Software to measure carbon footprints

Apparently this is shout out to Greener Buildings day at MFG. A few weeks ago they carried an article about TREES, a new program from Tririga, which helps owners analyze the environmental impact of their buildings.

I’m not entirely sure how easy this is integrated into residential buildings, but I found this comment from George Ahn, CEO of Tririga, to be very telling:

“There is regulation coming — whether its in the form of a carrot-and-stick as to tax credits and penalties or something else — and at the end of the day (businesses) are going to need to prove where you are and what you’re doing.”

TRIRIGA Markets System to Measure, Reduce Carbon Footprint of Buildings | GreenerBuildings: “”

(Via Greener Buildings.)

Greener Buildings: Water saving tips

I’m still reviewing some of the data on a major efficiency drive at one of my properties, but the initial read is that we may have reduced water use by 30%+ after a six week program. Once I’ve confirmed the initial results I’ll share them in greater detail.

In the meantime, I’m happy to highlight an article from a company I really admire, Melaver of Savannah.

I encourage everyone to read the entire article, but two overlooked items really jumped out.

The first is placing irrigation on a separate meter where your water utility will allow it. The reason for doing so is to remove water used for non-potable purposes from the sewer bill. In a place like Knoxville, where we’ve encountered astonishing increases in sewage rates, this kind of separation can provide a payback in under 2 years.

The second idea is looking at aerators. Changing the aerators from the usual 2 gpf to ones that reduce flow to 0.5 gpf makes a real difference. We use conical aerators, which allows sediment to settle at the bottom but not impede water flow.

Water Savings 101: Top 10 Tips for Commercial Buildings | GreenerBuildings: “”

(Via Greener Buildings.)

TIRE: Ignorance, not bliss

Like most people who spend any time on site or with site personnel, I’ve seen an abundance of questionable decisions by residents.

A couple of weeks ago a 1st floor resident noticed water seeping into the bathroom. Curious, the resident went upstairs and roused the 2nd floor neighbor. Disoriented from sleep, it was discovered that the toilet was overflowing and that after a half hour of bailing, the resident gave up and went to sleep.

And the cause of the backup? Someone in the 2nd floor unit dumped 3 lbs. of sand in the toilet.

ROI table from Green and Save

Green and Save, written by the wife and husband team Cynthia and Charlie Szoradi, provides a handy ROI table for various efficiency initiatives. They split the ideas into three tables, tune up, remodel, and advance, and provide information on initial investment, anticipated savings, payback period, and ROI. I can’t vouch for all the math yet, but it is a very handy checklist for residential owners.

More here: Home Remodeling ROI.

(HT: Green Building Elements)

Affordable, modular projects in Tacoma and Seattle

It’s modular construction day here at MFG. While looking into some projects similar to Raines Court, I ran across an article about a multifamily project in Tacoma via Green Building Elements. According to their information, the 110-unit property will be a mix of 60 LIHTC units and 50 ‘affordable townhomes.’ Per the News-Tribune, it appears the townhouses will be for sale product.

Absher Construction, which is serving as contractor, estimates the total project cost at about $23mm. At $209,000/unit, that seems high, so I’ll keep digging. The Tacoma Housing Authority has authorized about $8.5mm in bonds, so the total cost may be much closer to that figure. Construction is expected to be complete by October 2009.

The support from the News-Tribune columnist lays out a very good response to NIMBY-ism and should inspire others who battle this scourge:

“The overall project, will be environmentally friendly and, as Mirra likes to say, lovely.

So, why should we trust him?

This housing authority has demonstrated good faith with its residents and its neighbors.

It brought a neighborhood representative onto the design team.

It paid part of the cost for the traffic light the city installed when it reconfigured the problem intersection at 64th Street East and McKinley.

One objector said the dense development would overburden fire services and be a fire trap. But there’s a new fire station in the neighborhood, and Hillsdale’s site design assures easy access by emergency vehicles.

The housing authority has worked with the Tacoma School District, which says nearby schools can handle the new kids in the neighborhood.

The housing authority and city will improve, and install sidewalks along, the deplorable stretch of 60th Street East bordering the new homes. It will have on-site parking.

Opponents said bringing subsidized housing into the neighborhood would devalue existing homes. The 50 town houses will sell for about $200,000, well in line with values in the neighborhood.

