Miami Among Top U.S. Cities For Green Commercial Buildings

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Many Miami real estate investors are doing their part to ward off global warming and save energy as the city ranked high for green commercial real estate.

A new study by CBRE Group and Maastrict University ranked Miami ninth in the nation, with 19.4 percent of its commercial real estate certified as green. There are 79 buildings totaling 21 million square feet of office space with either U.S. Green Building Council LEED certification or Energy Star labels.

Given that South Florida would be among the first places in the nation to be swamped by sea level rise, that’s a helpful move.

“Miami was slow to embrace green building standards relative to cities like San Francisco and Manhattan, but has caught up quickly thanks in part to good public policy and buy-in from owners and investors who realize there is growing demand from tenants for more sustainable, energy efficient space,” said Patricia Nooney, LEED AP, who leads investor services for CBRE Florida, in a news release.

In fact, Miami’s municipal code requires all new private development over 50,000 square feet to achieve LEED Silver certification.

The study rated Minneapolis as the greenest city for commercial real estate, with 77 percent of buildings certified as green.

Since 2005, the number of LEED certified buildings has increased more than 1,000 percent nationwide.

Florida homeowners are also going green. A recent study by the USGCB ranked Florida seventh for the most LEED-certified homes, with 1,860. California was first, with 9,186.

 

Source: SFBJ

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Top 8 Predictions For Green CRE In 2015

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Several green building trends emerged over the past 12 months that will impact commercial real estate in the United States in 2015, according to Doug Lawrence, founder and managing principal of 5 Stone Green Capital—Bainbridge, an institutional real estate company.

Lawrence serves on the investment and natural resources committees of the University of Connecticut Foundation and the advisory board of Rutgers Business School.

Here’s what he foresees for emerging trends in green real estate in the year ahead.

1. Aging baby boomers and Gen X, Y and Z will continue to move to cities, requiring more affordable housing—and expecting it to be green.

CREPredictionNo1U.S. cities are growing faster than the suburbs. Baby boomers will need urban housing that supports their health and community needs, but so will the younger generations flocking to live in urban environments. As a policy matter, this means cities will be pressured to create housing that serves a wider range of income and age demographics. Affordable housing is likely to be the target of municipal agendas throughout the country.

Green multifamily really wins within this demand picture. The ability to reduce overall operating expenses through green technology, therefore also reducing occupancy costs for tenants, should improve residential affordability. Green multifamily properties featuring optimal health designs will become increasingly attractive. These would include better air filtration systems to reduce dust, pollen and airborne pathogens that may trigger asthma; more daylighting to improve natural vitamin D production; and antibacterial countertops and doorknobs.

Expect multifamily vacancy rates to continue to fall for affordable and seniors housing sub-sectors. Absorption rates will remain solid for new multifamily construction. The 18-to-34-year-olds seem psychologically predisposed to green housing and, thanks to tight lending standards and high student loan debt, this group will not be seeking single-family homes in the near future. Thus, multifamily demand looks pretty good for 2015, and green multifamily will be the likely winner with the younger generations.

2. The anti-climate-change voices will yell even louder.

CREPredictionNo2Some naysayers will stop arguing that there is no increase in carbon dioxide (CO2) in our atmosphere. Instead, they will argue that increasing CO2 is good for the global economy because CO2 is necessary to increase agriculture. Under this theory, more CO2 in the atmosphere would mean a golden age for crop production. Green real estate investors will continue to reduce their carbon footprint under the belief that doing so increases profitability and is good for the environment as well.

3. Renewable technology, particularly solar, will continue to fall in price and improve in efficiency.

CREPredictionNo3Solar panels that can convert up to 70 percent of the sun’s light spectrum into electricity (from gamma rays to X-rays) are already in beta testing. This could be a game-changer for real estate owners, especially in the multifamily and industrial sectors, as well as for those with properties in dense urban environments in high-cost electricity states.

The cost of solar energy could fall below that of fossil fuel-generated electricity per kilowatt hour, even with the drop in oil and/or gas prices. As technology improves, real estate managers will explore new ways to provide energy to tenants and users at more efficient prices.

4. Urban resiliency and climate change will become topics for deeper discussion among policy-makers.

CREPredictionNo4Following rising average sea levels in a wide range of American cities—from Los Angeles to Galveston, Texas to New York and Boston—and more frequent and more damaging storms, cities are becoming very focused on hardening essential infrastructure.

The real estate industry may see new building codes that emphasize sustainability, as well as resiliency.

5. Utilities companies and smart developers will form partnerships for distributed generation.

CREPredictionNo5It’s getting harder and harder to build new power plants, yet we have more people for whom to provide electricity; meanwhile, business demand for electricity is increasing as the economy strengthens. U.S. power plants are not only aged, but also use incredibly large amounts of fresh water for cooling. Moreover, some experts predict that as much as 10 percent of coal-fired electricity-generating plants in the United States may be shut down over the next few years. More demand, coupled with fewer production resources, may spur real estate owners and power companies into an alliance.

The concept of distributed generation, wherein solar-powered rooftops are used to create renewable energy that feeds the grid, will become more attractive. In this way, the utility company will gain a production source to feed growing demand without having to go through nightmarish public hearings to obtain the production increase. Meanwhile, the real estate owner may see a new revenue stream, or at least a reduction in energy consumption. All in all, partnerships between developers and utility companies may reduce overall operating expenses for garages, public areas, elevators and other electrical hot points.

