Although designed primarily for San Francisco buildings, the free, on-line resource is being promoted as adaptable for any geographic location and is divided into three sections: a general green leasing guide, tips [...]]]> San Francisco Launches Green Leasing Toolkit for Commercial Office Buildings
by Stephen Del Percio, Green Real Estate Law
November 3, 2011

Although designed primarily for San Francisco buildings, the free, on-line resource is being promoted as adaptable for any geographic location and is divided into three sections: a general green leasing guide, tips on stakeholder engagement, and a checklist of items summarizing key sustainability metrics for any property.

Earlier this year, New York City took an important step towards becoming the country’s leader in public green leasing practices when Mayor Bloomberg’s Green Lease Task Force released model green lease language aimed at addressing the split incentive in most commercial office leases. The language was incorporated with much fanfare by Silverstein Properties into its lease with the law firm WilmerHale at the LEED Gold 7 World Trade Center, as well as adopted by the City for all of its future leases.

Now, recently after it was named North America’s greenest city in a study published by Siemens, San Francisco has fired back by launching a Green Tenant Toolkit of its own, created at the recommendation of the San Francisco Mayor’s Task Force on Existing Commercial Buildings. Although designed primarily for San Francisco buildings, the free, on-line resource is being promoted as adaptable for any geographic location. It was developed by a 26-member group of real estate and environmental professionals representing brokers, property management, large tenant groups, attorneys, electrical utilities, and design and construction experts, assembled by San Francisco’s Business Council on Climate Change.

The Toolkit is divided into three sections: a general green leasing guide, tips on stakeholder engagement, and a checklist of items summarizing key sustainability metrics for any property. The toolkit isn’t written for lawyers. But it appears to be a good jumping off point for tenants and landlords that are unfamiliar with green leasing generally and want to get up to speed quickly, regardless of where they may find themselves in the leasing process. And it’s also worth noting that the New York City model language (along with our article discussing the WilmerHale lease at 7 WTC) is included in the Green Tenant Toolkit’s database of additional resources.

As you may recall, San Francisco led two major urban green building indices this year: the study from Siemens and, for a second consecutive year, the city topped Cushman & Wakefield’s Green Building Opportunity Index. We reviewed the Index’s analysis of New York City’s Midtown submarket – which placed second overall in the Index – over the summer here at GRELJ in significant detail.

Source: http://www.greenrealestatelaw.com/2011/11/san-francisco-launches-green-leasing-toolkit-for-commercial-office-buildings/

A landmark along the Tokyo-Osaka railway, Sanyo's Solar Ark is 344 yards wide with an annual output of 530,000 kWh. (Credit: Sanyo)

Struggling with a continuing nuclear crisis and strains on its power supplies, Japan is [...]]]> Japan eyes solar panels on all new buildings
by Tim Hornyak, cnet.com
May 24, 2011

A landmark along the Tokyo-Osaka railway, Sanyo's Solar Ark is 344 yards wide with an annual output of 530,000 kWh. (Credit: Sanyo)

Struggling with a continuing nuclear crisis and strains on its power supplies, Japan is thinking of requiring that all new buildings, including homes, come equipped with rooftop solar panels by 2030, according to a recent Nikkei newspaper report.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan may announce the plan this week at a G8 summit in France, the business daily reported. Kan has pledged to review Japan’s energy policy and increase renewable sources following the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, which was hit by the March 11 earthquake and tsunamis.

Kan hopes a solar-energy requirement for new buildings, along with technological innovation, would help reduce the cost of solar-power generation.

The government’s current energy policy includes plans to increase nuclear energy to more than half of the total supply by 2030 as a means of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Japan now gets about 30 percent of its electricity from nuclear sources.

Meanwhile, Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) said today that three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant probably suffered meltdowns early into the emergency, and their inner pressure vessels may have been breached. While Units 2 and 3 experienced partial meltdowns, Unit 1 was most severely affected.

An International Atomic Energy Agency team has also begun to look into how Japan has handled the worst nuclear accident in decades, which has left parts of the Tohoku region uninhabitable.

Tepco is trying to get the reactors under control by January. Its April electricity output was down 15 percent from a year earlier and shortages are expected to continue into the summer. Since western Japan runs on a different frequency, Tepco can’t easily import large power supplies from other cities.