And then there were the charges that the people living in the 60 subsidized rental apartments would bring crime with them.

Salishan, the housing authority’s 1,200-home redevelopment on Portland Avenue, is the rebuttal to that.

It’s safe. And it’s lovely. We can expect the same standards at Hillsdale Heights.”

One more project from the Seattle-Tacoma area.

Unico Properties is planning a 66-unit project in Seattle’s Queen Anne neighborhood. Built by Guerdon, the same firm involved with Hillsdale Heights, the project is expected to start delivery in late 2Q 2009 after a 9-month construction schedule.

This is not a LIHTC deal, but the unit mix is what you would expect for urban infill, mostly 450sf studios and 525sf 1 bedrooms.

The Times had a much longer article in May 2008, which included interior and exterior shots of the proposed units. Tip for Unico: either take your own architectural shots for publication or replace the dead vegetation and paint the panels something besides ‘aggressive bland’. The prototype interior is sandbagged by that horrible exterior.

http://www.unicoprop.com/documents/news/2008/052708%20Inhabit%20forming.pdf

Affordable housing from shipping containers

Jetson Green calls our attention to a new venture that turns shipping containers into affordable housing.

For those who are new to container architecture or wonder about the size, they have been used by the US Army, building contractors, and relief organizations for short-term office or housing for many, many years. Two lengths are generally offered, 20′ or 40′ long, 8′ wide, and either 8’6″ or 9’6″ high.

A new group, the New Mexico-based and for profit PFNC has built a demonstration project and hopes to build as many as 3000 units annually. As this article from Fabricator makes clear, shipping container architecture has a lengthy history:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2006/06/16/carollloyd.DTL
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/08/weekinreview/08south.html?ex=1249617600&en=a21ed9a9e345ad96&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland

Looking at the PFNC floor plans (single and multifamily), my first concern is ventilation. The plan is a rough shotgun-style home but I wonder if the door openings are sufficient to provide good ventilation. Certainly the placement of the kitchen and bathroom in the center of the unit would require some type of mechanical ventilation in a multifamily configuration. I would add that the full-size appliances, while sensible for long term, barrack-style housing, take up an extraordinary amount of space and eliminates public space within the unit.

More than anything, the project reminded me of Raines Court, by the Peabody Trust. This fascinating 61-unit, 127-module multifamily project was constructed in 50 weeks at a North London infill location. Many units consist of two modules (one service, one sleeping), which arrive fully built and ready for installation into the skeletal core.

http://www.access-steel.com/Dev/Discovery/LinkLookup.aspx?id=SP026&orfl=en

Using a similar model, the PFNC design could be expanded to provide a dogtrot-style design of two containers separated by a breezeway to provide greater ventilation and a larger social area for residents and their neighbors.

(HT: Jetson Green)

Energy costs of open plenum and dropped ceilings compared

BD + C ran a nice summary of a study comparing the construction and heating costs of open plenum with dropped ceiling systems in retail and commercial settings. The Ceilings and Interior Systems Construction Association (CISCA) conducted the study.
[Note: For those who don’t traffic in HVAC jargon open plenum means you can see the vent work (think warehouses) while dropped ceiling means the ceiling is hung off of the bottom of the upper floor and all the mechanical systems are hidden (think law office)]

Although construction costs were cheaper for the open plenum design regardless of building type, the energy savings generated by the dropped ceiling system generated a payback period of 5 years in commercial buildings and as little as 11 months for food stores.

I’m a little surprised at the stark energy savings, but when you consider that you’re heating and cooling perhaps 20% more volume in an open plenum system it starts to make more sense. In a Memphis clubhouse project, we’re going with open plenums, but that’s largely because we’ve installed some passive cooling designs that would be obstructed by a dropped ceiling system.

Open Plenum v. Dropped Ceiling — CISCA Study

Green contracts: learn from ADA/FHA legal history

In the prior post, I mentioned the potential litigation pitfalls that might arise in sustainable or green construction. Thrown in as an aside, it referenced this post at Green Building Law Update.

What spurred my thinking in that direction was an article in the September 2008 Multifamily Executive about the Equal Rights Center and its campaign to enforce Fair Housing and ADA regulations. The article, with the provocative title “Mission from God” describes the ongoing discussion between the ERC and the multifamily industry.