6. The sharing economy will continue to grow.

CREPredictionNo6Sharing economy enterprises are thriving, particularly in urban markets. Think office sharing, or even Airbnb.com. These phenomena are no longer fads, and they are changing how we think about office space, hoteling and more.

Many experts assume that the more we share, the less stress we will have on the environment, but it may still be too early to tell whether that’s true.

7. Food production will become more urban and commercial buildings’ rooftops will increase in value.

CREPredictionNo7It’s becoming less profitable to truck a tomato from California to New York and, due to the increasing demand for locally-grown produce, the term “farm-to-table” has become embedded in our vocabulary. The demand for food that is grown without pesticides, fungicides or other chemicals is increasing. We already see grocers like Whole Foods establishing hydroponic farms on their rooftops. Such production reduces transportation costs and improves produce freshness and variety. Other grocers, including Safeway, have gone green by deploying solar arrays and other renewable energy technologies on their stores’ rooftops in order to reduce peak-demand electricity charges. Large rooftops will therefore continue to find new value as non-traditional tenants begin to use them in new ways.

8. Mortgage finance and insurance organizations will consider green standards.

CREPredictionNo8As the government-sponsored entities Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae continue reviewing and improving their standards for green buildings, other mainstream lenders and insurance companies will catch up with the trend. Insurance companies will see green buildings as a way to reduce risk. Lenders will potentially see lower volatility in net operating cash flows. As the capital markets go green, so will more building owners and investors.

The Dow Jones Sustainability Index is proving that green business outperforms the non-green Dow Jones Industrials Index. Green building will mimic that outperformance and, as a result, gain momentum in 2015.

 

Source: NREI

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Republican-Led Group Launches Ballot Petition To Boost Solar Power In Florida

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Backers of broader use of solar energy in Florida have quietly launched a petition for the 2016 ballot that would allow those who generate electricity from the sun to sell the power directly to other consumers.

If the measure passes, solar proponents argue that it would open up Florida’s solar energy market, which has largely stagnated for years. The measure would allow business or property owners to produce up to 2 megawatts of solar power and then sell that power directly to others, such as tenants, without having to go through a utility.

Under Florida law, only utilities can sell electricity directly to consumers, though solar proponents argue that 36 states allow the practice. By removing the utilities as middlemen, the argument goes, it could help spur solar as a clean-energy alternative.

Tory Perfetti of Tampa leads Conservatives for Energy Freedom

Tory Perfetti of Tampa leads Conservatives for Energy Freedom

Led by Republican Tory Perfetti, a Tampa resident and head of Conservatives for Energy Freedom, the effort is making for strange bedfellows.

Some Republicans, including the Republican Liberty Caucus of Tampa Bay, and Democrats are teaming up to support the initiative that they say is long overdue. Environmental groups are expected to join the effort at a press conference Jan. 14.

Under the political action committee Floridians for Solar Choice Inc., backers of the amendment criticize Florida utilities as having too much control over the Sunshine State’s power. “Floridians have a right to choose where they are going to have their energy coming from,” Perfetti said.

The group started its petition drive this week but plans to make a major push over the weekend and early next week. “I think the people understand that … the power companies have been running the show in Florida for too long,” said one supporter, Rep. Dwight Dudley, D-St. Petersburg. “I’m very excited and happy they’re doing it.”

The Florida Department of State approved the petition Dec. 23 without fanfare. Perfetti waited until after the holidays to begin circulating it.

Perfetti is working with Georgia tea party leader Debbie Dooley, who has pledged to push for more solar in Florida. Dooley has successfully pressed other regulators and policymakers for more solar in neighboring Georgia.

Dooley said the reason the solar efforts have been successful in Republican-dominated areas is that opening up the free market and giving people choice is a core conservative principle. “Conservatives will be out front on this to give Floridians choice and a voice,” Dooley said. “All too often, the only voice that is heard is the voice of these very powerful and deep-pocketed monopoly utilities.”

Scott McIntyre, president of the Florida Alliance for Renewable Energy and CEO of Solar Energy Management, said the issue was about free enterprise. Prohibiting the sale of electricity from solar power owners to consumers is “stopping the growth of solar power in Florida,” he said.

Floridians for Solar Choice has significant hurdles to overcome. First, the group must gain 683,149 signatures by Feb. 1, 2016, to get the initiative on the 2016 ballot. Then, the measure will need 60 percent support to pass. Advocates could face tough opposition from Florida’s utilities, which have opposed the proliferation of rooftop solar.

Utilities have argued that as more homeowners and business put solar on their rooftops, it puts more pressure on low-income and poor residents to pay to maintain power plants, power lines and other parts of the electric grid. Others counter that constantly building power plants hurts the poor more, and say the utilities simply are worried about losing revenue.

Tampa Electric spokeswoman Cherie Jacobs said the utility expects the solar petition to be one of “many energy policy proposals that will emerge over the next few months. We will evaluate the proposal and support the ones that are fair and beneficial to all customers.”

Duke Energy Florida also said it wants to ensure any proposal benefits all customers.

 

Source: Tampa Bay Times

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This Zero-Emission Home Creates Enough Energy To Power An Electric Car For One Year

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This just might just be the most beautiful zero-emission home anyone ever laid eyes on.

