News
IT'S NOT SO HARD BEING GREEN
April 16, 2012
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| At the Haworth Showroom at 125 Park Ave across from Grand Central, we snapped Haworth's Colleen Guidera, Jonathan Rose Co's Nathan Taft, and Haworth's Ellen Canny. Nathan insists his firm's green investments are not concessions to the public will but are really return based. They may not bump rents up, he says, but the gains come from tenant retention. AKF Engineering partner Asif Syed says 60% of his firm's projects involve green components—and why not with the demand and government incentives? He compares green ROI to his 401(k), and considering most green measures pay for themselves in five to seven years, well, $2M savings/year on a $15M investment passes muster. |
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| Also at the NAIOP NY sustainability event were NYC Council member for the 4th District Dan Garodnick, flanked by colleague Ilona Kramer and New York Energy Consumers Council executive director David Bomke. Dan says NYC has twice the national average for asthma hospitalizations, and Harlem is four times the US rate. That's not from the cars (they're just why you were late to work today). The city's one million buildings contribute 75% of its greenhouse gas emissions. |
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| We also snapped Hearst's Lou Nowikas, NYC Office of the Mayor's Stacy Lee, and CodeGreen managing director Chris Cayten. Lou says sustainability wasn't part of his firm's thinking for the Hearst Tower until the architect mentioned it. But once employees moved in, their ongoing suggestions led to the building's recent LEED for Existing Buildings Platinum certification. If you wouldn't buy your kid's car seat from Craigslist, he wonders, why would Hearst skimp on a 100-year investment? Stacy says the mayor's PlaNYC 2030 to reduce emissions by 30% by 2030 was born with the knowledge that the city would grow by one million people by 2030, all while the infrastructure keeps aging. |
