Mythbusting resolution by Green Decoder (and other thoughts on “Green is expensive”)

Green Decoder had a nice start of the year post about cost perceptions and his resolution to do more green outreach and education. Writing about his brother’s incomplete understanding of sustainable building:

Initially, his sentiment on green focused on the negative aspects: expensive, inconvenient, and difficult to do without professional help. I realized I am not doing enough to share my own message of Shades of Green. In our conversation, he quickly learned that going green is not only the big changes, but all the little decisions we make everyday.

I submit my resolution to you. This year, I will spread the message and teach anyone who will listen, and even some that won’t about Shades of Green. This year, I will move shades closer to the green I want to be.

The idea of Shades of Green is appealing, but following a discussion with a colleague earlier last week, we’re left with a question of why the perception remains “Green is too expensive.”

A recent post from 100khouse.com posits one theory as to why this perception continues to hold sway:

Most of the builders and developers reporting high premiums for pursuing LEED are still trying to build the exact same home they have always built. They are simply adding features to make that same house energy efficient, healthy and sustainable. This addition gets expensive. Rather than redesign the house that has been successful for them in the past, they add solar panels, geothermal systems, high end interior fixtures, extra insulation and other green features. The house gets greener. It gets certified, but it also increases significantly in cost. Since the features are add-ons and extras, the price rises as each one is tacked on.

The 100k house is an attempt by Philadelphia developers to build “a modern and “green” house for a measly $100,000.” The website has extensive information about their choices, challenges, and ambitions. It deserves a long look regardless of your property type.

Residential recycling programs

This is not something that has popped up on my radar because none of my markets have new recycling programs. The write up from Multi-Housing News doesn’t provide much information, but a quick Google search was able to find these additional resources:

Tailoring Recycling Programs to Reach Diverse Populations
(California Integrated Waste Management Board)

Setting up a Multi-Family or Apartment Building Recycling Program (document file from Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection)

Recycling Program for Apartment Buildings
(Cooperator)

Recycling: Multi-family Properties and Recycling for Apartments and Condominiums (28-page guide from Arlington County, Virginia)

New York City’s Apartment Building Recycling Initiative (nyc.gov)

Talking Trash: Launch a Multifamily Recycling Program
(Multifamily Executive)

Panelists Explain How to Properly Run a First-Class Recycling Program (Multi-Housing News)

Multifamily projects typically have a difficult time promoting recycling because of resident turnover (inconsistent resident education), inconvenience (inadequate space within the unit or the building), resident anonymity and incomplete participation, and inability of cities to provide public recycling haulage. There are some very good pointers in these links that discuss how to reach diverse populations, identify areas of probable success, and how to education on-site staff.

Befitting its industry focus, the article from MFE identifies the costs for a company like Post.

“Post pays the waste removal company Conex Recycling a $150 flat-rate fee per property per month. Regardless of the size of the property, that service fee covers pickup and disposal of the recyclables, as well as labor and tipping fees. Post saves an estimated $100 per ton recycled, or about $120,000 a year on landfill costs, explains Shannon Sibbitt, the development director of Atlanta-based Conex.”

(Via Multi-Housing News.)

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.)

Energy modeling (BOMA article)

The Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA), which focuses on non-residential properties, places an article at FacilitiesNet that nicely summarizes CBRE’s work in sustainability during 2007.

“Energy efficiency makes the difference” highlights CB’s use of energy modeling and BIM, which is becoming a useful addition to CAD.

“A key part of the company’s plan to improve energy efficiency in its space involves using the ENERGY STAR benchmarking tool. To begin, all office buildings larger than 100,000 square feet will be benchmarked; a second round for smaller buildings will follow.”

At a recent internal sustainability committee meeting I made the argument that the industry is headed this way: it’s time to crack the books and then get our hands dirty with the details.

http://www.buildingoperatingmanagement.com/article.asp?id=7363

There’s a much longer discussion of energy modeling in the April 2008 issue of GreenSource. I haven’t waded through it yet, but their continuing ed articles for the AIA usually provide a few new tidbits to those who aren’t otherwise paying attention.

