GreenBuild Blog
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Blue is the New Green
Read Jerry’s interview in Skanska’s Green Urban Development Report No. 3, November 2011, an entire issue devoted to Water Sustainability. Jerry makes the point that water efficiency will be the next big issue for sustainability, as water is not a free resource anywhere on the planet.
Download the Skanska interview with Jerry Yudelson
Download the complete issue (4.4MB)
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Monday, December 12, 2011
Ten Green Building MegaTrends for 2012
Green building will continue its rebound globally in 2012 in spite of ongoing economic difficulties in most developed economies. What we’re seeing is that more people are building green each year, and there is nothing on the horizon that will stop this MegaTrend or its constituent elements. However, in 2010 and 2011, the continuing slowdown in commercial real estate and the end of federal recovery funding put a crimp in new green building projects. In putting together my Top Ten trends for 2012, I’m taking advantage of conversations I’ve had with green building industry leaders in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Australia during the past year.
Yudelson Associates’ Top Ten Green Building MegaTrends include:
- Green building in North America will rebound in 2012, using new LEED project registrations as a proxy for this growth. The reduction in commercial real estate construction has not been offset by other sectors such as government construction, which continued to falter, and so the growth rate of new green building projects fell dramatically in 2010 and 2011. Even so, in 2011, LEED in new construction accounted for about 20% of all put-in-place space, with domestic LEED project registrations up almost 40% vs. depressed 2010 levels. However, we see faster growth in green retrofits, and notice that ongoing college and university projects and NGO activity are serving to backstop the fall in commercial and governmental construction. In addition, LEED growth has been and will be rapid in China and other fast-growing economies.
- Green building will continue to benefit from the Obama Administration’s strengthened focus on greening the executive branch, with its commitment to a minimum of LEED Gold for all federal projects and focus on major energy-efficiency renovations.
- The focus of the green building industry will continue its switch from new building design and construction to greening existing buildings. One fast-growing LEED rating system the past two years has been LEED for Existing Buildings Operations and Maintenance (LEED-EBOM), with cumulative floor area in certified projects now greater than in new construction, and I expect this trend to pick up in 2012. My book, Greening Existing Buildings, documents the strategic and tactical components of this trend. One driver of this MegaTrend is that “‘green’ buildings have rents and asset prices that are significantly higher than those documented for conventional office space,” according to a recent major academic research study on commercial buildings in the U.S. and Europe.
- Awareness of the coming global crisis in fresh water supply will increase, leading building designers, owners and managers to take further steps to reduce water consumption in buildings by using more conserving fixtures, rainwater recovery systems and innovative new onsite water technologies. My recent book, Dry Run: Preventing the Next Urban Water Crisis, shows how this is being done in green buildings all over the world.
The global green building movement will continue to accelerate, as more countries begin to create their own green building incentives and developing their own Green Building Councils. More than 90 countries with incipient or established green building organizations, on all continents, will drive considerable green building growth in 2012. We’re seeing strong growth in China, other places in Asia (e.g., Singapore), Brazil, Eastern Europe, South Africa and the Arabian Peninsula countries. In 2011, for the first time, nearly as many LEED-registered projects were in progress outside the U.S. as in the U.S., up more than 50% compared to 2010 levels and representing 44% of all new LEED project certifications.1 In fact, as one expert noted, LEED has registered or certified projects in 131 of the world’s 196 countries, with a total floor area of almost 3-billion sq.ft. When combined with the nearly 1.5-billion sq.ft. registered under LEED India and LEED Canada, it is clear that LEED is the dominant global green building certification brand.2
- Zero-net-energy buildings will become increasingly commonplace, in both residential and commercial sectors, as LEED and ENERGY STAR certifications and labels have become too commonplace to confer competitive advantage among building owners. Developers of speculative commercial buildings will also begin to showcase Zero Net Energy designs.
- Performance Disclosure will be the fastest emerging trend, highlighted by new requirements in California, Seattle and other locations. Commercial building owners will have to disclose actual building performance to all new tenants and buyers and in some places, to the public at large. This trend is already established in Australia, for example, and will spread rapidly as the easiest way to monitor reductions in carbon emissions from commercial and governmental buildings.