Snøhetta, a design firm in Norway, has created the ZEB Multi-Comfort House in Ringdalskogen, Larvik, Norway. The house not only runs solely on solar energy, but collects enough extra solar energy to power an electric car for one year.

ZeroEmissionsHouse2

ZEB took 10 months to build and, according to Kristian Edwards, the lead architect of the project, a very intricate process was employed to ensure that the solar energy would be used at the highest efficiency.

The result? A home with striking features like a tilted roof that is slanted at a 19-degree angle to accommodate the photovoltaic panels (the ones that provide electricity) and the solar thermal panels (the ones that provide heat and hot water). Edwards told The Huffington Post that the roof also provides a dramatic flair to the inside of the home. “It is perhaps the most striking element of the upper floor,” he says. “Relatively small bedrooms gain great volume, hugely beneficial to sleep comfort, light transmission and of course, a certain drama.”

ZeroEmissionsHouse3

In the atrium, Edwards used recovered brickwork from a barn that was being demolished. “The recovered brick serves a thermal mass which passively contributes to balance temperature spikes,” says Edwards.

ZeroEmissionsHouse4There are currently no tenants in the home. However, Edwards says that there are plans in the works to have families occupy the space “in order to realistically test the building and system performance.” Feedback from visitors has been “generally extremely positive,” he adds.

ZeroEmissionsHouse5Despite it’s forward-thinking approach, Edwards says the goal of ZEB was to create a place that is welcoming and comfortable, with energy-saving features that virtually disappear into the background. “Our goal was to ensure that the house, whilst advanced, is predominantly welcoming,” says Edwards. “The outdoor covered atrium with a fireplace gives a welcome extension of the outdoor season that is fundamental to the Norwegian culture. This shows that the steps toward zero carbon housing need not represent a quantum leap in lifestyle, and therefore, makes it simpler and quicker to make the switch.”

ZeroEmissionsHouse6

 

Source: Huffington Post

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Green Buildings Save small Businesses BIG Money In Three Ways

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Mike Schoenecker, vice president at Winkelman Building Corp, says green buildings, defined as those that reduce their impact on the environment by being more energy efficient and using fewer natural resources while reducing waste and pollution, save money for business owners three ways.

Increased Efficiency Means Lower Energy Bills

Green buildings cost about 2% more initially, but will save building owners about 30% on their energy bills for heating, cooling and water usage every year for the life of the building. That can add up to a lot of money, which can be used to pay for the initial costs of going green. Once those costs are recaptured, the savings will add to the building owner’s bottom line for the entire useful life of the building.Government Incentives Can Put More Money In Building Owner’s PocketsThe United States government offers rebates, tax credits, and other incentives for businesses who commit to building green and installing sustainable forms of energy like solar, wind, and geothermal technologies. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) maintains a public database called DSIRE that is organized by state and lists all of that state’s current incentives and programs. State and local incentives may also be available, so check with your accountant or state resource sites, as well.Long Term Cost SavingsBenefits from using green energy technology like solar and geothermal technology and solar are magnified when a building owner opts for green materials such as energy efficient windows and roofing materials. Those materials also provide an economic advantage because they cost less to maintain and repair. For example, bamboo is a sustainable alternative to hardwoods for floors and interior trim that offers superior durability without sacrificing style.ConclusionMaking a $4 per square foot investment in green now will yield savings of $58 per square foot over a twenty year period. By using recycled glass, drywall, and steel, the savings could be even greater and the benefit to the environment enhanced.

There are other economic benefits to building green, too. A green building will command a higher price when sold. More importantly,  a businesses that shows it cares for the environment will appeal to clients and customers who are looking to do business with responsible companies. Put it all together and going green makes for smart business in more way than just saving money.

 

Source: Green Building Elements

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Miami Has A $10 Million Plan To Reopen Toxic Parks

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It began with lead and arsenic in the soil at a small Coconut Grove dog park. Then elevated levels of barium and copper beneath a sloping lawn near residential Coral Gables. Followed by antimony and iron around the playing courts of Douglas Park.

One by one, the city of Miami shut down a series of parks starting last September after tests showed elevated levels of toxins in the soil. The closures alarmed residents and embarrassed city officials, who’d known for years about contamination concerns linked to an old West Grove incinerator.

All 112 of Miami’s parks were tested, and portions or all of seven closed for clean-up. One year later, the city is prepared to spend an estimated $11 million — more than triple initial projections — to remediate and reopen the tainted parks. Their plan is simple, though to some disconcerting: leave the contaminated soil in place and bury it two feet below the surface. “This two-foot option is not only an option we’re applying at all our parks, it’s the option that the county applies itself at their parks that get remediated,” said Deputy City Manager Alice Bravo. “This is the standard in South Florida.”

Under the plan, two feet of clean fill will be placed over contaminated soil. If the fill is less than two feet thick, a liner is also spread between the soil and the clean fill, explained Wilbur Mayorga, chief of the county’s Division of Environmental Monitoring and Restoration. New grass, artificial turf or recycled rubber mulch or mats top the fill, although those options are purely aesthetic, he said. Plans can vary from park to park, depending on the terrain and type of structures in place. “The approach is not new,” Mayorga said, explaining that both federal and state environmental rules allow clean-up methods that “rely on a cap or a barrier to eliminate any exposure to contaminated soil.”

