter our zip code into a web page frequently). Second, this breakdown can show people what really goes on in their city. I had no idea that Oakland (or at least 94612) had so much carbon associated with manufacturing and driving – I assumed I lived in a more commercial, transit oriented city, with the double fists of ACTransit and BART crisscrossing the city. Lastly, and most importantly, these data illustrate how people can cut down on their Carbon footprint. Manufacturing notwithstanding, reducing driving and electricity conservation matter, and are tangible components of reducing one’s footprint.

How did JustEnvirons do this? They took advantage of the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics and the rich data sets available by the California Energy Commission. The upshot is that this kind of easy interface can be generated easily for California, which is not only the fourth most energy efficient state but one of the most populous. Most of these numbers can be generated for all of the US, with the exception of the Manufacturing, Commercial goods, and Agricultural data. Many, but not all, states record these data. It would be great if these results could be compiled for cities, which they could; it is just a matter of time and effort. Also it would be great to compare two places side-by-side, adding on to other resources for relocating and quality of life (see http://www.bestplaces.net/city/). If you had the choice to live in a below-average carbon zip code, would you?

-Noah

Noah Goldstein is CTG’s Director of Spatial Analysis and Director of CTG’s new Oakland office

Follow-Up Thoughts on GreenBuild 2008 By Malcolm Lewis

There was a special celebration this past week in Boston as 30,000 people came together from around the world to attend GreenBuild 2008. The celebration was the 15th anniversary of the founding of the US Green Building Council, but it was so much more. It recognized that the “market transformation” envisioned by the USGBC through its LEED Green Building Rating System is well on its way. It expressed the global spirit of relief and excitement that the politics of fear and negativity and nihilism that have governed our environmental policies for many years are starting to give way to hope and optimism and renewal. It marked the transition from creating the first steps of a more sustainable future to gathering momentum towards broader implementation. It was a clear sign of the transition of sustainability and green building from an avant garde fringe movement to the center of the action in the real estate industry.

Some of the impressions and experiences of the week:

• The context of the economic meltdown especially gave us the chance to see this as a time of opportunity to do things differently.
• Sustainability was shown in numerous case studies and examples as an effective antidote for the failed policies of the old economy.
• There were practical examples of the “triple bottom line” that combines economics, environment, and the human spirit in successful sustainable projects.
• Archbishop Desmond Tutu talking about “you Americans are a crazy (in the positive sense) and wonderful people [for taking the bold step of electing Obama]” and about the necessity of man’s stewardship of God’s creation.
• Major building product manufacturers declaring GreenBuild as the show they plan to exhibit at in hard times.
• Systems thinking making clear that transportation and buildings are inextricably linked and must be thought about together rather than separately.
• Green chemistry and biomimicry demonstrated as the basis for whole new classes of materials that are environmentally preferable and economically preferable.
• That LEED is just one step forward in the huge challenge we need to meet for reducing our carbon footprint and bringing our settlements into harmony with nature.
• At the very moment that the auto industry is on its knees, people gathered to re-vision human settlements that are walkable and appropriately located and powered renewably.
• Major real estate portfolio managers describing new approaches to “greening” their entire portfolios.
• Examples of using the carbon offset needs of a global manufacturer to improve the energy and economic performance of low-income housing in New Orleans and elsewhere.
• Discussions of how to share case studies of entire “carbon positive communities”, as the way forward globally for meeting the demand for human development that is also sustainable.
• Examples of regenerative development that restores habitats to natural conditions last seen hundreds of years ago, while also supporting human settlements and economic industry.

You could almost hear the sounds and feel the seismic shocks of change, as the old ways of the real estate industry are being discarded and replaced with new paradigms – still meeting all the conventional metrics of economic cost and value, yet doing so in ways that improve the environment and uplift the human spirit. [No, this transformation isn’t done, in fact it is only just beginning and there will be many hard fights ahead…but it is clearly and indisputably happening in very tangible ways and in measurable scales.]

So that’s the short version of GreenBuild 2008. It was a profound experience, because of the times we are in (of economic turmoil and political change) and because of the huge cumulative transformation that is taking place in the real estate and building world. It portends great things for the future, and I came away being very inspired, excited, and confident that CTG is doing the right things at the right time.

-Malcolm

Malcolm Lewis is the President of CTG Energetics

Is Green Building a Movement or a New Core Discipline? By Greg Shank

There have been many moments of visioning, inspiration, and goal-setting during this year's GreenBuild Conference. Behind those public announcements, however, is a fascinating dialogue that is examining the future of green building standards and advocacy. I've spoken with many people this week who feel strongly that green building will eventually become the norm, and we won't need to label it green any longer. There are also many who feel there will always be a need to push the global construction industry towards higher levels of achievement related to environmental impact, health, and social equity.

I find myself solidly in the latter group, arguing that new disciplines are emerging within the global industries that plan, permit, design, construct, operate, and renew our built environment. What are these new disciplines? I certainly don't have all the answers, but here are some possibilities:

1. Visualization and Spatial Modeling – a new crew of professionals is emerging that blends knowledge of architectural design with basic engineering and energy to provide project teams with an integrated picture of the context and performance of the project throughout its lifecycle.

2. Construction Integrators – I would argue that construction management, as a trade, needs to be replaced with construction integration. The old model of employing team members to watch over the handoff of information from architect to contractor does not meet the needs of high performance building projects. The future lies in professionals that can coach the teams all the way through and connect designers and builders at critical intervals.

These ideas just scratch the surface of how green building professionals might evolve into core pieces of every project in the future. Stay tuned for more ideas or share your own!

-Greg

Greg Shank is the Vice President of CTG Energetics

Progressive Products, Policies Championed as Greenbuild 2008 Opens By John Irvine

Greenbuild 2008 opened Tuesday evening in pointed contrast to the financial doom and gloom clogging the media. Close to 30,000 attendees are expected, up from last year’s 22,800. An additional 15,000 participants worldwide will watch via web hook-up. This largest-ever Expo of firms showing green building related wares and skills sends a clear message: tough financial times haven’t deterred the producers of green products and services. Design firms, contractors and consultants are here en masse, alongside exhibitors offering everything from waterless urinals and high efficiency HVAC systems to LED lighting and pervious paving. More than 1,600 firms are exhibiting—a 33% increase over the 2007 conference.

The keynote speech Wednesday morning by South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu was an inspiration. Archbishop Tutu thanked the green building movement for helping save the planet, noting that “caring for our earth home is becoming part of the texture of our morality. Not caring is like not caring about egregious human rights violations.” The 1984 Nobel Laureate lavished praise on the green building movement: “You are the cat’s whiskers ... wonderful, fantastic people.” He lauded the US more broadly for electing Barack Obama to the presidency -“He’s an incredible guy” and adding (with feigned jealousy), “He’s not only young but handsome!” In his closing remarks, Archbishop Tutu left the audience with a simple yet profound request: “Please help make this a more caring world.”

Earlier in the morning, Founding Chair and CEO Rick Fedrizzi marked USGBC’s 15th anniversary proceedings with a call for the green building industry to create 2.5 million jobs in five years. These workers would form “the backbone of the new economy” by performing energy audits, weatherizing homes and optimizing the performance of building systems. Rick said this endeavor to bring about cleaner air, lower carbon emissions and a higher quality of life was our “moonshot challenge.” He predicted schools, homes and office buildings would become “mini-utilities” by generating more energy than they consumed. The result would be large, green livable cities - which is where half the Earth’s population resides. Rick’s conclusion: “We are revolutionary green.”

-John

John Irvine is CTG’s Director of Client Services.