Japanese have been cooperating with emergency power conservation campaigns since the quake. As a result, they’ll likely be less keen to use air conditioning, so this summer may be particularly hot and sticky in Tokyo.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/japan-eyes-solar-panels-on-all-new-buildings/8301-17938_105-20065704-1.html

As production of the fuel-efficient 2012 Chevrolet Sonic and Buick Verano begins this fall at the General Motors Orion Assembly Plant, 40 percent of the energy required to build the vehicles will come from burning [...]]]> GM to use landfill gases as an energy-saver at Orion plant
by Suzanne Ashe, cnet.com
May 23, 2011

As production of the fuel-efficient 2012 Chevrolet Sonic and Buick Verano begins this fall at the General Motors Orion Assembly Plant, 40 percent of the energy required to build the vehicles will come from burning gas from a nearby landfill. (Credit: General Motors)

General Motors has taken steps to make the Orion Assembly Plant even more energy efficient including using landfill gas to cut energy costs.

The plant will begin assembling the 2012 Chevrolet Sonic and Buick Verano this fall. With an upgraded paint shop that is heated by natural and landfill gas, the painting process will use half of the energy per vehicle of the one it replaced. The system runs exclusively on landfill gas primarily to generate steam for heating and compressed air for most of the year.

According to GM, both the Sonic and Verano use a new eco paint that eliminates the need for a primer oven and increases quality and appearance due to waterborne base coats.

Running a full three-shift capacity, the Michigan plant will reduce greenhouse gas production by about 80,000 metric tons, the equivalent of 14,000 vehicles per year, and the electricity reduction equals the output from 3,500 homes. This will save the automaker $1.1 million a year in energy costs.

From 2005 to 2009 Orion Assembly Plant workers reduced total waste by 26 percent.(Credit: General Motors)

“Orion is a great example of the latest technologies employed by GM manufacturing around the globe,” said Eric Stevens, GM vice president of Global Manufacturing Engineering. “As we converted the facility to support the small car program, we took every opportunity to engineer in flexibility and lean manufacturing concepts.”

Use of landfill gas is just one of the ways the plant lessens its environmental impact. GM has also made lighting system upgrades that save more than 5,944 megawatts of electricity per year (at a cost savings of $430,000) and has cut carbon dioxide by 3,676 metric tons.

Plant workers track energy use on an hourly basis with sophisticated software, enabling them to see real-time usage by department to improve their equipment shutdown activities, GM said.

“Environmentally friendly choices often translate to higher efficiency and quality,” said Maureen Midgley, GM executive director of Global Manufacturing Engineering.

Source: http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13746_7-20065400-48.html

Seattle Seahawks President Peter McLoughlin checks out a Solyndra solar array on the roof of Qwest Field. (Credit: Solyndra/Corky Trewin)

The Seattle Seahawks stadium, Qwest Field Event Center, is adding solar panels to its roof.

The solar [...]]]> News: Seattle Seahawks home to add Solyndra solar panels
by Candace Lombardi, cnet.com
May 18, 2011

Seattle Seahawks President Peter McLoughlin checks out a Solyndra solar array on the roof of Qwest Field. (Credit: Solyndra/Corky Trewin)

The Seattle Seahawks stadium, Qwest Field Event Center, is adding solar panels to its roof.

The solar arrays from Fremont, Calif.-based Solyndra are racks of thin-film CIGS (copper, indium, gallium, and selenide) solar cells shaped like tubes. The racks will cover approximately 2.5 acres, about 80 percent, of Qwest Field, Solyndra announced yesterday.

Solyndra is known for its tube-shape solar cells that capture direct, diffuse, and reflected sunlight throughout the day without the need for a rotating mechanism, the method often used to maximize the efficiency of flat solar panels.

The arrays for Qwest Field will come from Solyndra’s state-of-the-art solar manufacturing plant in California, which was built in part with a $535 million federal loan guarantee from the Department of Energy. The plant is a showcase for U.S. green-tech manufacturing: It employs over 1,000 people operating robotics manufacturing tools as a way to curb production costs and compete against inexpensive solar panels from China while keeping jobs in the U.S.

