Oceanfront Eco-Resort Planned For Islamorada

,

A Coral Springs urologist has revived his efforts to build an oceanfront eco-resort in Islamorada.

In May, Bert Vorstman submitted a downsized site plan for his 8.8-acre property, located at 83000 Old Highway. Islamorada Ecolodge, as the project is called, would have 49 units spread over a main lobby building and seven smaller villas. The lobby building would also house a restaurant, while a pool would sit next to one of the villas.

The plan is the first Vortsman has submitted since the Islamorada Village Council effectively rejected his proposal for a 70-unit hotel in July 2013. That plan garnered heavier than normal publicity for a project of its size, in part because of the many features put forward by Vorstman and his design team from the Fort Lauderdale-based EDSA planning firm.

eco-resort Islamorada

 

Among other items, developers promised to rehabilitate a degraded wetland near the water’s edge, clean out exotic foliage from a hardwood hammock closer to the highway, and to re-vegetate the property’s sand berm. They also planned to build a water re-use system and to generate solar power onsite. The proposal, however, proved to be too ambitious, largely because no zoning district in the village allowed for 70 units on a site of that size.

This time around, Vorstman’s less grand proposal would meet the density rules of Islamorada existing Tourist Commercial zoning category, he said. However, the property would still have to be rezoned from its current status of Native Residential, which allows for no commercial development and just two homes on the property.

Vorstman said that during a June 5 meeting, Islamorada planners told him they would oppose the proposed zoning change. “I must say that I was absolutely floored, but they were not too understanding,” he told TRD.

Islamorada biologist Sandy Sprunt did not return calls to TRD. But a document obtained via a public records request appears to back Vorstman’s assertion that planners view the Ecolodge proposal with skepticism. Among the development policies that planners highlighted for emphasis were ones related to habitat fragmentation and the clearing of native vegetation.

Vortsman said the site is so heavily disturbed with exotic vegetation that it is not a working ecosystem. But in 2013 Sprunt disagreed, saying that the property’s ecosystem was not in decline.

 

Source: The Real Deal

/by

FPL To Build 5,700 Solar Panels At FIU

,

Florida Power & Light Co. signed a partnership with Florida International University to install more than 5,700 solar panels on its engineering center in west Miami-Dade County.

The company, a subsidiary of Juno Beach-based NextEra Energy (NYSE: NEE), plans to build 23 canopy-like structures this summer in the parking lot. Not only would the 1.6-megawatt solar array generate power for FPL customers, FIU students could study its performance in the electrical grid.

“This innovative solar project builds on FIU’s relationship with FPL, one that provides our students with unparalleled and unique training opportunities,” FIU President Mark B. Rosenberg said in a news release. “Through this project, our engineering students will make a direct contribution to the growth of solar energy in our state, while gaining invaluable experience working side by side with professionals from one of the most forward-thinking utilities in the nation.”

The solar array would measure 342,000 square feet and would also shade 600 parking spaces. FPL aims to triple its solar generation in Florida by the end of 2016.

“As the economics of solar continue to improve, we look forward to harnessing more and more energy from the sun,” FPL President and CEO Eric Silagy said in a news release. “Our partnership with FIU is designed to help us manage solar power’s interaction with the greater electric grid as part of our commitment to reliably deliver affordable clean energy for all of our customers.”

In the meantime, FPL is among the main opponents of a ballot initiative to amend the Florida constitution to allow consumers to install solar panels on their properties and sell power. Laws preventing such arrangements have limited the growth of solar panel leasing companies in Florida.

 

Source: SFBJ

/by

Green Roofs Grow On Multifamily Buildings In Major U.S. Cities

,

A growing number of cities are paying multifamily building owners to add green roofs to their buildings. That’s helping to motivate more owners to plant their rooftops.

The condominiums at The Visionaire in New York City start at $690,000. The amenities include a 2,075-sq.-ft. rooftop garden with more than 160 species of ornamental plants, including vertical screens for climbing vegetables and a fruit orchard with dwarf trees.