As an owner/former developer, I’m very much of the ‘make it work’ school of thought. Nevertheless, I will concede that whole building integration of HVAC, lighting, LEED, and other requirements is still tricky business. Trying to find someone who understood my desires in the Memphis project took forever.

Here are two DOE-backed modeling efforts:

Oak Ridge Benchmarking Building Energy Performance (http://eber.ed.ornl.gov/benchmark). This website allows you to quickly benchmark energy performance on 16 different building types and approximate energy use and cost savings from energy upgrades.

Energy IQ (http://energybenchmarking.lbl.gov). Currently under way, the pilot version of this tool is being called the next generation of nonresidential energy benchmarking. This “action-oriented” tool provides opportunity assessments based on benchmarking results. The tool supports comparison of the user’s building to peers and the tracking of an individual building or portfolio over time.

Toward wiser water use

Green Source has a quick water saving article in the July 2008 issue.

It meets the “green multifamily article” standard of mentioning the Solaire at least once with a nice drawing of the water recycling program.

Good stuff, but it overlooks the mundane for the expensive. At my REO properties, our water conservation items follow this scope:
1. Annual inspections of toilet flappers
2. Diverter valve replacement
3. Low flow uniform pressure shower heads
4. Properly sized and cone shaped aerators
5. Annual inspection of water heaters

These are the techniques we use to reduce water usage on the cheap.

“Toward Wiser Water Strategies”

http://continuingeducation.construction.com/article.php?L=5&C=421&P=1

Enterprise calls for low income energy efficiency

Essentially a position piece that encompasses an exceptional range of societal ills, Enterprise nevertheless identifies some reasonable solutions to promoting energy efficiency for LIHTC and other low income programs.

Enterprise describes one of the problems thusly: “In many areas, the utility allowance estimates for tax credit developments are based on older properties with much higher energy costs due to less efficient design and construction than is possible and increasingly common today. This results in higher than necessary utility allowances for many tax credit properties and reduces the incentive for developers to incorporate energy- and water-efficient features into their developments. Owners generally are not able to use alternative sources or methodologies.”

In bullet point form, Enterprise recommends:
• Building capacity to implement low-cost improvements
• Expanding and leveraging funding for weatherization
• Ensuring climate change legislation supports low-income home energy efficiency
• Funding the Energy Efficiency Block Grant and prioritizing very low-income homes
• Investing in green jobs and prioritizing homebuilding and rehabilitation
• Strengthening HUD’s commitment to energy efficiency
• Greening the revitalization of distressed public housing communities
• Improving and expanding federal tax credits for residential energy efficiency and solar power
• Incentivizing major financial institutions to finance energy efficient very low-income homes
• Supporting research and driving innovation

National Green Building Standard submitted to ANSI for certification

The National Green Building Standard (NGBS) (http://www.nahbrc.org/technical/standards/greenbuilding.aspx) a joint effort of the National Multi-Housing Council, National Association of Home Builders, and the International Code Council, recently submitted the second draft of the NGBS to ANSI for acceptance as a standard for green home building construction practices.

Based on building codes, the new standards would be compliant with future revisions of IBC and a product of public comment and input.The submitted draft and comments from the first draft can be found on the NAHB website.

Most helpfully, this proposed standard incorporates a multi-family perspective that is missing not only from previous efforts but also those of other organizations. From the NMHC’s perspective, “LEED for Homes, like other green building rating systems, was crafted as a voluntary program that established aspirational green building goals. The USGBC has consistently maintained that LEED for Homes is designed to target the top 25 percent of new homes in terms of environmental responsibility and was never intended to be a baseline green building standard. As a result, LEED rating systems include complex and time-consuming certification and documentation requirements and inflexible technical provisions that can prove problematic in mainstream apartment construction.”

With the integration into IBC (which states and localities have the option of accepting), this is a significant game changer. When combined with IBC and heating and cooling codes, the NGBS should make all construction sustainable. This will require a substantial retraining of architects, engineers, and contractors, as well as cooperation from underwriters and MAI. We are actively exploring this at the office and I hope to know more as the comment period proceeds.