In this case, the arrays will also take advantage of the light reflected from the Seattle stadium’s white “cool roof,” which was originally installed to reduce the amount of heat absorbed by the building. Because Solyndra’s panels can capture reflected light, the white roof reflection should increase the system’s electricity production, according to Solyndra.

The solar system is being installed by McKinstry, an energy solutions company that has also designed and installed Qwest Field’s low-flow water fixtures and high-efficiency lighting systems.

When complete at the end of the summer, the solar installation is expected to generate enough electricity annually to power the equivalent of 95 homes, and result in a 21 percent reduction in the stadium’s utility costs. As a way to promote and educate people about solar technology, fans will also be able to track the electricity production and use at computer kiosks on the stadium grounds, according to Solyndra.

The Seattle Seahawks team is owned by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, who recently created the Green Sports Alliance in conjunction with the Natural Resources Defense Council. The Green Sports Alliance, which has the endorsement of six pro sports leagues as well as the Environmental Protection Agency, has made it its mission to persuade sports stadiums around the U.S. to upgrade their environmental efforts

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-20063981-54.html

Santa Clara U. has installed 60 rooftop solar collectors. (Credit: Chromasun)

If concentrating sunlight works for utility-scale solar power plants, how about for heating and cooling a single building?

Santa Clara University, which sits in the heart of Silicon Valley, said [...]]]> Solar concentrator graces university rooftop
by Martin LaMonica, cnet.com
April 13, 2011

Santa Clara U. has installed 60 rooftop solar collectors. (Credit: Chromasun)

If concentrating sunlight works for utility-scale solar power plants, how about for heating and cooling a single building?

Santa Clara University, which sits in the heart of Silicon Valley, said yesterday that it has started using 60 rooftop solar collectors atop its student center to concentrate sunlight to generate heat, a technique typically used only for large-scale solar systems.

The solar collectors were developed by start-up Chromasun, which was formed to adapt solar concentrators for commercial rooftops. By heating water to as high as 400 degrees, the solar thermal system can be used for both hot water and to fuel air conditioners for commercial buildings.

The collectors use optics to concentrate sunlight 25 times, allowing them to heat water to 200 degrees. Santa Clara University, which installed the collectors for student center dining services, estimates it will reduce the building’s natural gas heating load by 70 percent and offset 34 tons of carbon dioxide per year.

The collectors concentrate sunlight 25 times. (Credit: Chromasun)

With a California solar rebate program, the return on the initial investment is six years. The university will pay a fixed price for energy from the collectors under a 10-year lease and then own them afterward. The components were manufactured in nearby San Jose.

“The [collector] is visually stunning, is ideal for commercial-scale solar heating and cooling applications, and has an ingenious mounting system that ensures even large-scale systems go in quickly and easily,” Justin Weil, the president of SunWater Solar, a solar thermal installation company, said yesterday in a statement.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-20053462-54.html

One area of the property insurance market which has seen an increase in green building policy endorsements over the past year is the builder’s risk market. This article will take a [...]]]> What Is Builder’s Risk Insurance and Should I Purchase It For My Green Construction Project?
by Stephen Del Percio, GreenRealEstateLaw.com
May 13, 2010

One area of the property insurance market which has seen an increase in green building policy endorsements over the past year is the builder’s risk market. This article will take a look at exactly what builder’s risk is meant to insure, and then review some of the available green building endorsements to such policies that are currently available.

Because the risks for property damage, loss, or destruction are quite different for a building under construction versus a building that’s already been built, standard property insurance policies will not provide coverage for damage to or destruction of the former. This is because the owner’s insurable interest is constantly changing; title to material and equipment may change daily, and the overall value of the actual project itself increases from zero as the building itself takes shape, which makes it more or less impossible for the insurer to determine the appropriate premium. Enter builder’s risk insurance, which generally refers to a property insurance policy that will remain in place while the project is under construction. Unless specified by endorsement or otherwise, once the project is completed, builder’s risk coverage terminates, and the owner will need to make sure that a standard property insurance policy is in place to cover accidental losses, damages, or even total destruction of the building or property in question. Determining exactly when that termination takes place can be tricky, and is a good reason to review both the terms and conditions of the construction contract, as well as the terms of the policy and law of the controlling jurisdiction.