[Disclosure: I know several people at Archstone-Smith, Bozzuto, KSI/Kettler, and Trammell who were involved in these lawsuits. I know attorney Mike Skojec professionally.]

Shorter version:

ERC consulted with and then successfully pursued redress against major multifamily owners for violations of ADA and Fair Housing Act. Companies include: Archstone-Smith, Bozzuto, Avalon Bay (pre-Archstone), Equity Residential, Post Properties, CBRE/Trammel, Camden, Gables, KSI/Kettler. Archstone retrofitted 12,000 units for about $20mm. Multifamily industry very unhappy with ERC tactics.

I know many of the folks involved and I don’t ascribe any nefarious motives (for economy or otherwise) to them. These are all professionals with many, many years in the industry and no desire to be caught short on their compliance, particularly in their home markets. Nonetheless, as developers, there is a strong dependence upon architects and other consultants to identify all areas of non-compliance and deliver a compliant building. Unfortunately, architects and consultants don’t have the bonding capacity or other resources that these larger developers do.

The lesson for green or sustainable building contracts is that even where a clear legislative and regulatory history exists, as it does for ADA and FHA, honest but expensive disagreements will occur. Just Google “reasonable accommodation” and “housing” for a peek at the potential for green litigation.

BuildingGreen.com: LEED Energy Efficiency (and a brief discourse on definitions)

Nadav Malin, editor of Environmental Building News provides a nice summary of Henry Gifford’s thought piece about better ways to improve energy efficiency. The comments are excellent and include well-explained digressions from both Henry’s article and USGBC positions.

From Malin:

1) First, the LEED buildings are compared to the CBECS data set of all existing buildings, regardless of year of construction. Gifford argues that they should have been compared only to new buildings. The 2006 CBECS summary shows that buildings built between 2000 and 2003 use, on average, about 10% less energy than the complete data set for all existing buildings.

NBI’s Mark Frankel disagrees, noting that some of the LEED buildings are actually renovations of older buildings… [and] CBECS generally groups its buildings by decade, and those three years don’t represent enough of a trend to rely on.

2) Gifford’s second adjustment is to use the mean of the LEED data set instead of the median used by NBI. (The LEED mean was not published, but NBI provided it to Gifford upon his request.)

Based on repeated reads, I had many of the same problems with the Leonardo Academy’s “Economics of LEED-EB” paper. I found the data set too small and diverse to make any useful conclusions. I also felt the casual relationships unproven at best. As an example, LEED-EB reductions of security costs was suggested but so far beyond tenuous it was never described.

Returning to the Henry Gifford paper, I am also reminded about a recent posting at Green Building Law Update “Green Building Attorneys Warn of Carnage.” That posting highlights several recent discussions in legal circles about the enforceability and design of contracts that address specific performance standards. Reading through the comments at BuildingGreen, however, I kept running across questions that gave pause:

“When “building scientists” look at buildings from afar, we are virtually ignorant of what goes on inside them. We tend to treat them literally as shells, connected to power sources, that operate, more or less independently from the “activity” that they house.

We then are prone to missing the fact that energy-use “variance” might be the result of the very essence of the “activity” going on inside!”

So even if everyone agrees on a ‘sustainability’ program, if the design is faithfully built, if the MEP is commissioned and maintained, changing the user mix might prevent the realization of the “agreed upon” savings.

BuildingGreen.com LIVE: Lies, Damn Lies, and… (Another Look at LEED Energy Efficiency) by Nadav Malin on 09/02/2008: “”

BuildingGreen.com Case Studies

Here’s a link to the previously praised BuildingGreen.com case studies. Some have more information than others, most are heavier on the initial development and construction than ongoing operations, but there are many good ideas to be found.

BuildingGreen.com – HPB Case Study: Project Matrix: “”

(Via Real Life Leed.)

NYC affordable housing goals

As a one-time Manhattanite, I never actually thought they’d come close to reaching the goal. I knew the city could always get the density, but the sclerotic nature of the Buildings Department (late 90s), truculent community boards, and high hard costs would seem to have been insurmountable goals. On the other hand, I did meet some folks from local CDCs who were able to build for about $100 psf. When you’re busy building high rise luxury condos at $300+ psf, $100 psf seems like a dream world.