LEED 2009 Follows MS Windows model of customer choice

Gleefully embracing the idea that if one LEED rating system is good then 9 LEED systems must be whatever is more impressive than gaping mouthed awe. It’s unclear if this is an effort to make the process look more rigorous or ‘attentive’ to special building types, but all those studying for or re-upping for AP designation will need to get some more flashcards.

In fairness, LEED 2009 (aka LEED v3) will incorporate some baseline concepts common to all 9 (!) systems as well as more coherent and achievable goals. Most interestingly is the notion of regionalization as defined by regional councils of USGBC.

Nevertheless, what sounds most intriguing is the concept of an Alternate Compliance Path using lifecycle assessments to award points in the Materials and Resource section. This program is discussed in greater detail at NTHP’s “Preservation Nation”, but everything is still in hush-hush draft mode and not yet ready for public comment.

You can read more about these initial efforts at an earlier Preservation Nation post, “A Report from the Greenbuild Conference in Chicago – Part 2”

Meme of the Moment: Responsible Property Investing

Professor Gary Pizo, University of Arizona, is a leading author and proponent of Responsible Property Investment (RPI). His recent paper, “Responsible property investment criteria developed using the Delphi Method” (Building Research & Information, (2008) Vol. 36, Iss. 1) discusses the development of criteria used to evaluate the micro (property level) and macro (community level) value of property investments.

The Delphi Method, which uses multi-round feedback from a group of experts as a way to achieve ‘broadly considered opinion’, was employed in a 3 round exercise involving experts from socially responsible investing (35%), real estate (40%), engineering and design (8%), and academia (17%). Using a group of 51 experts to start, the Delphi Method helped prioritize 66 criteria when considering responsible property investing. There was considerable overlap amongst the top 20 criteria, and among the top 10, most are derivations of either efficient use of utilities or proximity to multi-modal transportation. Most interesting is Table 4, which describes the criteria using categories such as location, site and building design, owner behavior, occupant behavior, and operations and maintenance. Tellingly for my purposes, 52 of the 66 criteria had some overlap in operations and maintenance. In short, investors value the sustainability of their sustainable investment. Overall, an interesting paper that should lead to further investigation by academia and industry.

Quantifying your savings

I’m evaluating a proposal right now to replace non-functioning garage exhaust fans with a variable speed fan that claims to reduce my power load. It sounds great and with Minnesota efficiency rebates, I may be only be responsible for 50% of the cost.

But I’m not certain the savings will be there. The existing system is broken and runs constantly. Replacing CO monitors and fans will immediately reduce my energy consumption anyway for $17,000. Just how much savings can I expect from these variable speed fans for an additional $9,000?

What I will probably do is authorize replacement in 2-3 buildings and compare energy use for the remaining buildings. The structures are identical and if I establish the baseline energy consumption off the house meter, I should be able to see what type of reduction I’m earning.

All that leads to the largest problem for those of us who are or deal with owners of physical assets: can you prove your savings?

The Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnerships is a non-profit supported by a variety of foundations, federal agencies, and regional utilities. In 2006 they produced a report entitled “The Need for and Approaches to Developing Common Protocols to Measure, Verify and Report Energy Efficiency Savings in the Northeast”. Although their focus was regional and industrial in nature, they identified questions faced at the micro-level:

1. Are these investments reasonable with sufficient credibility and certainty;

2. Are the savings transparent and verifiable from readily available sources;

3. Are the savings consistent or trackable across a variety of locations?

“The Need for and Approaches to Developing Common Protocols to Measure, Verify and Report Energy Efficiency Savings in the Northeast”

Qualified Application Plan and Sustainability

I need to finish reviewing the summary of state QAP’s, but the sustainability trend continues at the state level for affordable housing. Most of the language address a mix of location and material incentives. There is an uneven message on reuse and rehab and certainly some of the language seems cribbed from the USGBC. That’s not always a bad thing, but it certainly doesn’t do much for addressing the operational challenges of sustainability.

I’ll have more once I’ve finished reading the report.

“A Greener Plan for Affordable Housing”

For 2007, there’s an updated report “Greener Policies, Smarter Plans” by James Tassos and distributed by Enterprise Community Partners.