Adding an extensive green roof that covers most of a building’s roof space adds between $10.30 and $12.50 per sq. ft. to the cost of the roof, compared to a conventional, black roof, according to a study by the U.S. General Services Administration. Annual maintenance for a green roof is typically higher than for a black roof, by $0.21 to $0.31 per sq. ft. Of course, those costs are for the most basic green roofs. Apartment developers can spend millions to create and maintain rooftops gardens for their residents, with plants ranging from trees to roses.

“There are lots of benefits to having a green roof—the short-term benefit is having a usable amenity space,” says Steven Peck, president of Green Roofs for Healthy Cities.

Some cities offer cash incentives to help owners pay for green roofs. In Washington, D.C., owners can get a rebate of the cost to put a green roof on their buildings, though the District of Columbia Department of the Environment’s green roof rebate program. The rebates start at $10 per sq. ft. of green roof, rising to $15 per sq. ft. in targeted sub-watershed areas.

The word “sub-watershed” is an important clue to the city’s motivation to pay for green roofs. Older cities like Washington, D.C., often have sewer systems that combine water from rainstorms with waste. During large rainstorms, the systems often overflow, effectively poisoning rivers and streams. The federal Environmental Protection Agency has ordered cities solve this problem, but it’s not easy. Chicago has spent over $3 billion starting in 1970 dig a series of massive underground reservoirs to keep toxic waters from flowing into Lake Michigan. The latest phase of the Chicago Deep Tunnel Project is now expected to be complete in 2029.Infrastructure like green roofs can help by slowing rain water as it races from rooftops to sidewalks to storm drains. That gives a city’s water treatment systems time to handle the water from storms and prevents flooding.

Chicago is another city that provides cash incentives for green roofs, not surprisingly, since the Chicago Deep Tunnel project still isn’t finished. Portland, Ore.; Milwaukee, Wis.; and New York City also offer cash incentives. These programs are constantly changing as cities expand or start new incentives. San Francisco and Pittsburgh, Pa., are both on the verge of creating green roof programs.

“The best thing to do—the easiest thing to do—is call your local government and ask what incentives are available,” says Peck.

Local also require developments to create infrastructure to keep storm water from pouring off their properties. To please local officials, residential developers in many localities build storm water retention ponds and underground storage tanks.

The Solaire, New York City

The Solaire, New York City

Green roofs can be a relatively inexpensive alternative to other forms of storm water abatement. A green roof can save a building owner $14 per sq. ft. of green roof in local storm water fees or in the cost of other storm water improvements, on average, over the 50-year life of the roof, according to the GSA. The green roof also saves owners an average of between $6 and $8 in the cost of energy per sq. ft. of green roof over the 50-year life of the roof—mostly because the green roof shields the rooftop from the harsh beating of the sun during air conditioning season.

Washington, D.C., is the number one city for green roof installations according to the 2014 Green Roof Industry Survey, from Green Roofs for Healthy Cities, the green roof and green wall industry association.

Toronto, Philadelphia, Chicago, New York City, Denver, Baltimore, Montreal, Seattle and Boston rounded out the top 10 cities when it comes to the number of green roofs. Not surprisingly, many of those are older cities with aging storm water systems that are prone to flooding, and therefore offer generous local incentive programs for green roofs.

 

Source: NREI

/by

Going Green: No Longer An Elective For Hospitals

,

Making hospitals more environmentally friendly may have once seemed like a trendy notion or expensive luxury that would fall by the wayside, but that’s not been the case.

Many hospitals have begun placing a greater emphasis on becoming “healthy buildings” that incorporate sustainability into their design, construction materials, utilities and even workflow processes. Often times, phrases such as “going green” and “environmentally friendly” conjure images of futuristic buildings covered in solar panels and rooftop gardens and surrounded by wind turbines, but eco-friendly elements hospitals have incorporated are hardly visible, yet very impactful.

The Mission And Money Behind Sustainability

There are two fundamental camps of thought when it comes to hospitals and sustainability, according to Deb Sheehan, executive director of the health practice for CannonDesign, an integrated design firm specializing in healthcare, among other areas. “One camp is asking, ‘Does sustainability align with our mission?’ and the obvious answer is ‘yes,'” says Ms. Sheehan. “We’ve seen a lot of larger health systems with healthy community initiatives in place really starting to say, ‘If we’re going to make good on our mission, we must be committed to investing in healthy buildings that steward the protection of the environment.'”

