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Entries in commercial real estate (3)

Friday
12Feb2010

The Power of the Retrofit

We tweeted this the other day, but I thought it was worth more attention. Build2Sustain seeks to become a leader in sustainable retrofit and renovation for commercial spaces. This story is a prime example of what's possible with intelligent retrofit.

Caterpillar Headquarters in Peoria Ill. underwent a retrofit focused on efficiency. Here are some of the highlights:

-Caterpillar’s headquarters will save about $800,000 a year in energy costs.

-Tom Gerike, Engineering Project Team Leader, provided the following: Previously, the building’s annual energy usage of electricity and natural gas was 111,591 MMBTU. Now, it uses 60,622 MMBTU.

Some Key Retrofit Features:

From Gerike:

There was no night setback in place for HVAC equipment or for lights,” he said, adding that consistent setpoints were established at 70 degrees in the heating season and 76 degrees in the cooling season.

From The Environmental Leader Article:

For lighting automation, the new system has smart breaker panels controlled by a lighting schedule with pushbutton overrides for common areas. Also, motion sensors were installed into private offices and conference rooms.

As a result of these improvements the site earned LEED Gold Certification. What's missing from this story is project ROI and payback periods of the renovation. We're working to get that info and hopefully will have it for you soon. In the meantime, for more on the retrofit, read the entire story at Environmental Leader or see Caterpillar's Press Release for more.

Monday
04Jan2010

NYC is going to make you change your lightbulbs

In the latest two-step from NYC on the subject of green building, here's the latest bill to pass (as reported by LightNow)

Some highlights (again, thanks to LightNow for the run down):

Int. No. 973-A: Legislation that requires large commercial buildings (over 50,000 square feet) to upgrade their lighting and sub-meter tenant spaces over 10,000 square feet;

Int. No. 564-A: Legislation that creates a New York City Energy Code that existing buildings will have to meet whenever they make renovations (closing the loophole that allows buildings to perpetuate non-compliant systems if they perform renovations on less than half of a given building system);

Int. No. 476-A: Legislation that requires large buildings owners to make an annual benchmark analysis of energy consumption so that owners, tenants, and potential tenants can compare buildings’ energy consumption; and

Int. No. 967-A: Legislation that requires large private buildings to conduct energy audits once every decade and implement energy efficient maintenance practices. Also, all city-owned buildings over 10,000 sq ft will be required to conduct audits and complete energy retrofits that pay for themselves within 7-years.

I don't have a ton of time this morning for commentary, but look for more tonight. We specifically mentioned NYC legislation initiatives in our white paper. This update only strengthens the argument that businesses are soon going to face one of two options, meeting energy requirements on their own terms, or have their arms twisted. Build2Sustain advocates the former.

Look for more on the bill from our blog later this week.

Monday
16Nov2009

Financial Services and Sustainability

I am away this week in Japan. But in the wee hours of the far east morning, I've been thinking about financing the future of green building. After the financial system's collapse at the end of last year and the aftermath we've been dealing with since, everyone is rethinking how financial services should work. The market is incredibly risk adverse at the moment after a decade of incredible risk taking, leading to calamity. As the market levels back out, I wonder if there aren't new metrics the financial services industry should think about when considering commericial loans in the future, specifically when it comes to commericial real estate. 

Should the sustainability of a given project, be it a new build or a renovation be considered when a financial services company considers lending? Understand I don't mean the government should mandate such parameters, rather, would the smartest financial service companies partner with the most sustainable projects? There are some compelling arguments that say yes, like sustainable projects tend to hold higher real estate values on the market. There are also complications, by what metric should a bank or lending institution judge sustainablity? Solely basing such a decision on LEED rating seems unfair, but there needs to be an objective measure, what should it be? I'm not an expert in this field, so what are your thoughts? Spead the word on this one to professionals you know in the financial services space. I'm interested in knowing what they think about the future of the commerical real estate industry.

 

PS the image above is Tokyo, where I am at the moment, for no reason other than that's where I am at the moment.