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

The Blythe plant will use parabolic trough technology, in which heat from mirrors generates steam that passes through turbines to create electricity. (Credit: U.S. Bureau of Land Management)

The world’s largest solar power plant cleared an important hurdle [...]]]> Calif. solar plant, to be world’s largest, wins key approval
by Reuters
September 16, 2010

The Blythe plant will use parabolic trough technology, in which heat from mirrors generates steam that passes through turbines to create electricity. (Credit: U.S. Bureau of Land Management)

The world’s largest solar power plant cleared an important hurdle on Wednesday, laying the groundwork for a dramatic expansion in solar energy generation in the United States and around the world.

The proposed $6 billion-plus Blythe, Calif., plant, originally proposed by Chevron and Solar Millennium, won clearance to build from the California Energy Commission.

The plant has a capacity of 1,000 megawatts. By comparison, for all of last year, the U.S. installed about 481 megawatts of solar energy, according to the Solar Energy Industry Association. The largest solar plants to date are in the 200- to 350-megawatt range.

The Blythe plant essentially groups four 250MW plants, with the first slated to start generating electricity in 2013. The total price tag is estimated at north of $6 billion.

On Wednesday, Solar Millennium said it and Ferrostaal were the sole two co-developers, working through a U.S. joint venture, Solar Trust of America. Chevron maintained it was still a co-developer through Chevron Energy Solutions.

The commission said it had received no word that Chevron had dropped out. Although Chevron is still listed as a developer on the commission’s Web site, it didn’t mention Chevron in its press release about the approval.

The developers have already struck an agreement with Southern California Edison, which has said it will purchase the full capacity of the first two plants.

The plant will make electricity by using mirrors to heat a fluid that generates steam, which expands through steam turbine generators. The technique is known as parabolic trough technology.

It is one of nine proposed California solar plants that federal and state regulators are trying to evaluate by the end of the year.

Solar plants that begin construction before December 31 qualify for a Treasury Department grant totaling 30 percent of a project’s cost, as part of last year’s economic stimulus package.

Building Blythe would create up to 1,004 construction jobs, a spokeswoman for Solar Millennium says. Unemployment in the area slated for the plant is above the state average of 12.35 percent, commissioners said during a meeting Wednesday.

If all nine fast-tracked plants win approval and are constructed, they will create an additional 4,300MW of solar power. But the bulk of the plants won’t start generating energy until 2013.

For Blythe, the developers still need final approval from the Bureau of Land Management for use of public lands. The BLM is scheduled to rule on the matter toward the end of next month.

To win the most favorable financing from outside investors, the developers must also secure a Department of Energy loan.

The DOE is currently evaluating the Blythe plant’s proposal, including its engineering and financial models.

Having the DOE approval “really lowers the risk to the eventual lender,” says Burt Chao, an analyst at Simmons & Co. “The government’s pretty thorough in vetting these projects.”

The DOE, which has a large backlog of applications, is reviewing them “as quickly and efficiently as possible,” says Julie Offner, a DOE loan-guarantee analyst.

Story Copyright (c) 2010 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-20016635-54.html#ixzz0zv1ABnaS

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

This year, the Pentagon’s Quadrennial Defense Review-a strategy document that lays out the Pentagon’s vision for its missions and force structure every four years-identified climate change as both a potential source of conflict [...]]]> It’s Easy Being Green: The Pentagon Goes Green One Wedge at a Time
by Center for American Progress
March 11, 2010

This year, the Pentagon’s Quadrennial Defense Review-a strategy document that lays out the Pentagon’s vision for its missions and force structure every four years-identified climate change as both a potential source of conflict and a factor in military operations. But the Pentagon building itself, located in Arlington County, Virginia, is currently undergoing a big green renovation.