The first camp’s thinking really harks back to the fundamental premise of “First, do no harm,” and interpreting that concept with a much more systemic approach, said Ms. Sheehan. The second camp is driven by the financial aspects and payback of sustainability. “When you look at the healthcare building typology, most acute-care facilities are 24/7 operations, so energy consumption serves to claim a robust amount of the hospital’s operating budget, just to keep the buildings running,” says Ms. Sheehan.

John Ebers, associate director of facility engagement and the energy program at Practice Greenhealth — a membership organization and environmental solutions provider for the healthcare sector — echoes Ms. Sheehan’s thoughts. “Within a hospital, energy and utilities represent a fixed cost. Anytime hospitals can drive down a fixed cost, they can improve their margins,” says Mr. Ebers.

Although more hospitals are expressing interest in ‘designing green,’ many are not participating in the Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design green building certification program that recognizes best-in-class building strategies and practices, according to Ms. Sheehan. “Honestly, on a domestic coast-to-coast basis, a limited number of our clients are going through the protocol to document and obtain LEED certification,” says Ms. Sheehan. “Many hospitals are committed to following green guidelines and utilizing sustainable strategies, but are less willing to expend the resources that go with the LEED certification process.” That’s not to say, however, that LEED is obsolete.

Kaiser Permanente: Leading The Way In Green Power

Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanente is a considerable proponent of LEED, as well as numerous other eco-friendly initiatives. In 2013, Kaiser Permanente announced it would seek, at minimum, LEED Gold certification for new construction of hospitals, large medical offices and other major construction projects. “Kaiser isn’t the only environmentally friendly organization, but it’s a prime example of an organization that is really on the forefront of saying, ‘hey, we operate all of these buildings so we have to be mindful of the resources and energy we use,'” said Mr. Ebers.

For example, Kaiser Permanente announced plans in February to purchase enough renewable energy to replace half of the electricity it currently uses in California under several 20-year contracts. The renewable energy purchases were made as part of a national sustainable energy policy Kaiser Permanente launched in 2012, which encourages strategies to both reduce energy consumption and increase the use of renewable energy sources.

Ramé Hemstreet, who has served as chief energy officer of the system and vice president of operations for its national facility services department for roughly three years, explains the motive behind the organization’s energy pledges. “Climate change is a serious health issue and one of our missions is to improve the health of the communities we operate in,” said Mr. Hemstreet. “To that end, we announced a commitment in 2012 to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent, and these renewable energy deals will help us achieve that goal without having a negative financial effect.”

Under the energy purchase plans, Kaiser Permanente will purchase the green energy output produced from 110 megawatts of solar energy from a solar plant in California’s Riverside County, 43 megawatts of wind power energy produced by a wind turbine farm in Altamont Pass, Calif., and 70 megawatts of onsite solar production from an independent power producer.

The Kaiser Permanente executive said he is not at liberty to share the dollars-per-megawatt-hour cost Kaiser has agreed to pay under the agreements due to the competitive rates the organization was able to procure from the developers. “We don’t have a crystal ball but, suffice it to say, we think the rates we received will be no worse than the avoided costs of the ground power we would have bought,” says Mr. Hemstreet. “In fact, we think that, over the course of the 20-year deals, the purchases will actually save a considerable amount of money.”

Kaiser Permanente is on the National Top 100 list of the largest green power users within the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Green Power Partnership. It’s an impressive accomplishment but it’s not one every hospital necessarily needs to strive toward; there are many smaller initiatives and projects hospitals and health systems can incorporate into their organizations.

Incorporating Eco-Friendly Concepts Into Hospital Design

For an existing hospital or health system, delving into the world of green energy, sustainable materials and eco-friendly design can be daunting, but new capital projects offer a great opportunity to get started. “From a design process, anytime you are doing a new building or major renovations, you really have a prime opportunity to build in efficiencies — be it efficiencies in energy, water, lighting or other elements,” says Mr. Ebers.

Whether dealing with a brand new construction project or renovations to an existing facility, Mr. Hemstreet offers one way healthcare providers can get started: figure out the energy consumption baseline. “The first thing hospitals can do is start by making everyone aware of their numbers and where they stand in relation to the baseline that the Environmental Protection Agency has for all similar buildings in the U.S.,” says Mr. Hemstreet. “Once you baseline where you are, there are a number of things you can do to improve your performance.”

