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

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

Just yesterday, architecture firm RMJM announced plans for a $1 billion, landmark green project for the Atasehir district of Istanbul, Turkey. The Varyap Meridian development is slated for a new residential and business district — and just might transform into [...]]]> $1B Green Project Planned for Istanbul
by Preston Koerner, JetsonGreen.com
August 12, 2009

Just yesterday, architecture firm RMJM announced plans for a $1 billion, landmark green project for the Atasehir district of Istanbul, Turkey. The Varyap Meridian development is slated for a new residential and business district — and just might transform into a new financial district for Turkey. Of course, the buildings will each seek LEED certification, and if obtained, it could be the first green development of its kind in the country.

Th 372,000 square meter development will sit on a site of 107,000 square meters and includes a 60-story tower, 1,500 residential units, a five-star hotel, offices, conference facilities, parking facilities, and landscaped public areas.

As massive as the project is, it’s planned to be completed in 2011.

The buildings will have unprecedented, panoramic views while minimizing the solar heat gain. And according to Building Design + Construction, some of the following green technology will be used: “rainwater collection sites and facilities to optimize water usage and reduce energy consumption, wind turbine technology, cooling water pools that enhance the external landscape, and a co-generation plant that will produce electricity for the development.”

Image Rendering credits: RMJM.

Source: http://www.jetsongreen.com/2009/08/rmjm-green-project-planned-atasehir-istanbul.html

If you are looking for green building projects resulting directly from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, then the General Services Administration is the agency for you. The GSA received $5.5 billion to support its [...]]]> GSA Awards Over $1 Billion in Green Stimulus Projects
August 12, 2009
by Chris Cheatham, Green Building Law Update

If you are looking for green building projects resulting directly from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, then the General Services Administration is the agency for you. The GSA received $5.5 billion to support its High Performance and Sustainable Buildings program. Previously, I had reported that the GSA was requiring LEED certification and preferred LEED silver certification. Turns out, those requirements have changed:

As a means of evaluating and measuring our green building achievements, all GSA new construction projects and substantial renovations must achieve Silver certification through the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®) Green Building Rating System of the U.S. Green Building Council. Projects are encouraged to exceed LEED® Silver and achieve LEED® Gold.

Back in April, we reported on an initial list of ARRA projects published by the GSA. Since then, very little information was available regarding these projects. Bisnow recently reported on the first GSA ARRA project award that I have seen:

[C]ongrats again to sponsor Grunley Construction for landing a renovation contract for the Mary E. Switzer Building at 330 C St., SW. Having completed Phase I in 2008, GSA put Grunley back to work using Recovery Act funding. The project includes: interior construction removal (including Hazmat); a “green roof system”; renovated elevators; and, three 2-story atriums, like the one above. Work is underway, due in July 2011. Designed by HNTB, it’s aiming LEED Silver.

The Grunley-GSA contract is just the tip of the iceberg. ENR recently reviewed tremendous progress made by the GSA in awarding ARRA projects:

After taking about six weeks just to produce its list of stimulus projects, GSA has shifted into overdrive. It has awarded contracts totaling nearly $1.1 billion for projects involving about 120 buildings. Twenty of those projects account for more than $940 million of that total.

Most of those funding commitments came in a burst of awards announced since early July, according to Anthony Costa, acting commissioner of GSA’s Public Buildings Service. “At least 20 of the 120 projects are already under construction,” he told the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee at a July 31 hearing. “The rest will begin soon.”

Even more GSA recovery-act work is on the way. Costa says the agency plans to award another $1 billion in ARRA contracts by Dec. 31, with the goal of having 91% of the $5.5 billion under contract by Sept. 30, 2010.

Of course, it’s nearly impossible to report on stimulus projects without highlighting the fact that bids are much lower than anticipated. In the case of GSA ARRA projects, bids are coming in 10 to 15 percent below government estimates. I have serious concerns about bids coming in below government estimates, which I will discuss in more detail next week.

Links:

GSA Sustainable Design Program (GSA)
Grunley! (Bisnow)
New GSA Contracts Starting to Surge (ENR)

Source: http://www.greenbuildinglawupdate.com/2009/08/articles/codes-and-regulations/gsa-awards-over-1-billion-in-green-stimulus-projects/

If the workplace is any indication, you could almost believe corporate America really cares about the environment.

Goldman Sachs (GS, news, msgs), Hearst, IBM Corp. (IBM, news, [...]]]> Grab the ‘green’ real-estate boom
Real-estate moguls know there’s good money in environment-friendly buildings. Here’s how the little guy can play, too.
By Walecia Konrad, Fast Company

If the workplace is any indication, you could almost believe corporate America really cares about the environment.