Some parks, like Blanche Park, a small neighborhood park popular with tots and dogs, and Curtis Park, a much larger sprawling sports complex north of the Miami River, will have wells to monitor groundwater and ensure contamination doesn’t spread. At Merrie Christmas Park on South LeJeune Road in Coconut Grove, the city plans to move between a foot and two feet of contaminated soil from one area to another to level the park according to new design plans, Mayorga said.

Working with county regulators, the city has to continue to conduct inspections of the parks after reopening them. Covenants will also be attached to the land to warn future generations of the contamination, Mayorga said. “But at the end of the day, all contaminated soil in the park will have the required and approved engineering controls on top,” he said.

To date, the city has reopened only Blanche Park and has had its plans approved by the county for Merrie Christmas Park, half of which is still closed. Plans for Curtis, Douglas, Billie Rolle, Southside and Bayfront parks still need the county’s approval. But the city has surveyed the extent of the contamination at most parks, perhaps marking the end of a long period of uncertainty about the city’s problems.

Concerns about toxins and contamination first arose in 2011, when the city discovered contaminated soil at a firefighter training facility located at an old, defunct Jefferson Street incinerator dubbed Old Smokey by residents in the West Grove. County regulators ordered the city to find out exactly what was polluting the soil and address it, but it took two years to issue a report, which showed elevated levels of arsenic and other heavy metals like barium and lead. Even then, the contamination only became public knowledge after a University of Miami graduate student stumbled upon it.

Under intensified scrutiny from the university, residents and county regulators, Miami officials began sampling soils in a one-mile radius. When contaminants were discovered at nearby Blanche Park and then Merrie Christmas Park, the county ordered the city to test all its parks, setting off the discovery of five other contaminated sites.

The city’s slow response has fostered cynicism from residents near the parks and activists, who continue to distrust Miami’s handling of the matter. A group of residents around Merrie Christmas Park is protesting plans to redistribute some of the toxic soil beneath the park’s surface, and say they only learned about the details from the city’s contractor.

Anthony Alfieri, a UM law professor whose Environmental Justice Project unearthed contamination concerns, said the city continues to keep residents in the dark about its plans and actions. The city, by designating its contaminated parks as “Brownfields” this July in order to receive reimbursement from the federal government for clean-up efforts, increased its obligation to seek public input. But Alfieri said it doesn’t appear the city has done any outreach. “The city and the county are clearly committed to a policy of non-accountability,” Alfieri said. “And they ensure that by failing to reach out to the community and inform the community.”

Ken Russell, a woodcarver who lives next to Merrie Christmas Park, has loudly criticized the city’s plan and says he worries about the health of his three children, ages 12, 2 and 5 months. He says he understands that capping toxic soil is safe but is frustrated that the city’s plans will move contaminated material from the western edge of the park to some depressed areas that are currently closed off to the public but apparently untainted.

Another issue for Russell is the county has marked his home as being located within a quarter-mile of a contamination site, which he and other neighbors worry lowers their property values. He said if the city is digging up soil, it ought to simply remove it. “The city did this dumping. Even though it was 50 years ago, it’s their doing and it’s their responsibility to clean it up,” he said. “We want a clean-up, not a cover-up.”

Bravo stressed that the city’s plans are safe and sound, and she said the cost of removing toxic soils is simply too steep. Bravo said estimates put the price of removing soil at Merrie Christmas Park at $3million, though the city isn’t sure about the depth of the tainted soil.

By designating six closed parks as Brownfields — Blanche Park, the first to close, was reopened months ago — the city can apply for reimbursement of expenses up to $500,000 for each park. The city is also hoping that dredge from the port tunnel dig can be used as fill if it’s left over from a bond-funded project at Virginia Key. But even then, the final price tag for clean-up could be in the millions, and Bravo said the city doesn’t have the money to remove the tainted soil. “When this material is removed it has to be taken to a certain dump site approved by the county,” said Bravo. “The disposal is very expensive.”

Russell has in recent weeks gone back and forth with Commissioner Marc Sarnoff over the city’s plans. Sarnoff, who lives across the street from Blanche Park, defended the city’s handling of the closed parks. He said he has talked at least a dozen times with homeowners groups about what the city is doing to address clean-up issues, and said the city held two public hearings with scientists in attendance to answer questions when concerns were first raised.

Sarnoff said he understands fretting about real estate values — his home is also marked as being next to a contaminated site — but believes they’re overblown. He and Bravo say the city has done its best to publicize the issue, but are trying to schedule another meeting to explain what’s happening with its closed parks. “I guess you can always do more,” said Sarnoff. “But is the city doing the job it should be doing? In my estimation it’s doing a credible job.”

The Parks

Blanche Park, 3045 Shipping Ave.: The neighborhood playground and dog park remained open after contaminated soil was found in September 2013 because it was almost entirely covered with astro turf. Workers paved a parking area and installed monitoring wells to test groundwater, although no drinking wells are in the neighborhood. Total Cost: $700,000.

Merrie Christmas Park, South Le Jeune Road and Barbarossa Avenue: City workers reopened part of the park in February. Clean-up plans now underway call for digging up a foot to two feet of contaminated soil in the western half of the park where toxic metals are concentrated and using the soil to regrade part of the bowl-shaped park under new design plans. The city also plans to excavate contaminated soil around trees and install rubber mulch and lay recycled rubber mats on playground areas. Any area with contaminated soil will be covered with a liner or two feet of clean fill. Projected Cost: $1.5million.