Ms. Sheehan points out, sometimes the most eco-friendly thing to do is to decide against construction altogether. “If a hospital is really, truly committed to sustainability, we’ll look at lean fundamentals on their programs first and foremost,” she says. “For instance, we’ll ask questions like, ‘Are we building too much?'”

If an evaluation of a hospital’s systems and facilities concludes construction is necessary, the next step is deciding how to incorporate sustainability. For hospitals and health systems building a new or replacement facility, the project is a huge undertaking, but it’s also easier to utilize LEED and other eco-friendly design decisions from the outset. “When you are dealing with new construction and you have to birth the whole facility from the ground up, you’ve got the ability to affect some of the core strategies and the fundamentals of the engineered systems,” says Ms. Sheehan. “When hospitals do renovations, it’s much more of a plug-and-play approach in which you’re just patching in new components as opposed to doing a systemic overhaul.”

For hospitals considering renovations, Mr. Ebers and Ms. Sheehan both suggest looking into occupancy sensors, retrofitted lighting and building automation controls as a few relatively simple changes that yield specific paybacks.

Mr. Ebers and Ms. Sheehan also suggest hospitals work with their utility companies. “A number of utilities around the country are offering major rebates to reduce emissions, and hospitals are a prime candidates because they operate 24/7 and are major energy users within the service sector,” says Mr. Ebers. “For hospitals that have antiquated equipment or are running out of 50-year-old buildings that need upgrading, working with utility companies to replace out-of-date boilers and chillers presents a great opportunity for dramatic energy efficiency gains and cost savings.”

According to Mr. Ebers, utility rebates are an example of external factors that can really drive the financial piece of the sustainability puzzle by decreasing the payback on some efficiency projects from eight years to four or five years.

The Financial Future Of Environmentally Friendly Hospitals

Ultimately, hospitals are becoming more environmentally friendly and sustainable because more healthcare design and construction firms are incorporating those values into their baseline specifications. “Sustainability is no longer the unique attribute; it’s the common statement for what is practice protocol,” says Ms. Sheehan, who also notes sustainable design is going “mainstream” more quickly than she would have expected.

She notes that five years ago, it was thought that the LEED plaque on the wall might be a differentiator in hospital marketing or branding, yet the priority on sustainable design is so intrinsic to hospital design at this point that — plaque or no plaque — it is no longer recognized as unique in the marketplace. “When you see different kinds of providers — including small community hospitals, large healthcare systems and academic medical providers — all talking about the same sustainable design attributes with the same stature and priority, you know this is a major expectation that isn’t just going to be à la carted. It’s not going to be seen as a variable that’s elective anymore.”

Still, there are some challenges on the horizon, including the phase-out of the solar Investment Tax Credit, Mr. Hemstreet points out. “Not to get political, but the one problem every hospital interested in pursuing renewable energy is going to face is the phase-out of the investment tax credit for solar energy in 2016,” says Mr. Hemstreet.

The solar ITC is a 30 percent tax credit for solar systems on residential and commercial properties, which has helped annual solar installation grow by over 1,600 percent since 2006. Under current law, the solar ITC remains in effect through Dec. 31, 2016. “For hospitals looking to pursue renewable energy, the economics are going to change considerably with the expiration of the investment tax credit, so my advice would be to move quickly since time is running out unless Congress expands the current law,” says Mr. Ebers.

Whether hospitals or health systems decide to purchase renewable energy, build with green materials or not invest in sustainable initiatives at all, Mr. Ebers points out that even small changes that don’t cost a thing can make a big impact. “Shutting off the light switch is the best solar panel in the world.”

 

Source: Becker’s Hospital CFO

/by

New Law To Allow Tenants to Showcase Their Energy Efficiency Efforts

,

Office tenants who became believers in energy conservation in the heyday of the building sustainability movement about two decades ago only to watch building owners take all the credit have cheered a recent new law that will support, track and promote their efforts at being green.