Considering the purchase of various endorsements is important because standard commercial builder’s risk coverage will insure only one thing: the building under construction, and not associated soft costs (such as those incurred with third-party green building certification). Standard builder’s risk policies will cover damage or losses to the building’s foundations, scaffolding, construction forms, other temporary structures at the project site, fixtures, machinery and equipment used to service the building and intended to become part of it, and materials and supplies at the site which will also become part of the building. Typical endorsements include those for “floater” coverage; i.e., damage to equipment used to build the project, or materials and supplies in transit from point of manufacture or supply to the project site, as well as the costs and expenses that the owner may incur if completion of the project is delayed.

According to the most recent Marsh survey (from December of 2008), several insurers now offer specific green building endorsements to traditional builder’s risk policies which owners and their contractors should consider carefully on green construction projects of any size. Fireman’s Fund, for example, offers a “Delay of Occupancy or Use – Green Amendment” to its builder’s risk product. The endorsement provides coverage for the soft green building-related costs that an owner may incur after a covered loss, such as the recycling of construction debris, flushing out the reconstructed space with clean air, commissioning repaired or reconstructed building systems, and re-registering the project with USGBC to continue pursuit of LEED certification. In addition, the policy may provide coverage for the owner’s loss of net earnings from alternative energy or water efficient installations if those systems were operational prior to the loss. Travelers, Zurich and Ace now offer similar endorsements to their builder’s risk policies as well.

As new construction starts (hopefully) increase as the economy slowly lurches around, look for more comprehensive endorsements to builder’s risk policies from a broader range of insurers to emerge; as always, we’ll be keeping an eye on such trends and follow up here at GRELJ accordingly. In the interim, if anyone out there has purchased any of the available endorsements, I’d be interested in getting your feedback in the comments.

Source: http://www.greenrealestatelaw.com/2010/05/what-is-builders-risk-insurance-and-should-i-purchase-it-for-my-green-construction-project/

We’ve just released a neat new report on what it costs to achieve specific LEED credits. Based on the current LEED-NC 2009 rating system, “The Cost of LEED” draws on the experience of veteran cost estimators to provide prices [...]]]> New Data on the Cost of LEED, Credit-by-Credit
by Nadav Malin, BuildingGreen.com
April 16, 2010

We’ve just released a neat new report on what it costs to achieve specific LEED credits. Based on the current LEED-NC 2009 rating system, “The Cost of LEED” draws on the experience of veteran cost estimators to provide prices for specific measures a project team would consider. The report helps a team understand the implications of LEED on the cost of its own particular project, with lists of “standard” approaches compared to “high performance” options, along with cost premiums for those options.

Over the years we’ve reported in Environmental Building News and on BuildingGreen.com about various attempts to measure what it costs to get a building LEED certified. Notable among these were:

• The seminal 2003 report by Greg Kats and his team, based on a set of California projects (updated in 2007 with a set of Massachusetts schools, and in 2010 for the book Greening Our Built World);
• The 2004 report “Costing Green” from Davis Langdon, updated in 2007 as “The Cost of Green Revisited” with guidelines and tips on individual credits based on LEED-NC 2.2; and
• A detailed 2004 study by John Amatruda for the U.S. General Services Administration analyzing the cost required to take two prototypical GSA buildings to a LEED-Silver level.

Our new report adds to this pantheon. I hope you’ll find it worthy of its predecessors, while adding a new level of utility. Here are a few bits from our press release on the report:

While previously published studies have taken an aggregated approach, trying to predict overall cost impact of LEED from looking at previous projects, this report draws from the resources and experience of veteran cost estimators to present the cost of specific measures a team is likely to consider.

“The goal of this report was to get a handle on the ways in which LEED credits can be achieved, and to understand the cost implications of those actions within a building project” says Stephen Oppenheimer, AIA, of Tsoi/Kobus & Associates, coauthor of the report. “We were not interested in generalizations of what a LEED Silver project might cost. We wanted much more detail than that.”

“The Cost of LEED” doesn’t provide hard numbers for every credit–there are some that are just too project-specific for that to be useful. What’s the cost of locating a project near mass transit, for example? But it does offer real numbers for measures that a cost estimator can work with, be they low-flow fixtures, CO2 sensors, or moving contaminated soil from a brownfield. This information should help teams get a handle on the ways in which LEED credits can be achieved, and to understand the cost implications of those actions within a building project.