Curtis Park, 1901 NW 24th Ave.: The city reopened part of the large sports complex, including basketball courts, in June, but has kept areas where contaminated soil is exposed fenced. A clean-up plan was due Sept.17, but has not yet been submitted. Estimated Cost: $4million.

Douglas Park, 2795 SW 37th Ave.: The third park closed after contamination was found at Blanche and Merrie Christmas, the 10-acre park near Coral Gables had high levels of toxic metals from ash in two areas. The city, which will discuss funding clean-up efforts at the park Monday, must submit clean-up plans to the county by Oct.5. The city must also test soil off site to determine the extent of contamination. Projected Cost: $3.5million.

Billy Rolle Domino Park, 3400 Grand Ave.: A neighborhood hangout with shady domino tables, the city is considering installing a liner and new soil as well as a monitoring well. A plan for the clean-up is due Sept.30. Estimated Cost: $250,000.

Southside Park, 100 SW 11th St.: A pocket park near downtown, the city still needs to finish mapping the boundaries of the contamination. A clean-up plan is due Sept.30. Estimated Cost: $1million.

Bayfront Park, 301 Biscayne Blvd.: Part of the downtown park remains fenced, but addressing contamination in the park may be complicated by its terraced design. A clean-up plan is due Oct.6. No cost estimate available.

 

Source: Miami Herald

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America’s First Shopping Mall Is Now Stuffed With Micro Homes

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In 2008, Rhode Island’s Providence Arcade was in trouble.

Considered America’s first indoor mall, the nearly 200-year-old downtown building closed after struggling to fill its cramped commercial spaces. The arcade needed an overhaul, but few viable options existed: when the possibility of a gut job arose, preservationists raised holy hell. In the end, the shopping center and its snug quarters proved just the right fit for a growing housing trend: micro apartments.

Known as Westminster Arcade when it opened in 1828, the building marked the debut of English indoor shopping concept in the United States. Designed by architects Russell Warren and James Bucklin, the Greek Revival stone structure more resembles a courthouse than a shopping mall, what with its stately Ionic columns and sunlight-filled atrium with its glass gable roof. Shoppers browsed three floors of shops—or at least that was the idea; they never seemed willing to trudge up the stairs to the second and third floors.

The mall was nearly razed in 1944, but preservationists intervened, and it was spared. In 1976, the arcade was designated a National Historic Landmark, though businesses struggled. Even its 1980 renovation didn’t help much, and it ultimately closed in 2008. “It had become economically obsolete,” said J. Michael Abbott, a principal at Northeast Collaborative Architects. “When it was a full shopping center of all three floors, it just wasn’t working. Shops were opening and closing all the time.”

arcademicroapartment3 Oft smaller than a hotel room, micro apartments have grown in popularity in recent years as more people cram into urban areas and housing prices escalate. The concept first gained popularity in European and Asian cities before projects popped up in San Francisco, Chicago, and Boston during the Great Recession. And so, developer Evan Granoff, who bought the Westminster Arcade in 2005, sought to introduce shoebox living to Providence.

The construction practices of yore proved a challenge for the rehabilitation team, led by Northeast Collaborative Architects. “They just laid down some flat rocks and started building on top of those—that was the foundation,” Abbott said. “The building has settled over time. We call that ‘character.'” As a result, the walls had to be shored up, and custom doors and windows were created to fit the uneven contours. The well-worn wood floors and lacelike iron balustrades were left in place.

arcademicroapartment5Work on the $7M project wrapped in October 2013. Granoff retained the retail spaces on the ground floor and rented them to retail busineses. These commercial spaces are enclosed by bay windows so sound doesn’t drift to the residences above. Inspired by ship construction, each of the 38 rental units—which measure from 225 to 300 square feet—includes a bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, and built-in storage. The homes on the second floor even have guest accommodations in the form of a twin Murphy bed. The Providence Arcade also contains eight larger apartments, a game room, storage spaces, and laundry machine.

Micro apartments are not for everyone—in fact, their clientele are “young kinds that just graduated.” They “are at the bottom-end of the totem pole and don’t have that dining room set that grandma gave them,” Abbott said. “They travel really light. They might have a bike and two suitcases.” The Providence Arcade’s dwellings have also attracted keepers of the shops downstairs as well as second homeowners seeking a place to stay when they’re in town. Rent starts at $550 a month, but future residents better get in line—there is already a waitlist.

 

Source: Curbed

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Demand Response Keeps Energy Use Low At Chicago High-Rise

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Demand response is an energy-saving tool that encourages customers to shift their electricity use to times of day when there is less demand on the power grid or when more renewable energy is abundant.

Karan Gupta at 77 West Wacker's Central Command Center

Karan Gupta at 77 West Wacker’s Central Command Center

This has been at the core of the work of Karan Gupta, a high-performance building consultant and Environmental Defense Fund Climate Corps fellow based in North Carolina. His host company, Jones Lang Lasalle, is the property manager for 77 West Wacker Drive, a 50-story office building in downtown Chicago. Here, his focus is on maximizing the benefits of demand response, which already have been implemented through multiple technologies.