President Barack Obama signed the Energy Efficiency Improvement Act of 2015 on April 30. The bipartisan-sponsored law promises to align the interests of building owners and tenants with regard to investments in cost-effective energy efficiency and water conservation measures, create studies that will examine successful sustainable practices, enact data-tracking systems and provide ways to promote voluntary tenant compliance.

The law, also known as the “Tenant Star” act, includes a new federally-sponsored green building designation that’s similar to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) popular Energy Star system. Energy Star, enacted in 1992, provides an energy-efficient rating system for building products, residential homes and commercial buildings. In a recent report, the EPA said the Energy Star system reduced utility bills for residents and businesses by $34 billion in 2014.

However, tenants, the backbone of energy use in commercial buildings, have neither had a consistent national program to measure efficient energy use, nor a way to tout their specific efforts. Allison Porter, vice president of sustainability services for commercial real estate services firm DTZ, says tenants will now have the same kind of opportunities as Energy Star provides for owners to turn data into a basis for action. The new law will allow space occupiers to take responsibility for their usage and receive recognition for conservation efforts, she says.

“Although whole-building measures like Energy Star are a valuable tool, it’s also crucial to acknowledge that tenants’ use of a space has a huge impact on how a building performs,” Porter says. “By encouraging tenants to design and build energy-efficient spaces, Tenant Star will help align the interests of tenant and landlord. I expect that this alignment will clear a path for a new wave of investment in energy-efficient office space, especially coming at a time when the cost of efficient technologies commonly used in office interiors, such as LED lighting and occupancy sensors, has decreased significantly.”

Porter is joined by many other tenant sustainability supporters in her praise of the new law. Anthony Malkin, chairman, president and CEO of New York City-based Empire State Realty Trust Inc., said in a statement that the new law will align office tenants with their landlords to make smart, cost-effective investments in energy-efficient leased spaces. “Broad adoption will save businesses billions of dollars on energy costs in the coming years,” he said.

Jeffrey DeBoer, president and CEO of the Washington, D.C.-based Real Estate Roundtable, which brings together commercial property owners, developers and managers to address national policy issues, called the legislation “a triple win that will spur the economy by creating jobs, enhancing energy security and preserving our environment by cutting greenhouse gases.”

Implementation

The General Services Administration (GSA), responsible for all federal government leasing in the country, will take responsibility for the first section of the law, also known as the Better Buildings Act of 2015. According to the act, the GSA will create model commercial leasing provisions for energy efficiency by Oct. 31, and may begin enacting these provisions in federal leases. The GSA will also publish these provisions and share them with state, county and municipal governments.

The Secretary of Energy is responsible, under this law, to create a study within one year on the feasibility of significantly improving energy efficiency in commercial buildings through design and construction, by owners and tenants, of spaces that will use energy efficient measures. The study will include, among other requirements, such metrics as return on investment and payback analyses, comparisons of spaces that use these measures and those that don’t, impact on employment and actual case studies and data on the spaces where these measures are implemented. The department will start seeking input on this study after Aug. 1.

In addition, to allow tenants to start touting their green policies, the EPA will create the Tenant Star designation as an offshoot of Energy Star. Not only will tenant data be added into the 23-year-old collection program already in place, the new designation will recognize tenants in commercial buildings who voluntarily achieve high levels of energy efficiency in their leased spaces. The EPA will also create a voluntary program to recognize owners and tenants that use energy efficiency in designing and creating new and retrofit space.

Al Skodowski, director of sustainability with commercial real estate services firm Transwestern, says this new law will help those companies that have been fully engaged in driving green practices for many years. “The birth of Tenant Star, as another tool to help our tenants understand their use, reduce energy consumption and to save money, is a very exciting opportunity that will help us continue to improve efficiency in the industry,” he says.

 

Source: NREI

/by

Vertical Farming Sprouts In Detroit

,

Detroit’s urban farmers have proven to be some of the most innovative people in the city. They’ve reclaimed vacant lots and learned how to bring fresh, nutritious food to neighborhoods in need of it.

Artesian Farms of Detroit's Lettuce Harvest

Artesian Farms of Detroit’s Lettuce Harvest

Now two new ventures continue that innovation by introducing vertical farming systems into the city’s mix, the Detroit Free Press reported. One, known as Artesian Farms of Detroit in the Brightmoor district on the far west side, has begun to grow vegetables in a hydroponic system – trays filled with water and nutrients – stacked up to 14 feet tall. The other, known as Green Collar Foods, set up its vertical racks last week in a corner of Eastern Market’s newly renovated Shed 5. It uses an aeroponics system, in which nozzles mist a thin, watery film on the roots of plants suspended in air inside trays.

