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Weekly UpdatesIn cities and states across the country, slowly but surely green legislation is catching on. Meanwhile property managers and urban planners are ahead of the curve, working toward sustainability and energy efficiency even before laws require them to conform.
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For instance, last year CB Richard Ellis (CBRE), a real estate services firm headquartered in Los Angeles, resolved that 100 of its top buildings would be in the EPA's Energy Star Program by the end of 2007. More than just talk, the company was making a firm commitment; by year's end, CBRE had met its goal.
"Two years ago people wondered if green management was for real," said Patricia Nooney, CPM[R], CBRE's managing director. "But now we know it really is the trend of the future. The acceptance is there from the larger community. Our clients want to know what CBRE is doing for the environment and what they, as building owners, can do to help."
CBRE isn't alone in its efforts. Just eight years after the first pilot projects received certification from the U.S. Green Building Council's (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System--a nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high-performance green buildings--green tops the agenda for everyone in the industry.
THE LATEST ON LEGISLATION
Green legislation is on the rise at all governmental levels. According to the USGBC, 13 federal agencies, 27 states, 72 cities, 22 counties and 16 towns have passed various types of green legislation. Governments are beginning to recognize that buildings have a strong negative impact on the environment, said Jason Hartke, the USGBC's director of advocacy and public policy.
"The most predominate legislative policy we see is one requiring public buildings to be built green," Hartke said.
According to the USGBC, in the United States, buildings account for 70 percent of all electric use and 40 percent of all carbon emissions. But truly green buildings, those receiving LEED certification, can save 36 percent in energy, reduce carbon emissions by 40 percent, reduce water use by 40 percent and reduce the production of solid waste by 70 percent.
LOCAL LEGISLATION
The status of green legislation at the local level is impressive, said Brooks Rainwater, manager, state and local affairs, at the American Institute of Architects (AIA) in Washington. The organization's 2007 report, Local Leaders in Sustainability, indicates that the number of local green building programs has risen more than 400 percent since 2003, with a total of at least 92 cities now having policies in place.
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In surveying all U.S. cities with populations greater than 50,000, the AIA found 42 municipal programs in the West, eight in the Mountain West, 14 in the Central Region and 28 in the Eastern Region of the country. Programs range from policies focused on the design and construction of green government buildings, to communities mandating that all buildings be designed to green standards, to more specific approaches.
For instance, legislation in Monterey, Calif., lists steps that must be taken to address the breakdown of old clay pipes in a municipal sewer system dating back to the late 1800s. Problems in the system can negatively effect wildlife in Monterey Bay, so whenever a house is sold, its new owner is required by law to solve any sewage problems.
Sylvia Hill, CPM, and owner of H.M.S. Property Management in San Jose, Calif., manages a number of homes in the Monterey area. She recommends that new owners of those properties do the work immediately.
"It costs a couple of thousand dollars, but if an owner doesn't take care of it, and they have a backup into the street and then down to the Bay, they can be fined several thousand [dollars]," Hill said.
STATE LEGISLATION
States, too, are getting in on the regulatory trend. State leaders have been passing legislation focused on green building at a quickened clip over the last few years, Rainwater said. And many states also have introduced incentives for the private sector to design and build green.
According to Statenet.com a legislative and regulatory service, in 2007, 363 bills pertaining to the issue were introduced in state legislatures. Of those, 29 were passed. Although five of those were vetoed, seven bills are still pending in New York and 21 in California.
The enacted measures cover a wide variety of topics. They establish commissions and task forces to study climate change and its potential effects; provide tax rebates for energy-efficient appliances; regulate the issuance of air quality permits to electric power generating facilities; create greenhouse gas inventory programs, cap and trade programs, interstate pacts and emission reduction targets; and require global warming index labels on motor vehicles.
For example, in 2007 Illinois enacted a "smart cities" grant program to fund urban preservation, redevelopment and green technology at the municipal level. The state also created a "green cities" grant program for municipalities whose buildings conform with "nationally recognized and accepted green buildings guidelines, standards or systems." The green cities grants may be used for new construction, existing buildings, commercial interiors, core and shell development, homes, schools or neighborhood development.
FEDERAL LEGISLATION
At the federal level, the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 signed into law on December 19, 2007, will help move the commercial building industry toward greater energy efficiency. One result of the bill is that all newly constructed and substantially renovated federal buildings will have to be carbon neutral by 2030.
"The legislation will go to the EPA and other agencies for regulatory review," said Charles Achilles, staff vice president for legislation and research at the Institute of Real Estate Management (IREM). "Those agencies will write the rules and it will be many months before we see how it will totally affect our members."
GREEN LEGISLATION AND PROPERTY MANAGERS
Thinking green is nothing new for IREM Members. The organization has been active in the area of energy conservation for many years, Achilles said.
"We encourage Congress to pass legislation that would recognize incentives or energy tax credits for property owners and managers to make modifications," Achilles said. "Providing a credit or deduction for an owner/agent would reduce the number of years it takes to recoup the cost of converting to more energy saving practices."
The U.S. Energy Policy Act of 2005 offered tax incentives for reducing energy consumption below a certain level, and thus did benefit building owners, said Gordon Dowrey, a CPM candidate at Facility Engineering Associates in Indianapolis.
"A lighting retrofit, changing mechanical systems or improving shells and exteriors could result in tax credits of up to $1.80 per square foot in any kind of commercial building," Dowrey said. "That was great."
Randall Pavlock, CPM, president of Hunter Properties, Inc., in Chicago, isn't waiting for green legislation to tell him how to manage his company's 3,000 apartments. In buildings it renovates, Hunter installs computerized heat censors, replaces old windows with thermopane and adds insulation.
"If you're going to run an apartment building now and run it smartly, you have to do green things," Pavlock said. "All of our buildings have fluorescent bulbs in the hallways, and we use timers where we can."
Brenna Walraven, executive managing director of USAA Real Estate Company, headquartered in San Antonio, and chief elected officer of BOMA International (formerly the National Association of Building Owners and Managers), sees a lot of momentum toward green legislation that will affect property managers. Her company views energy efficiency and sustainability as a proxy for good management.
"We know that to serve means providing a better, safer, less toxic environment for our tenants," she said. "It will lower operating costs, and make tenants comfortable so that they renew their leases. Our strategy is to get returns on capital by running our buildings efficiently."
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Managers aren't alone in trying to make a difference. Ralph DiNola, principal at Green Building Services in Portland, Ore., said owners and developers his company works with often want to take a more comprehensive look at how they can reduce environmental impacts and costs for construction and operations.
"In the past year or two green has become more of a mainstream topic with a broader set of issues related to sustainability and energy efficiency," DiNola said. "For instance, climate change became a big issue after [A1] Gore and his Nobel Prize put it on the map. Now our clients are seeing that they have a role to play in reducing their impacts."
GREEN LEGISLATION AND URBAN PLANNING
Green legislation that will affect urban planners is "in the pipeline," said Elliott Sclar, director of the Center for Sustainable Urban Development at Columbia University. Green roofs are a growth industry; the concept of green buildings is becoming increasingly attractive; and most cities and states are getting serious about controlling carbon emissions.
For example, on Earth Day 2007, New York City mayor, Michael R. Bloomberg, released "plaNYC," a comprehensive sustainability plan for the city's future. The plan presents a strategy to reduce the city's greenhouse gas footprint and sets the goal of reducing citywide carbon emissions by 30 percent below 2005 levels.
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