Anyway, the Mayor and all the many contributors are to be congratulated for progress to date.

Officially known as the New Housing Marketplace Plan, the plan began in July 2003 with a 65,000-unit goal. It was expanded in 2006 to 165,000 units.

About 30 percent of the units created or preserved have been homeownership units, including single-family homes and condo units. Of the 17,109 homeownership units, there have been only three foreclosures so far, affecting a total of five units.

Affordable Housing Effort Reaches Halfway Point – City Room – Metro – New York Times Blog: “”

FIRE: Gaisatsu (or, let someone else be the heavy)

Those who remember the 1980s may recall a constant back and forth on trade relations between the US and Japan. Although there was much talk of “The Japan that can say No,” Japanese policymakers found the concept of gaisatsu, or ‘outside pressure’ particularly convenient when pushing through a cherished but outdated regulation.

It works wonders on-site as well. Local curfews, breed restrictions, auto registrations, many localities provide owners and managers with a full kit of tools to improve the appearance of the property and the behavior of residents. In one particularly difficult property in Atlanta, we enforced a curfew to encourage younger residents to quit looking for trouble. Robust enforcement, parental notification, and frequent reminders helped reduce vandalism costs by 85% in 60 days. We went from 4 police calls per night to 0.75 over the same period.

In the summer.

FIRE: Advertising

As an owner, one of my bugbears is marketing expense. Difficult to measure, seemingly always important, rarely presented in a satisfying manner.

Various Internet marketing schemes are reducing the cost and most of my management company partners claim that traffic through their own site drives much of the traffic. Presumably they have identified the appropriate keywords and provide multiple links to and from their property websites to pay for the SEO (search engine optimization) consultant.

With budget season upon me, we are moving even more strongly toward Internet advertising via national (r*nt.com, a*artments.com, e.g.) and more localized methods (c*aigslist, local media). All properties are down to one book and that is increasingly one of the group ads produced by the management company. Although I eschew broadcast media, I actually do use a radio spot in a rural market, which seems to have paid off. Having been victimized by a $1mm owner-directed campaign in 2003 that exhausted budgets and produced no gain in occupancy, finding a campaign that worked was probably my biggest surprise for the first half of 2008.

Non-RE: Trucks and the Coase Theorem

Per the post below about future directions of green building policies and the disconnect between costs and benefits, the well researched and written Environmental and Urban Economics posted a timely item about trucks in Long Beach and the question of who pays for what benefit?

Los Angeles Dirty Trucks and the Coase Theorem: “We know that particulate matter in the air is deadly stuff. It increases death rates in the U.S and around the world. We know that it lowers home prices nearby. We know that older trucks produce high levels of this stuff. So, should older smoke belching trucks be allowed to drive on the roads? Clearly, this pollution externality story is a nice example of the Coase Theorem at work. Who should pay for the cleaning up of the trucks? The trucking industry (and thus the consumers of the goods being shipped) or the ‘victims’ who are exposed to the pollution under the status quo?

My UCLA colleague Arthur Winer has written an excellent background paper on the pollution issues;

http://www.scag.ca.gov/publications/pdf/2004/SOTR04_WinerEssay.pdf

The issue below appears to be whether dirty trucks operated by independent firms will be allowed to keep operating.

Los Angeles port, truckers group head for court

Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times

Transport trucks head into and out of the Port of Long Beach. Truckers are suing over the clean trucks program, which is intended to reduce air pollution.
National association is seeking an injunction to block the clean truck program on grounds it imposes intrusive regulatory systems’ on motor carrier rates and services.

By Louis Sahagun and Ronald D. White, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
September 8, 2008

The nation’s busiest port complex and the largest trucking association are expected to face off in federal court today to resolve a vexing question:

Who would suffer more from the landmark clean trucks program set to begin Oct. 1: the trucking industry or residents affected by toxic diesel emissions?

The answer could determine whether the program will launch on time — and whether massive expansion projects will proceed at the Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex, already the gateway for 40% of the nation’s imported goods.

The $1.6-billion program aims to improve air quality by replacing a fleet of 16,800 old, exhaust-spewing trucks with newer, cleaner models.