Growing plants indoors inside cities has been done for a long time in various places around the world, including in the RecoveryPark project on Detroit’s east side. Now adding vertical racks greatly increases the production capacity of any given project by taking advantage of vertical space.

“It doesn’t necessarily take a huge building,” Ron Reynolds, one of the partners in Green Collar Foods, said last week at Eastern Market. “You don’t have to go to the city and say, ‘I’d like that 50,000-square-foot building.’ Effectively in 400 square feet you can have three stories up. So a lot of the buildings begin to open up for viability.”

Co-owners of Green Collar Foods from left: Ray Quatrochi,58, Ron Reynolds,44, and Daniel Casanas,29 inside their vertical farming space in Shed 5 at the Detroit Eastern Market Friday. (Photo: Jessica J. Trevino DFP)

Co-owners of Green Collar Foods from left: Ray Quatrochi,58, Ron Reynolds,44, and Daniel Casanas,29 inside their vertical farming space in Shed 5 at the Detroit Eastern Market Friday. (Photo: Jessica J. Trevino DFP)

These vertical growing systems typify how urban farming has undergone rapid innovation in recent years. Practitioners around the world have learned to wring increased production from seemingly barren urban sites to bring fresh, nutritious food to city residents.

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack visited Detroit recently and said that growing food inside cities could become an important part of regional food systems in a world beset by drought and other issues. Detroit, he added, is known far and wide as one of the centers of that movement. “I think it’s real and I think it’s a great complement to the agriculture that takes part in other parts of the country,” Vilsack said. “We face a very interesting challenge of feeding an ever-increasing world population when the land available for production will likely shrink. We have to have new and creative ways to produce the food to feed our people.”

Artesian is the creation of Jeff Adams, a neighborhood resident who spent most of his career marketing automotive products and then spent a decade fund raising for nonprofits. A few years ago, he was inspired by Detroit’s well-known west-side urban farmers like Riet Schumack and Malik Yakini. “I was looking for entrepreneurial opportunities that could employ neighborhood people,” he said last week. “The whole urban garden thing really piqued my interest.”

He bought an empty industrial building in Brightmoor last August. It had been empty since 1998. He installed a system of vertical racks designed and produced by Green Spirit Farms of New Buffalo, Mich. Known as Vertical Growing Stations, the units are 14 to 16 feet high utilizing specially designed lighting that provides the right type of light at the right intensity for a good growing environment.

Each VGS can hold approximately 1,200 to 2,400 plants depending on the produce to be grown. With about 6,000 square feet of space in his building, Adams has enough room to install 40 of the vertical racks, which he estimates is the equivalent to about 20 acres of field growing. Adams can harvest 17 crops per year of a mix of salad greens including several types of leafy lettuce plus spinach, kale, and basil.

For somebody who was trying to solve as many problems as possible, vertical farming seemed to offer the best opportunities. “You look at what it means for our city – transforming blight, employing local people, and then you look at how it affects the environment,” he said. “This system can grow produce year round and uses about 90 percent less water than what is used where our big agriculture belts are in California and Arizona.”

He hired a local Brightmoor woman, Yvette Martinez Evans, to work full time helping him tend to the plants. “I thought it was great because I always liked growing stuff in the outdoors,” Evans said last week.

Unlike the vast majority of community gardens in Detroit, Artesian Farms is a for-profit entity, an L3C organization known as a social enterprise, where the profits go to support community needs. Initial funding for the project was provided by Impact T3 Investment Fund, Skillman Foundation, Max M. & Marjorie S. Fisher Foundation and the Scott Brickman Family Trust.

Adams plans initially to distribute his produce in local farmers markets, but he’s working on an agreement with the Whole Foods chain to sell his salad greens in the company’s stores in metro Detroit. “This will turn a pretty significant profit once it gets operational,” he said.

 

Source: Miami Herald

/by

CRE Pros OK With Burying The LEED

,

Ask Anthony Malkin about LEED and he’ll tell you how he really feels.

