LEED for Existing Buildings – We ALL Win By Lisa Stanley

Sustainable facilities. LEED EB. LEED Certified buildings. Greening operations practices. Why? Are you chasing a plaque? Competing with your peers? Another feather in your cap? Ego of the real estate owner? It’s not all about ego – but that does play a part. The good news – we are working with a win-win-win! The building owner, property manager, leasing agents and tenants crave the status of being associated with a LEED certified building. The result is that they are making changes to their day-to-day operations.

Even if getting a plaque is somewhat about ego, competition and prestige, that’s fine – chances are you also have a genuine interest in making a difference in the world. As a matter of fact, most people do want to have a positive impact on our environment and satisfy that ego. What I find so incredibly gratifying is supporting building teams as a green building consultant in this win-win-win concept. We all win when an office building chooses to invest in running a LEED EB certified facility: the building ownership and management team wins by showing that they rank among the best of the best and they get to put a “real” feather in their cap. The building owner wins because they will attract and retain more tenants at a higher rate. This clearly supports the owner’s goal in running the building as an investment by improving its value. The tenants also win – they reap the benefits of a comfortable and healthy workplace, and can promote the fact that they lease office space in a LEED certified “green” office building. And last, but most certainly not least, the environment wins.

We must focus on making the operations of our existing buildings more efficient and less toxic, and the good news is that Class A office buildings are getting on board. One by one they are reducing the amount of gas, electricity, and water consumed on site. They are reducing the amount of waste that hits the landfill, and they are reducing the amount of toxic chemicals on-site.

Simple low cost changes made to aerators, operating schedules, set points, and calibration plans are making a difference. As building systems reach the end of their useful life, more efficient systems are selected by building operating teams. Rather than routinely using the most toxic pest control chemicals once a month (because that is the way it was always done) buildings are taking more time to inspect and prevent pests in the first place.

Green cleaning is now common practice; two years ago a vendor thought I was crazy when I told them they had to use microfiber cleaning cloths rather than paper towels. Now it is common practice to not only see microfiber – but four colors: blue for glass, green for general cleaning, red for toilets & urinals in restrooms, and yellow for general restrooms cleaning. This is just one example of sweeping changes being made to the operations and maintenance practices in office buildings.

Little by little, the bar is being raised – and all are rising to the occasion. Here is to a win, win, win – let’s get those plaques on the walls!

-Lisa

Lisa Stanley is a Director with CTG Energetics. She leads LEED-EB certification efforts for portfolio and single-building projects for CTG. She is a former property manager for Cushman & Wakefield. Lisa is based in CTG’s Denver office.

ctg@ctgenergetics.com

Lessons from the field: LEED for Existing Buildings Volume Certification By Lisa Stanley

As the U.S. Green Building Council prepares to officially launch their Portfolio Program, I wanted to share some thoughts from my experience helping Cushman and Wakefield achieve 18 facility certifications under the pilot of the Portfolio Program.

The goal of the program as it relates to existing buildings is to scale the implementation of sustainable operations and maintenance practices so that multiple buildings within a company’s portfolio can pursue LEED certification in a streamlined and cost-effective way, while at the same time maintaining the rigor of the LEED rating system.

Cushman and Wakefield was one of 40 companies to participate in the USGBC Pilot Program for portfolio certification. The Pilot was launched in November 2006, and C&W joined in February 2008. When the company joined, 20 properties under their management were selected – a portfolio representing multiple clients and millions of square feet of commercial real estate.

Opportunities:
The opportunities posed by volume certification are obvious:

• implement green policies company-wide,


• impact a broad spectrum of facilities at once,


• influence market trends for commercial real estate,


• provide notable recognition for companies that embrace sustainability, and


• pave the way for more companies and institutions to follow.

One of the greatest benefits to companies pursuing portfolio certification is the ability to take advantage of the opportunity to adopt practices and processes that will provide continuous and persistent savings. At CTG, we always stress the fact that sustainability is an ongoing process, not a one-time event.

By implementing portfolio-wide green changes, organizations can position themselves to reap all the benefits of sustainable operations and maintenance (lower operating costs, increased asset value, prolonged equipment life, improved worker productivity, etc.) while also making the process for LEED re-certification much simpler and less expensive. In fact, we’ve found that facilities that pursue an ongoing certification maintenance program can save more than 40% in certification and consulting fees compared to pursuing certification as a one-time event.

Challenges:
Despite the obvious benefits of pursuing portfolio LEED certification, there are numerous obstacles to overcome. As a former portfolio manager for Cushman and Wakefield, I’m very familiar with some of the biggest challenges:

• How do you facilitate standardized data capture across a nationwide (or worldwide) portfolio of buildings?


• What is the best way to account for regional differences in operations and maintenance procedures (such as landscaping and waste management)


• How can local incentives (such as tax breaks and utility rebates) effectively be applied to select buildings within a portfolio?

What we learned:
We knew that in order to enable a successful large-scale LEED EB O&M program we would have to develop a variety of tools, resources, and training programs to assist C&W. Indeed, one of the points of participating in the Pilot program is to identify and solve challenges posed by applying a rating system which has traditionally been based on single-building implementation to a nationwide, multiple-building certification effort.

One of the cornerstones of successfully rolling out volume LEED certification is a robust comprehensive training program. Because multiple buildings adopt changes all at the same time each and every team member at the building level must be trained to understand and implement the portion of the sustainable program that they are responsible for maintaining.
Each policy, procedure, and tracking tool – at a minimum – must be rolled out and integrated into the building operating team’s day-to-day structure.

In addition to providing staff training, CTG delivered the following tools:

• Microsoft Excel-based applications for building-level credit compliance


• Documentation tracking tools


• Summary reporting for performance metrics


• Customized procedures manual


• Portfolio-level submittal package (including a portfolio report card, and summaries of portfolio performance by credit)

Results
Earlier this month, we received word from the USGBC that 18 C&W properties received final certification, including 4 Platinum and 7 Gold rated facilities. This accomplishment is the first of its kind for the Portfolio Program under the LEED for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance rating system.

Looking forward
Based on our experience, the Portfolio Program was an extremely positive experience which represents a huge step forward in the practice of greening existing buildings. As the Portfolio Program opens to the public in an official launch this year we expect to see more companies with a portfolio of buildings begin to pursue volume certification strategies as opposed to limited one-off pursuits.

For any company considering portfolio certification, there are a few questions you should start off asking. Who from your staff is dedicated to supporting the program and how much time do they have to do so? How much money are you willing to invest in the tools and training programs required for your building teams?

We are excited about the official launch of this program, and interested to see how it is adopted by the market. If the early data is an indicator, we can expect to see more firms – particularly companies with large portfolios of Class A office space – pursuing volume certification and portfolio-wide sustainability programs.

-Lisa

Lisa Stanley is a Director with CTG Energetics based in CTG’s Denver office. She is a former Portfolio Manager with Cushman & Wakefield.
ctg@ctgenergetics.com

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