The iconic building was constructed on a swamp wasteland in 16 months and completed on January 15, 1943 at an approximate cost of $83 million. Efficiency was a priority even then. The building consolidated 17 buildings of the War Department to cover 29 acres-the largest ground area of any office building in the world. But despite the 17.5 miles of corridors, it takes just seven minutes to walk between any two points in the building.

The building was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1992 and had never undergone a major renovation until the Pentagon Renovation and Construction Program Office, or PENREN, began modernizing the 6.5 million square foot structure a year later. The renovation is currently 80 percent complete and expected to be completed three years ahead of schedule in 2011. So far, five renovation projects are LEED certified and the Pentagon Library and Conference Center is LEED silver.

The renovation is occurring in five sections or “wedges” that encompass different types of renovations, and it is guided by the Environmental Protection Agency’s Environmentally Preferable Purchasing, or EPP program, which determines environmentally preferable products for the projects.

Wedge 1 renovations included blast-resistant windows, removal of hazardous debris and materials, and energy efficient infrastructure design. Part of this section was destroyed on 9/11, but the blast brought new opportunities for environmentally friendly products and materials to be installed such as wood from sustainably managed forests, low-water use plumbing fixtures, low VOC paints and sealants, mineral wool insulation, energy efficient lighting, and packaging, labeling, and instructions made from recycled material.

Water conservation, energy efficiency, and use of recycled content are also concerns. The Wedges 2-5 project, for example, has diverted 50 percent of its construction waste from landfills through salvage and recycling and the LEED-certified Remote Delivery Facility, or RDF, is covered with a green roof that can be an alternative location for ceremonial activities.

Insulated windows and advanced energy control systems at the Pentagon will also cut the building’s monthly $1.1 million electric bill. The Department of Defense awarded LED manufacturer Cree a contract to supply more than 4,200 recessed LED lights for Wedge 5. Cree’s LR24-recessed LED lights would offer a 22 percent energy reduction compared with traditional fluorescent lights, reducing the Pentagon’s carbon dioxide emissions by 140 tons per year.

The Pentagon has found other more efficient ways to use energy, too. When the original coal-fired heating and refrigeration plant stopped working in the mid-1980s it cost $200,000 a month. The New Heating and Refrigeration Plant, or NHRP, first installed in 1996, is computer controlled to be 30 percent more efficient than its obsolete predecessor, uses natural gas as its main fuel source, and does not disrupt the historical architectural features of the building.

Additionally, NHRP is now one of the most advanced solar energy systems in the country with 12 advanced features that use solar energy instead of fossil fuels, including a solar thermal tile air heating roof system, photovoltaics beneath solar thermal tiles that generate electricity and heat, and rainwater recovery from the solar roof to supply the indirect evaporative cooling stages.

But these are only some of the many green Pentagon renovations-a full list of PENREN projects can be found here. When the project is complete in 2011, the Pentagon’s 25,000 military and civilian personnel will not only work in one of the biggest office buildings in the world, but one of the most energy efficient and environmentally sustainable.

Source: http://www.usgbc.org/News/USGBCInTheNewsDetails.aspx?ID=4334

LEED program expands from single buildings to big developments

Green buildings are so 2000s.

The next big thing for the 2010s? Green neighborhoods.

After five years in the hopper, the group that ushered in popular “LEED” standards to certify and foster [...]]]> Next big thing: green neighborhoods
By Steve Law, Sustainable Life
March 11, 2010

LEED program expands from single buildings to big developments

Green buildings are so 2000s.

The next big thing for the 2010s? Green neighborhoods.

After five years in the hopper, the group that ushered in popular “LEED” standards to certify and foster environmentally friendly buildings is expanding, along with two partner organizations, to promote green subdivisions and mixed-use projects.

They call it LEED-ND, which stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for Neighborhood Development.

“The environmental gains are much larger when you capture them at a point when a neighborhood is planned and designed,” says Portland planner Eliot Allen, a principal at Criterion Planners who was instrumental in crafting the new rating system. “Instead of a single building at a time, you’re capturing hundreds of buildings at once.”

