The State of Green in North Texas
Green Squared has its corporate office in Dallas as well as an engineering office in Dallas so it is fairly common that I get a DFW-centric piece come across my email. The piece is informative no matter where you might be reading this summary.
I found this one particularly interesting as it was published by the USGBC North Texas office. USGBC – United States Green Building Council – birthed the LEED designation, and not all of the LEED discussion was flattering.
Anyway, here are my takeaways:
• According to the USGBC, there are 66 LEED® Certified commercial projects and 331 Registered projects (of which 21 and 124, respectively, comprise city-owned buildings, schools and libraries) in North Texas as of November 1, 2009.
• Newfound revelation about the efficiencies that could be achieved through everything from commuting habits, energy conserving technologies, recycling permeated the media and discussions, and served to highlight the importance (and operational benefits) of implementing green building practices like never before. Suddenly, certain elements of going green were viewed as more of a necessity than an option.
• In the past 18 months, almost all of the municipalities that comprise the DFW metroplex have embraced and implemented some level of green building methodology as part of the building inspection and permitting process, for new and retrofit projects. To quote a downtown Dallas leasing agent, “Green is here to stay.”
• From an informal survey (i.e. don’t extrapolate these numbers elsewhere):
o 48% of respondents have already implemented some level of green building retrofit – that is basically anything considered green from light bulbs to recycling to an actual retrofit project.
o Lighting and recycling led the way at 81% each
o Janitorial and consideration of LEED were at 61%
o HVAC upgrade was at 50%
o Some of the least implemented: green leases, use of green power (renewables), and common area plumbing retrofits
• What drove the green efforts? 90% of respondents indicated that their top 3 drivers were:
o Wanted to streamline operations and/or reduce utility costs
o Have a genuine concern for our environment – want to do the right thing
o Would like our efforts to generate positive PR for our company and the clients we represent
• 65% of respondents indicated that they were “Not Sure” that the LEED® Green Building Rating Systems were the best way to achieve, document and measure sustainability and green building performance.
As Ms. Robbins, herself a LEED AP suggests, “While the LEED® Rating Systems represent true progress – the “gold standard” – in achieving and documenting high performance and sustainability in commercial buildings, we cannot ignore the parallel mission of providing creative, affordable and asset-appropriate solutions that will encourage “baby-steps” to be taken toward greener facilities by the large population of building owners, managers, tenants and the myriad industry professionals that support them.”
This is the biggest point to be made in any discussion of energy efficient projects or buildings – whether you are interested in LEED designations or not (and there are very good reasons to get a LEED designation), there are literally hundreds of little and big things that can and should be done to existing buildings that do not get you a LEED plaque, but they do save you operating dollars every year that you own the building. And if you sell the building, the net operating income gets capitalized into the value of the building.
Doing nothing to lower your energy costs, lowers your annual cash flow and asset value.
Don’t forget that you can follow us on Twitter @greensquaredcom.
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