- Green Buildings will increasingly be managed in the “Cloud”, as witnessed by the large number of new entrants and new products in fields of building automation, facility management, wireless controls and information management in 2011.
- Local and state governments will step up their mandates for green buildings for both themselves and the private sector. We’ll see at least 20 new cities with commercial sector green building mandates, mostly in the “Blue” states. The desire to reduce carbon emissions by going green will lead more government agencies, universities, hospitals and corporate owners to require green buildings from design and construction teams.
- Solar power use in buildings will continue to grow with the prospect of increasing utility focus on aggressive state-level renewable power standards (RPS) for 2020. As before, third-party financing partnerships will continue to grow and provide capital for large rooftop systems such as on warehouses and big box retail stores. However, we will see fewer very large solar and wind systems, as federal grant and loan guarantee support begins to be phased out.
Download the 2012 MegaTrends PDF
1LEED Statistics from Green Building Market and Impact Report 2011, by Rob Watson.
2Watson, at p. 20.
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Sunday, December 11, 2011
Yudelson 411
Read the interview at www.DJC.comJerry Yudelson is the author of 12 books on green buildings, water conservation and green development. “Greening Existing Buildings,” a guide to implementing the LEED-EBOM rating system, was published in 2009, and has become the must-have reference for converting existing buildings from standard to LEED-certified status.
In 2011, Yudelson was named to the inaugural group of LEED Fellows by the U.S. Green Building Council, one of 34 people nationally to receive this honor.
From 2001 through 2009, Yudelson trained nearly 4,000 people in the LEED Green Building Rating System. He is one of the original LEED trainers for the U.S. Green Building Council and a former board member.
Yudelson is a professional engineer, obtaining his engineering degrees from Caltech and Harvard University, and obtained his MBA from the University of Oregon.
Q: Wired Magazine recently dubbed you “The Godfather of Green.” How do you feel about the moniker and does Al Gore know about this?
A: Feel great. Didn’t notify Al about it. Obviously, Wired is free to give anyone a headache!
Q: You’ve been in the sustainability world for 15 years. No doubt you’ve faced your fair share of skeptics, but you’re obviously in it for the long haul. What keeps you motivated?
A: Motivation is from the work itself and its importance, but even more vital is the incredible group of people working to create a more sustainable built environment; no quitters among them and a group of fun-loving, insightful people.
Read the interview at www.DJC.comQ: Speaking of skeptics, what’s the most cynical reaction you’ve had about going green?
A: I guess I wouldn’t recognize it if I heard it, but the best comments are always questions like “how does this play in the marketplace?” This was especially true working in green retail, starting in 2007, where there’s such a clear incentive to keep costs down and no real data about how consumers make buying decisions based on how “green” a shopping center or retail store is. In the office environment, the leaders in the field have been all in since 2006, so it hasn’t been a hard sell.
Q: One of the emerging trends you cited for 2011 was performance disclosure. Seattle now enforces regulation that requires building owners to fully disclose building performance to new tenants and buyers (come Jan. 1, all commercial buildings over 10,000 square feet). This sounds like a can of green worms. How do we keep the benchmarking process honest?
A: This is a great question and one that will take a few years to work out. The best bet is to work with groups like New Buildings Institute, UW and Cascadia Green Building Council to come up with methods that take into account things like data centers, percent of occupancy, amount of retail versus office, etc. The commercial real estate industry will have to get used to full disclosure, bottom line.
Q: This chaotic economy has stalled sustainability initiatives, yet most people acknowledge we need to take heed and get on with the “new normal.” When do you see that kicking in?
A: The “next normal” is my phrase, and it’s already here. If you don’t get on board with sustainability, you’re going to see value erosion in an entire portfolio, as investors, tenants, buyers, operators and lenders start ratcheting up the pressure to “go green” in each and every building and property.
Q: What one thing can a landlord do to encourage tenants to think green?
A: Feedback is number one, so there needs to be more submetering and direct feedback on energy use, on a real-time basis, to change tenant behavior. Lots of reliable studies show this can be done easily technically. And relatively inexpensively at that.