Currently, 77 West Wacker is enrolled in the PJM demand response capacity market through a demand response service provider. There are standby payments for demand response commitments, meaning that the building is paid for simply making itself available to reduce energy demand when called upon to do so. In addition to these standby payments, the building is paid for with actual energy conservation as real demand falls below baseline demand during emergency events. The building also participates in voluntary price-based demand response, whereby energy conservation is performed in non-emergency events to take advantage of opportunities when real-time energy prices exceed the fixed rate that the building pays for energy.

Load-Shifting Makes It Easier To Bear

The software platform provided by the demand response service provider allows engineers to view the building’s baseline demand, real-time action alerts and forecasts for weather and energy prices. When the grid is stressed due to extreme weather or system lapses, the engineers receive notification, usually the day of, to enact demand response protocols. While extreme weather may or may not result in an emergency event, it almost always presents earnings opportunities through economic demand response.

For this reason, the team here is proactive and monitors weather forecasts throughout the Midwest and East Coast, and usually has taken action by the time emergency notification is received. In the summer, the primary form of action is “load shifting,” a process works by pre-cooling the building during early morning off-peak hours and reducing cooling demand during peak hours.

demandresponse

(Credit: Karan Gupta)

A hypothetical demand response event in which load shifting was used. In this snapshot, the red line represents the baseline and the green line represents actual building use. Actual use exceeded the baseline in the morning hours when building equipment ramped up to pre-cool the building (there is no penalty for going above the baseline during non-peak hours), and then around 10 a.m., the equipment ramped down for the rest of the day as it had to work less hard to maintain the lower temperature. During the period where the green line is below the red line, real-time energy prices are paid back to the building for the difference between baseline energy consumption and actual consumption.

BAS + VFD Spells Comfort’

When a non-weather event occurs, load shifting may not be an option, and instead a series of minor operational adjustments must be made to achieve the necessary reductions. Tenant comfort is an important consideration when making these adjustments, as reasonable temperatures and minimum levels of ventilation have to be maintained. Excessive ramping and cycling of equipment also should be avoided to prevent undue stress and shortened life. Where base building equipment adjustments alone are not sufficient, the building may send out notices for tenant involvement. Effective communication is critical for tenant satisfaction, but to that end, building management has performed exceedingly well, making efforts to educate occupants about the value of demand response.

The two primary technologies that have enabled demand response capability at 77 West Wacker are the building automation system and variable frequency drives. The BAS allows for monitoring and control of the various equipment from a central command center. This control is necessary to quickly enact demand response protocols while guarding the health, safety and comfort of the building occupants. In the past, motor-driven equipment such as fans and pumps either would run at full load or not at all, and when at full load, would be modulated by dampers or fans. A common analogy is using the brakes to control the speed of a car while pushing the accelerator to the limit. VFDs basically provide throttle control and allow for the modulation of such equipment.

Aiming Higher

The next step in fully implementing demand response at 77 West Wacker is enrolling into ancillary services, which are used to support the transmission of electric power from seller to purchaser (scheduling and dispatch, electric grid protection, etc.). While BAS and VFDs are a strong first step, further hardware and software investments will be necessary to make frequency regulation possible. To some extent, real-time control will have to be relinquished to the system operator, but the primary objective still will remain to maintain tenant satisfaction. Automated scripts that guide operational parameters within predefined limits occasionally will have to override signals to ramp loads up or down.

Cracking the code for successful implementation hopefully will release a new wave of revenue for property managers around the country while enhancing grid reliability.

 

Source: GreenBiz

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Future Takes Root In Abandoned Buildings, Warehouses, Empty Lots & High Rises

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In a 90,000-square-foot warehouse not far from Chicago’s Midway Airport, the future of urban farming has taken root. Welcome to the world of vertical farming.

Long shelves thick with fresh herbs and salad greens sit beneath hundreds of fluorescent grow lights. There are planters of basil, watercress and kale stacked in neat rows reaching the ceiling, afloat in a nutrient-rich stream of water fed by large blue tanks filled with tilapia. It’s an eerily beautiful scene, interrupted only by the occasional worker driving an aerial lift through the aisles, stopping to pluck handfuls of greens ready to be packaged and distributed throughout the city.

As the demand for fresh, locally grown food has increased among urban consumers, businesses like FarmedHere, which runs the Chicago warehouse, have stepped in to compete with conventional farms. Using advanced hydroponic and aquaponic methods, they’re growing fruits and vegetables year-round in facilities that are often in the same neighborhood as the restaurants and retailers they supply. Proponents like to call it ultra-local farming. “We can grow 200 percent more food per square foot than traditional agriculture, and without the use of chemical fertilizers,” said Mark Thomann, chief executive officer of FarmedHere.

The Association for Vertical Farming, an industry trade group, says vertical farms use 98 percent less water and 70 percent less fertilizer on average than outdoor farms. Weather fluctuations aren’t a factor, and neither is soil management. They can harvest crops as often as 20 times a year, and with their stack-it-high layout, occupy a fraction of the land traditional agriculture requires. So efficient is vertical farming that many believe it could move beyond a niche market and become a solution for food insecurity in the United States, which affects nearly 15 percent of households, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Some believe it could even be the future of agriculture altogether, with climate change negatively affecting rural farmland while the global population continues to swell. By 2050, the World Health Organization estimates, there will be 9 billion people on Earth, with 70 percent of them residing in urban areas.