The bottom line is upfront:
“All states promote sustainable development in some fashion through their Housing Credit allocation plans. Forty-two states employ “threshold criteria” – mandatory design, construction, energy standards or other program requirements – that address sustainable development. Forty-eight states encourage green development using selection criteria incentives. State policies that address sustainable development generally fall into four broad categories: energy efficiency; sustainable site selection; resource conservation and indoor air quality.

Perhaps most significantly, 29 states (Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, Utah, West Virginia and Wisconsin) implemented notable new policies or substantially revised policies encouraging sustainable development since just last year. Thirty-nine states have made significant strides in this area during the past two years.”

The report does not offer substantial discussion of the various QAP allocations and preferences, but it does note some interesting trends. The one that jumped out at me was the Energy Star appliance requirement from 13 states. If you’re wondering, the states are California, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Louisiana, Maine, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, South Dakota, Vermont and Wisconsin.

Site selection continues to be a favorite area to add points, but given that almost all of my developments or properties are in urbanized areas, a project is right for LIHTC or not and a ‘sustainable’ site shouldn’t be the determining factor. This is particularly true in states where there are already incentives for smart growth, TOD, or brownfield locations.

Sustainable Multi-family systems

Long past timely, the Eastern Village Cohousing Condominium won the EDC 2005 Excellence in Design for Multi-family, LEED Silver, and the NAHB Green Project of the Year: Luxury Multi-family. Previously a mid-century office building, the developers retained nearly 75 percent of the shell and reduced impervious materials by 30 percent.

This is an impresive project deserving of its notice. Nevertheless, it is unfortunate that the EDC honorable mentions were mostly abroad.

“Notable sustainable materials, products and systems include:

- All appliances throughout the building were ENERGY STAR qualified including clothes washers and dishwashers

- All exterior wood is treated with non-CCA preservatives

- All native and/or adaptive plants

- American Hydrotech Extensive Garden Roof

- Cardinal Low-E coated glass provides added insulation and reduces solar heat gain, and energy-efficient interior fluorescent lighting with electronic ballasts

- Cyclone XHE Water Heaters (98 percent thermal efficiency) manufactured by A.O. Smith Water Products Co. Each unit has its own FHP Manufacturing Simple Comfort Model #3801 programmable thermostat

- Duron Genesis Oder-free latex paints (local source and zero-VOC paint used on all interiors)

- Existing concrete ceiling was painted

- Flooring includes Hawa bamboo flooring, Patcraft Net Lingo carpet, Mohawk Alladin Westin Hill carpet, Forbo Linoleum, Armstrong linoleum

- Geothermal Heat Pumps from Florida Heat Pumps that utilize a ground source heat exchanger to reject the heat from the heat pumps ion cooling mode

- Green Lee Lighting VBS Bollard exterior lighting

- Homecrest cabinets and all interior doors were from local sources

- Niagara Earth Massage Shower Head (1.75 GPM), bathroom lavatory features 1.5 GPM aerators

- U.S. Gypsum drywall contains 5 percent post-consumer recycled content and 14 percent post-industrial recycled content, Dietrich metal studs contain 64 percent post-industrial recycled content

- Walls feature Fiberglass R11 5-inch batt insulation manufactured by Knauf and the roof has 3-inch thick extruded polystyrene manufactured by Dow.”

Eastern Village Cohousing Condominium

Useful Green Resources

Updating my library of mostly free documents:

“Green Buildings and the Bottom Line”
http://www.bdcnetwork.com/article/CA6390371.html

“Building Analysis for Energy Efficient Investments”

http://concessions.nps.gov/document/BusinessAnalysis.pdf

The complete Energy Star Building Manual
has excellent recommendations and provides very full information on all aspects of building and operating sustainably.
http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=business.bus_upgrade_manual

LEED for Existing Buildings: Operations and Maintenance
How to score your LEED points with LEED-EB.
www.usgbc.org/DocumentDownload.aspx?DocumentID=3353

Utility Incentives for Windows
A good discussion of windows, including glossary of terms, suppliers, and of course, a list of incentives for window upgrades.
http://www.efficientwindows.org/toolkits/tk_designer1_4.cfm