Beginning Oct. 1, pre-1989 trucks will be banned from the adjacent ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. By 2012, only trucks that meet or exceed 2007 standards will be allowed entry.

The goal is to rid local skies of tons of carcinogenic pollution and particulates linked to thousands of premature deaths and respiratory ailments. Port officials hope the program’s launch will persuade environmentalists to stop raising legal objections to expansion projects designed to meet future growth at the ports.

The 2007 clean trucks program was crafted by environmentalists, drivers, shippers, city officials, community leaders and the ports after years of often contentious debate.

But now the American Trucking Assn. says it has discovered serious flaws with the proposal.

In an interview, Curtis Whalen, head of the association that represents 37,000 trucking companies nationwide, said his group was seeking an injunction to block the program on grounds it imposes ‘intrusive regulatory systems’ on motor carrier rates and services. He also argued that the program would ‘result in far fewer trucking companies being able to serve’ the ports.

Of particular concern to truckers is a Port of Los Angeles plan that would require formation of concessions, companies that would employ some of the thousands of drivers who currently operate as independent owner-operators.

Concession requirements are designed to give the ports — as landlords — enforcement powers over big rigs entering the harbor area. This, in turn, would give the ports influence over hiring decisions, truck maintenance and driver health insurance, among other issues.

‘Let’s be clear: We are not against clean trucks,’ Whalen said. ‘We are objecting to concession plans that are going to squeeze out a lot of existing motor carriers and thousands of independent owner-operators.’

A ruling from U.S. District Judge Christina Snyder, which could come as early as today, would have a direct effect on the communities of San Pedro and Wilmington, where residents have coped for years with thousands of big rigs rumbling through neighborhood streets and local freeways.

‘The trucking industry believes the status quo works fine,’ said Los Angeles Councilwoman Janice Hahn, whose district includes the Port of Los Angeles. ‘But for us, this is all about making sure that the dirtiest trucks calling at the ports are forever banned, and the creation of a stable workforce of drivers with health benefits and decent wages and well-maintained trucks.’

Janet Schaaf-Gunter, a member of the executive board of the San Pedro and Peninsula Homeowners Coalition, agreed.

‘This much is guaranteed,’ she said. ‘Each day we move forward without a change in the number of clean trucks on the road, we are killing additional people.’

However, the National Retail Federation, which supports the trucking group, worries that the concessions requirement and new fees will add more than $1 billion per year to cargo container costs for goods moved through the complex. These costs would come at a time, the federation says, that the retailing industry is ill-equipped to bear them.

For example, motor vehicle and parts dealer sales are down 5.8%, according to the federation’s monthly figures comparing this July to July 2007. Home furniture stores’ sales are down 4.7%, and department stores have seen their sales fall 2.6% during the same period.

The trucking association ‘raises very important questions about the port plans’ lack of consistency with U.S. statutes that also deal with the regulation of the pricing routes and services of trucking companies,’ said Erik Autor, vice president and international counsel for the federation. ‘These are important issues for many of our members who are concerned about both [clean truck] plans and, of course, about the rates they will have to pay.’

Environmental and health advocates contend that financial losses should not supersede efforts to battle the ongoing health crisis fueled by diesel pollution. State air quality authorities have linked 3,700 premature deaths each year in California to pollution from the transportation of goods — more than the number of people who die from homicide.

Martha Cota, 45, who lives less than two miles from the Port of Long Beach and who, along with two of her four children, suffers from asthma, hopes the association’s legal challenge is swiftly defeated.

‘Environmental rules should be very well designed,’ she said, ‘and they must be delivered on time so that we really do improve our air.’

louis.sahagun@latimes.com

ron.white@latimes.com”

(Via Environmental and Urban Economics.)

Resource: National Housing and Rehabilitation Association analytical tools

Just discovered the multitude of articles available at National Housing & Rehabilitation Association (www.housingonline.com). The items in their News & Features section tend to be discussion of industry news, location analysis, and lots of info on tax credits. More development and asset management, less property management.

These are some of the more interesting recent links:

Rural Market Studies

Renewable Energy Incentives

Targeted Population deals for New Market Tax Credits

More can be found in the News & Features section.

http://www.housingonline.com/NewsAndFeatures.aspx