Q: What can a tenant do?
A: Put pressure on the landlord; make energy costs an issue in the next lease negotiation. Move to a greener building.
Q: How about a commercial real estate broker?
A: Brokers need to stay informed about greening of existing buildings, use the data and education that is out there and take the lead in the conversation, especially when representing tenants.
Q: The bottom line is, well, the bottom line. Environmental consciousness aside, how does going green add value to a property?
A: Higher rents (proven), higher occupancy (proven), greater resale value (generally proven in various large urban markets), faster lease-up of new or renovated buildings (generally proven).
Q: What are you seeing as the latest and greatest green innovation and/or technology in the built environment?
A: Software for building management, especially that uses cloud computing; great tools for portfolio management. Products like BuildingIQ for managing large buildings, EcoInsight for portfolio management, many others. Wireless sensors for quickly transmitting information, such as occupancy, to lots of devices.
Q: What one thing that has happened in your business life has made the biggest impact on who you are today?
A: I’ve always had great mentors, including politicians, but the biggest impact always comes from within, from being clear about what you want to do with your life. In that respect, meditation and yoga have had by far the biggest impact, giving me energy to keep going and total respect for everyone I meet.
—Interview conducted by Barbara Travers
Read the interview at the Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce website: www.DJC.com
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Tuesday, December 06, 2011
Marketing Sustainable Design Services - Three Keys to the Future
Many architects are asking me how to change their marketing approaches to sustainable design services, since green building experience and expertise no longer confers specific competitive advantage, even to those who have been doing green projects since 2000 or 2005 and who have lots of LEED certified projects to their credit.
This concern is a reminder that nothing stays static in this business. What do firms need to do to maintain their focus on sustainability, but gain more advantage from this form of branding? I think there are three key steps to take right now.
Raise the Stakes
Stop resting on your laurels and start reinvesting in building the sustainable brand. That means getting your people out to conferences as presenters, especially where the client base is likely to hear them. Commission white papers on key sustainable topics. Write articles and op-ed pieces for leading client-focused trade and professional journals. Publish a 60-to100-page hardbound book on each of your projects, as many leading European firms do, and get it in client’s hands. With some practice, this can be done well for $25,000 or less per book; for a $50 million project that brought $4 million gross revenues in the door, this amount can be budgeted easily and is a lot cheaper than continuing to spend tens of thousands each on the vain pursuit of endless projects against equally credentialed competitors.Narrow the Focus
One key tenet of professional services marketing strategy is that you can’t be everything to everyone. You need to be something really special to a few key clients. For example, a firm might be known for doing museums and libraries in higher education. Keep that focus but extend the geographic reach of your business. Take as examples how HOK Sport and Ellerbe Beckett dominated the sports arena business. After all, key decisions on such projects are often made by a handful of influential experts, as compared, say, with higher education classroom/office buildings or dormitories, with which large numbers of firms have experience and which are often subject to wider influences. With this narrowing of focus, you’ll find that it’s more possible to place your experts at the top of the field and to get them key speaking and presentation assignments. Library directors like to talk with library design experts, museum directors with museum experts, etc.Become Fully Engaged in the Conversation
Sustainable design is evolving quickly into categories such as the 2030 Challenge, Living Building Challenge, Zero Net Energy Projects, Regenerative Buildings, Max Green goals, etc., each of which has various categories of experts, thought leaders, along with new practices, technologies and systems. In the Living Building Challenge, for example, you’ll have to focus as much on sustainable design for the water cycle as for the energy cycle. This creates both opportunities and challenges inside the firm, but gives you new chances to reassert, reclaim and reinvent your sustainable design expertise. Each of these practice areas has passionate advocates, so find people in your firm who care about each of these issue areas and get them into the conversation. Use social media to follow, participate in and then influence the discussions that are taking place daily.
I’d love to hear your comments on how your firm is staying up with sustainable design, green building and high-performance projects. If you want advice on how to deal with these challenges, email me and we’ll set up a call to discuss how I might help you.
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