But before vertical farming can conquer the world, it has to prove it can scale up and be as environmentally sound as its backers claim. Of the many questions surrounding these ventures, the most important one may be whether it is a good business model to begin with. Thomann certainly believes so. In the two years FarmedHere has been in business, it has expanded distribution to dozens of supermarkets throughout Chicago, including all of the city’s Whole Foods locations. The company packages its own herbs and salad greens, which are certified organic, and can deliver to stores within 24 hours of the product being harvested.

FarmedHere’s foray into urban agriculture has been so successful, it’s planning to build vertical farms in other cities. “From an economic standpoint, I think we’re well down the pathway to showing that vertical farming can not only be a reality, but that it can be profitable,” Thomann said. From an environmental standpoint, FarmedHere has tremendous upside. In addition to growing food close to stores and without the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, the company conserves water — the most intensively used resource in conventional farming — through a closed-loop aquaponic system. The waste produced by the tilapia provides nutrients for the greens to absorb as they clean the water, which then flows back into the tanks.

Vertical farming also makes efficient use of urban spaces, occupying previously neglected warehouses, underutilized rooftops and other vacant areas. In New York, Gotham Greens grows everything from butterhead lettuce to bok choy in rooftop greenhouses, including a 20,000 square foot one atop a Whole Foods in Brooklyn. Green Spirit Farms in New Buffalo, Michigan, meanwhile, operates out of a former plastics molding factory. “Buildings like this are available throughout the United States,” said Milan Kluko, president of Green Spirit Farms. “Usually, they just need a power wash and a paint to get up and running again.”

Worldwide, vertical farm models range from rotating plant towers in Singapore to portable aquaponic crates in Germany. A former semiconductor factory in Japan is now a large-scale lettuce farm, growing 10,000 heads per day. In London, a company called Growing Underground went viral earlier this year after it revealed plans to build a hydroponic farm 100 feet under the city, in an abandoned World War II bomb shelter. “We wanted to build a vertical farm, but the financials of building in central London didn’t stack up,” said Steven Dring, co-founder of Growing Underground, which raised $1.4 million in seed funding and will open for business next year.

Originally conceived as skyscrapers filled with produce farms and livestock — an idea that quickly proved prohibitively expensive — vertical farming has come to encompass all sorts of green-tech operations in places as varied as parking garages, shopping malls and office buildings. There’s even a small aeroponic farm in Chicago’s O’Hare Airport.

But for all the novelty of indoor farming, there are hurdles that even the most eager start-ups struggle to clear. For starters, there’s the large upfront cost, typically in the millions of dollars, required to outfit a growing space. Recouping all that capital in the low-margin food industry can be a daunting task, and a reason many investors shy away. “A controlled environment like that requires a lot of technology that your typical outdoor field doesn’t have,” said J. Michael Gould, director of Texas A&M’s AgriLife Research and Extension Center in Dallas, which studies urban agriculture. “You get benefits from that technology, but right now the cost-benefit ratio is not particularly favorable.”

There’s also, for all vertical farming’s efficiencies, one very inefficient component: keeping all those lights on when the growing is done indoors. Without sunlight, plants require intense lighting for 16 to 18 hours a day, said Blake Davis, a vertical farming expert and professor at Illinois Institute of Technology. That adds up to sky-high energy bills. Improvements to indoor farming technology, including cheaper, more efficient lights, as well as monitoring equipment that measures and adjusts growing conditions, have brought down costs in the past few years, and further innovations are on the horizon.

A recent report from sustainable energy consulting firm Clean Edge noted companies like Philips are developing red- and blue-spectrum LED lights specifically for growing plants while others are testing sensors that detect optimal lighting levels for various crops. “Energy for lighting is one of vertical farming’s greatest expenses, making it a financial challenge if not carefully and properly designed,” the report stated. Gould, for one, thinks innovation will eventually bring down costs enough to make large-scale expansion a reality. There’s even room to make the plants themselves better, he said. “Every plant that’s grown indoors was originally developed and selected to grow outdoors,” Gould explained. “What needs to happen is the breeding programs need to begin to breed plants for indoor environments.”

Even with improvements, though, many vertical farms still draw energy from the grid, making them less of a green alternative than their ultra-local image suggests. There are also limits to the types of food that can be grown indoors. Staple crops like corn and wheat, for instance, are optimized for outdoor agriculture.      “Urban agriculture will never be able to replace rural agriculture, though I think there are opportunities for them to work together,” said Danielle Nieremberg, president of Food Tank, a nonprofit organization focused on sustainable agriculture issues.

At Green Spirit Farms, Kluko, an engineer by trade, is constantly tinkering with lighting and other parts of his farming system. He currently uses grow lights that last 100,000 hours and are, he claims, as efficient as anything on the market. Still, he finds that in some cases technical innovations don’t match natural remedies. To control pests, he recently released 27,000 ladybugs inside the Michigan warehouse.        “You really have to know what works best in these environments and use your resources wisely,” Kluko said.

Other operations are similarly trying to lessen their impact through natural as well as high-tech solutions. The Plant, a business incubator in a former meatpacking plant in Chicago, houses several start-up businesses, including a brewery, a kombucha maker, a bakery and three vertical farms. To cut down on waste, tenants utilize byproducts produced by other tenants. The kombucha maker produces CO2 that’s used in the vertical farms while leftover barley from the brewery feeds the fish used in one of the farm’s aquaponic growing systems.