Goldman Sachs (GS, news, msgs), Hearst, IBM Corp. (IBM, news, msgs), JPMorgan Chase (JPM, news, msgs) and Toyota Motor (TM, news, msgs) all have made the move into “green” buildings.

Bank of America (BAC, news, msgs) plans to build a 52-story eco-skyscraper near New York’s Times Square, and Accenture (ACN, news, msgs) has leased green office space throughout the country.

Sustainable construction is one of the fastest-growing segments of the already-red-hot commercial-building industry. An estimated 5% of all new U.S. commercial construction received the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification last year. And by 2010, 10% of all new commercial construction will be sustainable, according to McGraw-Hill’s (MHP, news, msgs) 2006 Smart Market report. (The green trend in home construction is still in its infancy, although that’s bound to change.)

Existing construction is getting an eco-lift too. Developers such as Hines and the Durst Organization, and some real-estate investment trusts (REITs), are snapping up half-empty office buildings and renovating them according to green standards. That can often bring 3% higher rents and a 7.5% increase in a building’s value, according to the McGraw-Hill report.

On average, green buildings save 10% of utility costs each year — and sometimes much more. Genzyme’s (GENZ, news, msgs) corporate headquarters in Cambridge, Mass., spends 42% less on energy and uses 34% less water than a similar traditional building would. Even more important, as sustainable materials and technology improve, green construction will become more cost-effective, says Charles Lockwood, an environmental and real-estate consultant in Southern California and New York.

So how do individual investors get in on this latest real-estate boom? The easiest opportunities may lie in REITs that have made a substantial commitment to new or renovated green buildings. In a sign of just how hot this phenomenon is, however, two of the biggest, greenest REITs, Arden Realty and Equity Office Properties Trust, have been swallowed up by GE Real Estate and Blackstone Group, respectively.

But there are still promising names out there. Liberty Property Trust (LRY, news, msgs) has 21 green buildings in its portfolio of about 700 properties and says that number will rise quickly as the trust renovates more of its existing properties and takes on more new green projects. Liberty has enjoyed the nice run-up that all REITs had in the past year thanks to the strong commercial-building market. But Fauzia Rashid, a co-manager of Fred Alger Management’s Spectra Green Fund (SPEGX), expects Liberty’s green investment will help it continue to perform well even if commercial building starts to slow down.

For investors who get a bit woozy at the thought of betting solely on the vagaries of the commercial-real-estate market, a mutual fund with green-building holdings might be the safer way to go. The Spectra Green Fund, unlike many of its socially conscious counterparts, has consistently outperformed the Russell 3000 for the past three years.

The fund, which among other things invests in clean-energy stocks, is putting a small percentage of its assets in green REITs. Rashid also likes to invest in the building segment through the back door, focusing on the supply and equipment manufacturers that green builders rely on, such as Johnson Controls (JCI, news, msgs), the maker of devices that measure and monitor energy output. At about $96 a share, Johnson Controls has jumped in the neighborhood of 40% in the past year. And that’s a nice neighborhood to be in.

Source: http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/RealEstate/GrabTheGreenRealEstateBoom.aspx?page=all

LEED Version 3 has some new aspects, and the green building community is trying to understand the ins and outs.  One aspect has been talked about strenuously in the past week, and I thought we should ground ourselves a little [...]]]> The Concept of LEED De-certification
Written by Preston Koerner, Jetson Green
July 13, 2009

LEED Version 3 has some new aspects, and the green building community is trying to understand the ins and outs.  One aspect has been talked about strenuously in the past week, and I thought we should ground ourselves a little bit.  Let’s take a step back and look at Minimum Program Requirements (“MPRs”), the concept of de-certification, or certification revocation, and whether this all means that projects can lose certification if they do not perform as designed.

Source: http://www.jetsongreen.com/2009/07/the-concept-of-leed-decertification.html

The possibility that a LEED-certified project could be “decertified” by USGBC or GBCI in the event that any of the new LEED 2009 Minimum Program Requirements (”MPRs”) are not satisfied presents a [...]]]> Do Third Parties Have Standing to Initiate LEED 2009 Decertification Proceedings?
By Stephen Del Percio, Green Real Estate Law
July 9, 2009