The chief executive officer of Empire State Realty Trust thinks the clean air certification for buildings (officially Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is a good starting point, but it doesn’t do much for tenants or landlords. Instead, it’s all about keeping energy costs low in buildings with new technologies as opposed to a points system for miniscule things.

“We have a very good adviser who said if you don’t get LEED, it’s going to be very difficult for you to criticize it. So we did,” Mr. Malkin said as a panelist at Commercial Observer’s “Upgrade New York” breakfast last week. “The concept that you get a point for harvesting bamboo in Indonesia, putting it on a boat that stops by Fiji and picks up a bottle of water…Brings it to a port in L.A., which then takes it in a train across the United States and is put on the floor of an office in New York City, and you get a point for that? That’s just freaking absurd.”

His fellow panelists agreed that a new tenant, particularly in the tech sector, wants a building that can keep the energy bills low more than anything. But the strongest comments came from Mr. Malkin, whose revamped his Empire State Building now uses less energy with state-of-the-art measures such as lights that dim when the room is empty or is getting more sunlight, and elevators that reuse energy from their breaks to power upward elevators.

“This is the most efficient building of its size of any age in the United States that’s occupied,” Mr. Malkin said. “We have an energy intensity unit, or energy unit intensity of 72 in this building. The median in New York City is 218. It is no colder, it’s no hotter. It’s no darker. There are no fewer elevators.”

His tenants might not even know the building is LEED certified, which judges how environmentally friendly it is based on the number of points it has for things such as bike racks and emissions. Many technology and emerging companies are more concerned with how much energy a building uses than its ranking on the LEED scale, said co-panelist Sacha Zarba, an executive managing director at CBRE who specializes in tech tenants.

“LEED doesn’t hurt,” said Mr. Zarba, who represented LinkedIn in its leases at the Empire State (it now has 160,000 square feet). “From a tenant perspective, it’s not a box that usually needs to be checked. It’s important to LinkedIn—the energy efficiency and sustainability of a building—but LEED as a word is not.”

View a video of Anthony Malkin, Chief Executive Officer Of Empire State Realty Trust, discussing LEED certification below:

 

Source: Commercial Observer

/by

Miami, Two More South Florida Cities Among ‘Greenest’ In The Nation

,
Rank: 5 2014 median air quality index: 43 Carpoolers: 10% Public transportation riders: 11% Walking commuters: 4% Biking commuters: 1%

Rank: 5
2014 median air quality index: 43
Carpoolers: 10%
Public transportation riders: 11%
Walking commuters: 4%
Biking commuters: 1%

Carpooling and healthy air quality is what makes Miami one of the greenest cities in America, according to a survey from consumer advocacy site NerdWallet.

Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Hialeah were the three South Florida cities that made the Top 15 list based mostly on its air quality and its penchant for carpooling. That shouldn’t be a surprise for everyone trying to make their to work via Interstate 95.

Fort Lauderdale Rank: 11 2014 median air quality index: 54 Carpoolers: 10% Public transportation riders: 5% Walking commuters: 3% Biking commuters: 1%

Fort Lauderdale
Rank: 11
2014 median air quality index: 54
Carpoolers: 10%
Public transportation riders: 5%
Walking commuters: 3%
Biking commuters: 1%

What South Florida did lack was the use of public transportation, which less than 12 percent of commuters use. For instance, in Miami, only 11 percent of residents commute via public transit, one of the lowest public transportation figures among
NerdWallet’s Top 10.

Hialeah Rank: 15 2014 median air quality index: 43 Carpoolers: 8% Public transportation riders: 2% Walking commuters: 2% Biking commuters: 0%

Hialeah
Rank: 15
2014 median air quality index: 43
Carpoolers: 8%
Public transportation riders: 2%
Walking commuters: 2%
Biking commuters: 0%To pick the top cities in the nation, NerdWallet took a look at the following:

To pick the top cities in the nation, NerdWallet took a look at the following:

• 2014 Media Air Quality Index.

• Percentage of workers who carpool, bike, take public transit or
walk to work.

• Percentage of occupied buildings with 10 or more residences.

• The number of residential buildings with a primary heat source of solar, coal or wood per 10,000 buildings.