This new report looks exclusively at construction costs–any additional design work, credit documentation, and special analyses are left to the designers to work out based on their own fees and expectations. Compiled by a team of seasoned practitioners who have collaborated on LEED-certified buildings, this report benefits from real-world experience in identifying the construction cost areas that matter.

In addition to BuildingGreen, the authors come from of Tsoi/Kobus & Associates, AHA Engineers, and Vermeulens Cost Estimators. A hard copy of the report is available from BuildingGreen.com for $49. Or, you can buy a PDF for the same price on LEEDuser.com.

Source: http://www.buildinggreen.com/live/index.cfm/2010/4/16/New-Data-on-the-Cost-of-LEED-CreditbyCredit

PriceWaterHouseCoopers released its Korpacz survey today. The investors surveyed for the report anticipate that the commercial real estate sector is expected to remain in recession until 2012.

Part of the reason is an expectation that office space demand [...]]]> Commercial Real Estate Recession To Keep Going
Square Feet Commercial Real Estate Blog
September 15, 2009

PriceWaterHouseCoopers released its Korpacz survey today. The investors surveyed for the report anticipate that the commercial real estate sector is expected to remain in recession until 2012.

Part of the reason is an expectation that office space demand will remain lax, fueling additional weakness in rents. In major markets such as San Francisco, investors surveyed expected rents to drop by as much as 20%. In other markets, rents were expected to contract by 10%+.

You may purchase a copy of the report here.

Source: http://www.squarefeetblog.com/commercial-real-estate-blog/2009/09/15/commercial-real-estate-recession-to-keep-going/

Nationally, the total value of distressed commercial real estate in August 2009 is $114.2 billion, including properties in distress, foreclosure, and lender REO, according to data from Real Capital Analytics. This is an increase of 17%, or $16.8 billion, since [...]]]> Distressed Commercial Real Estate Report
Square Feet Commercial Real Estate Blog
September 10, 2009

Nationally, the total value of distressed commercial real estate in August 2009 is $114.2 billion, including properties in distress, foreclosure, and lender REO, according to data from Real Capital Analytics. This is an increase of 17%, or $16.8 billion, since our June report. This rate of growth has slowed from earlier in the year – in the first half of 2009 the total value was doubling every three months. It is our experience from working with clients that this reflects the temper of many lenders to work with borrowers in extending debt obligations, with or without credit enhancement. Retail properties continue to represent the largest segment, at $32.7 billion in August compared to $29.7 billion in June.

Delta Associates, an East-Coast provider of research and valuation services, has been publishing a report on distressed commercial real estate, and they recently published their third report last month. We’re inundated these days with news about distress and trouble, but the report is a pretty quick way of getting a quantified snapshot of whats going on. It seems most of the research is based on data from RealPoint.

I’ve embedded the report below. You can also download it here.

Source: http://www.squarefeetblog.com/commercial-real-estate-blog/2009/09/10/distressed-commercial-real-estate-report/

Businesses in Silicon Valley are looking for “magic space.”

And to that end, a new theme has emerged in Silicon Valley. Small is the new big, and commercial real estate brokers are busy leasing [...]]]> Small is the new big in Silicon Valley commercial real estate
Friday, August 28, 2009
by San Jose Business Journal

Businesses in Silicon Valley are looking for “magic space.”

And to that end, a new theme has emerged in Silicon Valley. Small is the new big, and commercial real estate brokers are busy leasing space less than 10,000 square feet. Silicon Valley is downsizing.

For biotech companies it is defined as 5,000 to 10,000 square feet. It’s their next move from incubator status to an ability to grow, and they aren’t the only ones.

Landlords are dividing space rather than waiting for one company to take an entire floor or building. Businesses are leasing less manufacturing space as well, and the most recent statistics bare out this trend.

Coupled with the smaller theme is the continued drop in rents for commercial space and landlords easing up on leasing terms. Smaller space, lower rents and shorter leases is the new mantra in the valley, and the stories that are found in this week’s section look at what it means.

Source: http://sanjose.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/2009/08/31/focus8.html