The possibility that a LEED-certified project could be “decertified” by USGBC or GBCI in the event that any of the new LEED 2009 Minimum Program Requirements (”MPRs”) are not satisfied presents a variety of novel legal issues which we presented earlier this year here at GRELJ when the first iteration of MPRs was announced by USGBC. Today, Engineering-News Record (”ENR”) published an article that highlights a number of those issues, but also raises the question of who, exactly, would have standing to bring a decertification proceeding. If strictly limited to USGBC or GBCI, a recent comment here at GRELJ from Brian Anderson (”lawsuits are bad for marketing”) suggests that decertification would be a remote possibility. However, in the ENR piece, which is titled Building Rating System Requirement Raises Concern and authored by Nadine Post, my colleague Ujjval Vyas notes that “[a]ny third party has the right to initiate a non-compliance action by USGBC. This creates a huge risk and provides standing to any entity whatsoever to injure a building owner or tenant.” If third parties can compel decertification proceedings, the risks associated with failing to comply with the MPRs are far more serious than if that discretion rests exclusively with USGBC or GBCI.

However, I think it’s important to look at the specific language that provides for decertification in LEED 2009, which reads (in part) as follows: “certification may be revoked from any LEED project upon gaining knowledge of non-compliance with any applicable MPR.” (emphasis added). The way I read this language, USGBC/GBCI is not obligated to revoke certification upon learning of non-compliance, but it is not restricted from receiving information regarding non-compliance from any third party. The question then becomes what, if any, obligations USGBC/GBCI may have to use that information and pursue a decertification proceeding, either conferred elsewhere in the LEED rating system itself or otherwise imposed by law. I don’t know the answer to that question, but perhaps Ujjval or others could chime in below in the comments. I think this is an absolutely critical point to dissect.

Also of import in the ENR article with respect to the MPR requiring access to building performance data (which has been the MPR driving much of the risk discussion here at GRELJ and elswhere), Duane Morris construction attorney Ed Gentilcore emphasizes that “[w]hat was once an initial project-performance milestone now has ongoing tail responsibilities that could create extended obligations for the owner itself and possibly, in turn, design and construction teams.” In addition, Scot Horst told ENR in the same article that the organization is “still developing the best and easiest ways to help owners do this. This is a new requirement and there is a lot to work out over time.” He declined to tell ENR when any addenda to the MPRs might be released.

I think it’s clear that the contract challenges and corresponding risks associated with the new LEED 2009 MPRs are just begin to emerge, particularly if USGBC and GBCI release a second addenda to a document that was just released a few months ago.

• Building Rating System Requirement Raises Concerns (ENR)

Source: http://www.greenrealestatelaw.com/2009/07/do-third-parties-have-standing-to-initiate-leed-2009-decertification-proceedings/

Yahoo thinks its plan for a new data center could eventually help the company achieve carbon-neutral status without having to resort to the purchase of carbon offsets.

Yahoo's David Dibble discusses the company's plans for a Buffalo-area [...]]]> News: Yahoo redesigns data center, ditches carbon offsets
by Tom Krazit, CNET News
June 30, 2009

Yahoo thinks its plan for a new data center could eventually help the company achieve carbon-neutral status without having to resort to the purchase of carbon offsets.

Yahoo's David Dibble discusses the company's plans for a Buffalo-area data center with New York Senator Charles Schumer (right, red tie) and other state officials. (Credit: Yahoo)

Yahoo designed its forthcoming data center to let outside air cool the servers at all times, borrowing the idea from the design of a chicken coop, according to Yahoo co-founder David Filo. The company joined New York officials such as Governor David Patterson and Senator Charles Schumer Tuesday to unveil plans for the data center, the design of which Yahoo is attempting to patent.

Data centers are vital to huge Internet businesses such as Yahoo, and companies throughout this industry have started paying more and more attention to the amount of energy consumed by facilities that can have thousands of servers running all day, every day. Google has talked up its own push for greater efficiency in its data centers, and Microsoft just announced plans for two new data centers geared around energy efficiency.

As part of the announcement of the new data center in Lockport, N.Y., just outside of Buffalo, Yahoo also revealed that it will no longer purchase carbon offsets as part of its energy strategy. Carbon offsets have been controversial in some quarters, but they allow companies to claim they are “carbon neutral,” in that purchasing offsets diverts money to green projects.

Yahoo plans to focus its green strategy on projects such as the Buffalo data center rather than the purchase of offsets, which means it will take them some time to return to the carbon-neutral goal set in 2007. “We believe creating highly-efficient data centers will have a greater long-term, direct impact on the environment and gives us the best opportunity to play a leadership role in addressing climate change,” Filo wrote.

Corrected at 3:05 p.m.: Yahoo clarified the new data center will be in Lockport, N.Y., just outside of Buffalo.

Source URL: http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-10276103-54.html?tag=mncol;title