 

Source: SFBJ

/by

The “Greenest Schools On Earth” Do More Than Put Solar Panels On The Roof

,

To be the “Greenest School on Earth” in the eyes of the U.S. Green Building Council, it takes more than a few solar panels on the roof.

GreenestSchoolThose are nice, of course. But you also need to teach sustainability throughout the curriculum and engage students in improving environmental performance. The greenest schools have an “all-school approach,” says Rachel Gutter, director of the group’s Center for Green Schools.

This year the council is giving its top award to Dunbarton High School, in Ontario, Canada. Gutter says it exemplifies the top-to-bottom ethos, even if its building is less shiny and energy efficient than some. “The place where green schools can make the biggest impact—and where they fall down—is the level of engagement from the school occupants and the broader community, and whether they’ve created a culture of sustainability,” Gutter says.

GreenestSchool4Dunbarton has a 40-seat outdoor classroom (meant to bring students closer to nature), a 5,000 square foot “pollinator garden” (designed to attract butterflies and the like), and “bee condominiums” (stacks of wood with holes to provide shelter for insects). It’s also installed energy efficient lighting and windows, introduced an organic waste management program, and takes part in an Atlantic salmon restoration program. Many of these initiatives are led by students.

“One of the things we loved about Dunbarton is that so much of its activity is driven by the students and the community. We really believe that is the way it can be sustained and magnified,” Gutter says. “They’re also applying sustainability across many different subjects, from photography and art classes to finance and math.

The “Greenest School on Earth” title is a little misleading as the council doesn’t actually survey the planet for the best school. Instead, schools submit their own applications and a team of judges choose the ones it likes most. This year, schools from 20 countries came forward and the criteria encompassed three categories: how well schools are reducing energy, water and waste; how well they’re enhancing health and well being in their environment; and how well they’re teaching environmental “literacy.” The judging is subjective and relative: Schools are awarded for progress as much as absolute accomplishments.

GreenestSchool9The judges gave an honorable mention to Vele Secondary School in Limpopo, South Africa. Unlike Dunbarton, which was built in the 1960s, it’s a new school with its own energy monitoring system, natural ventilation, and gardens for growing food. But it doesn’t engage students in the same way Dunbarton does, according to Carly Cowan, Center for Green Schools’s international program manager. “The big differentiating factor between Dunbarton and Vele is that Dunbarton’s students showed a lot more leadership and initiative in making the school green,” she says.

The big point is that schools can do a lot, even without big resources. What matters is whether people are willing to get involved. “There’s always an accessible project to be advanced at the student level or faculty and administration level,” says Gutter. “You can start anywhere and move on from there.”

 

Source: FastCoExist

/by

2015 Greenest Companies In Commercial Real Estate

,

Sustainable building and operation practices continue to shift into the mainstream as industry firms embrace the impact green building has on their triple bottom line.

Green-Ranking-Chart - Commercail Real Estate CompaniesAdvances in solar, lighting and water-saving technologies mean payback periods are shorter than ever. While the jury is still out on the exact impact on valuation, institutional investors and funds are hungry for green product. As energy-use benchmarking and organizations like GRESB continue to gain traction, there really is no limit to how green commercial real estate can go.

It is no surprise, then, that the vast majority (all but two) of the respondents to CPE’s 2014 Greenest Companies Survey expect to increase green building activity over the next calendar year. A full quarter of respondents plan to increase their activity by more than 25 percent. And the number of LEED- or otherwise-certified assets increased across the board—dramatically at a number of firms—compared to last year’s results.

Green-Ranking-List - Commercial Real Estate Companies

 

Methodology

For the purpose of scoring firms, CPE took into account information that was submitted in narrative form and balanced that against weighted scoring of categories having to do with dedicated personnel, industry specializations, levels of current and planned LEED certifications and announced plans for 2015 and beyond. Service providers, which are viewed as catalyzing agents in the greening of commercial real estate, were ranked against each other using the same criteria. Because as catalysts they have less of a direct impact on the environment than building owners do, CPE oriented them to the middle of the list. To be included in upcoming surveys, contact Mike Ratliff at mratliff@cpexecutive.com.

 

Source: Commercial Property Executive

/by