“I think it’s certainly going to help make greener developments,” says Eric Ridenour, an architect and urban designer with SERA Architects in Portland.

Buildings are one of the single-largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. LEED design standards can dramatically improve energy efficiency and other building performance measures, cutting carbon emissions that cause global warming.

Created by the U.S. Green Building Council, LEED provides a voluntary system that encourages developers to shoot for higher standards. Developers who put more features into a building can gain a standard, silver, gold or platinum rating. Providing an independent certification of a building’s green features means tenants, lenders and others don’t have to rely on the claims of a developer.

The system has been so successful that the city of Portland and other jurisdictions now require LEED standards for new public buildings. Private developers seek out LEED certification because it lends a cachet to their project, helping them fill their buildings faster and charge higher rents.

From buildings to neighborhoods
After seeing the success of LEED for single buildings, the U.S. Green Building Council set out in 2004 to expand the concept to whole neighborhoods, working with the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Congress for New Urbanism. Their goal is to foster neighborhoods that have a gentler impact on the environment, that reduce carbon emissions and that meet broader social and quality-of-life goals, such as housing affordability and locating jobs near homes.

“The best ideas from across the country have been distilled into a single system,” Allen says.

Instead of just a geeky review of a building, he says, LEED-ND addresses families and their back yards. Developers can score higher in the new ratings system by preserving wetlands, enabling community gardens and farmers markets, and meeting other goals.

The three organizations, along with consultants like Allen, have been fine-tuning the new rating system, and are field-testing it by evaluating several dozen pilot projects using the new certification standards.

Portland role
Portland, a national leader in the move to green buildings, also is making outsized contributions to LEED-ND.

Portland’s vibrant walkable neighborhoods were a role model for some of the precepts of LEED-ND, says Sophie Lambert, director of the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED for Neighborhood Development program in Washington, D.C.

Eliot Tower, an 18-story condo tower near the downtown Portland cultural district, was the first guinea pig to go through the certification process.

It’s one of five pilot projects in Portland. The others are Ladd Tower, a 23-story apartment building in the cultural district; Helensview, a 4.5-acre subdivision of 40 homes and 12 condos near Northeast Killingsworth Street and 64th Avenue; Hoyt Yards, a 34-acre complex in the Pearl District; and the Central District in South Waterfront, a 35-acre site.

Only Washington, D.C., with 10 pilot projects, has more than Portland. There’s also five pilot projects in Los Angeles.

Different from eco districts
The budding LEED-ND system was one of the inspirations for Portland’s pursuit of “eco districts,” says Rob Bennett, director of the Portland + Oregon Sustainability Institute. Eco districts, also in their infancy, are modeled after pioneering efforts in

Sweden, Vancouver, B.C., and elsewhere to redevelop worn-down sections of town with environmentally friendly transportation, energy, sewage and other features.

LEED-ND standards are more of a “how-to” set of guidelines. They could emerge as a way to set standards for an eco district and independently certify a district has met the stiff standards.

Eco districts also are seen as primarily redevelopments, Bennett says, while LEED-ND is best suited to new developments that are framed in master plans.

Allen says the LEED-ND could work in redevelopments as well, such as abandoned industrial “brownfields,” where the cost of cleaning up pollution is a barrier to reuse of the land. Getting a LEED-ND label could enable a brownfield development project to attract more financing, Allen says.

Studies have demonstrated that LEED-certified buildings attract higher rents and fill up faster, Ridenour says. Some even reduce employee absentee rates, by providing more passive sunlight that makes the buildings a more pleasant place to work.

LEED-ND organizers recently launched training sessions so a developer, architect or other professional can obtain credentials as a LEED-ND specialist. Some 400 people applied within the first couple days, Allen says.

Source: http://www.usgbc.org/News/USGBCInTheNewsDetails.aspx?ID=4336