The Plant is also in the process of installing an anaerobic digester, which will provide renewable energy for the entire operation by turning organic waste into methane gas. The price tag: $2 million, offset by a $1.5 million grant from the state of Illinois.  “It’s basically like a big stomach,” said Davis, who is a board member with The Plant.

Finding renewable sources of energy is critical for vertical farms, Gould said. With climate change already causing extreme weather such as droughts, severe storms and flooding, “the last thing we want to do is pump more carbon dioxide into the air,” he said. A recent study in the journal Environmental Research Letters noted staple crops such as corn and wheat are seeing decreased yields as a result of climate change, with yield losses expected to as much as double from current levels by the year 2080.

But to survive and expand as a business, vertical farms may have to look beyond food sales alone to generate revenue. Davis said The Plant offers weekly tours along with classes like a “Do It Yourself Aquaponics Workshop.” Other companies offer consulting services or sell growing kits to hobbyist farmers. FarmedHere has received local producer grants from the USDA and from Whole Foods while Bright Farms, a New York vertical farming company, signs long-term contracts with supermarkets before it builds a facility.

Ben Greene said he thinks he has just the formula for adding value. Growing up on a small organic farm in North Carolina, he experienced the joys, as well as the frustrations, of food farming. After serving as a combat engineer in Iraq for several years, he returned to his home state and is currently raising money for a hybrid business that will combine farm and supermarket under one roof. The Farmery will grow fruits and vegetables in a second-story hydroponic farm, then cart them downstairs to be sold in the grocery store.

Greene said produce grown on-site will comprise 15 percent of The Farmery’s retail sales while locally sourced products, including meat, beer and grocery items, will make up the rest. There will be a café on the first floor, he said, as well as a growing wall filled with herbs. If a customer wants to add a sprig of mint to her tea, she can pluck it right off the wall.       “It’s designed to have the high margins of a restaurant with the high foot traffic of a grocery store and the unique experience of being able to see where your food is grown,” Greene said.

And even though construction has not yet begun — that is expected to happen in December, near Raleigh-Durham — he envisions The Farmery as a successful model for cities across the country. Aside from food sales, he said the space will rely on savings coming from reduced inventory loss. In researching his business model, Greene said he discovered that as much as a third of fresh inventory is spoiled or damaged on the way from the farm to the grocery store. “That’s where we see a big opportunity, is bringing that number down to next to nothing,” he said.

Less food waste, fresher product, year-round availability — these are some of the advantages vertical farming offers. And while the industry has numerous kinks to work out, many experts believe it will adapt out of necessity.

At the extension center in Dallas, Gould and his team are studying ways to tailor low-cost, high-volume vertical farms to inner-city neighborhoods. All of the growth and technology currently resides in the niche markets — the FarmedHeres and Green Spirit Farms that supply to retailers serving mostly affluent customers. But he hopes eventually to see models scale up and become economically feasible for consumers of all income levels. “We’re going to have 7 billion people living in cities in the next few decades, and there isn’t enough countryside to grow all the food we’re going to need to keep people fed,” Gould said. “Agriculture today is pretty much a two dimensional operation. We need to figure out how to do it in the third dimension.”

 

Source: International Business Times

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Battle Of The Kilowatts: Challenge Occupants To Reduce Energy

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On any given day, many of facilities management tasks are focused on conserving energy.

Whether it’s scrutinizing utility bills, making adjustments in the BAS, or championing for efficient retrofits, saving kilowatts never falls off the to-do list. But one that may been overlooked is one of the most important factors for energy performance – occupants.

The relationship facility managers have with tenants can be a wary one at best, fraught with skirmishes over space heaters, thermostat settings, and light levels. But with the growing impact of plug loads, building owners need to recognize that human behavior can make or break an efficiency program.

Consider how the vast majority of a building’s energy use is determined by occupant needs, from operating hours and lighting to heating and cooling. You might also have little to no control over the proliferation of computers, printers, desk lamps, and mobile devices that have become standard in any office or classroom setting.

“Plug loads can represent anywhere from 15 to 50% of a building’s energy use and are one of the fastest growing end uses of energy,” says Jaxon Love, sustainability program manager for Shorenstein Properties. “If you’re not looking at plug loads and developing a strategy to manage them, you’ve got a major blind spot in your overall energy efficiency program.”

Energy competitions unite occupants and facilities management as they work toward a common goal. Not only will plug loads become more manageable, but the nature of these challenges will engender a positive experience that can infect all aspects of your business model.

“Successfully engaging occupants as part of a performance team offers many advantages to the building owner,” says Alison Liaboe, director of communications and research for Ecova, an energy and sustainability management firm. “This includes reducing turnover, minimizing the cost of building operations, and increasing tenant referrals. A better performing building also benefits workers by improving their health and productivity.”

Nagging occupants to turn off equipment has never resulted in sustained energy savings – make them an extension of your FM team instead. By engaging tenants with fun and creative programs, property managers can turn passive employees into energy champions. The only loser is your utility bill.

To read about the energy conservation program developed by Shorenstein Properties that has resulted in up to 45% energy savings click here.

 

Source: Buildings.com

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