News
THIS MORNING’S SUSTAINABILITY SUMMIT
August 12, 2010
| With the BP oil crisis, stalled climate change initiatives, and green legislation it's been an interesting year for sustainability, Stephen Del Percio of Arent Fox told a crowd of over 250 that joined us this morning at the NY Bar Association for the first annual BisnowSustainability Summit. |
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| GSA chief greening officer Eleni Reed (left) said energy efficiency is a starting point for the GSA, but that its sustainability mission also means being a laboratory for new ideas without known return. While taxpayer benefit is foremost, she said it'll consider a longer payback period than commercial might because it holds assets for longer. Grubb & Ellis SVP Michael Groppi sees most owners looking for a two-years-or-shorter payback from sustainable features. But others are doing so without respect to IRR for image reasons—he pointed to a tenant with a 10-year lease that installed solar panels with a 15-year payback. To right: Related Cos. VP of sustainability Charlotte Matthews and CodeGreen Solutions managing director Christopher Cayten. |
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| Israel Berger & Associates VP John Hannum (right) adds that you have to understand cost-benefits vs. IRRs or payback periods—take a look at measures that may not initially pass. Metrics are playing a much bigger role, says Tishman Speyer director of sustainability Riggs Kubiak (left), whose firm benchmarked its entire portfolio for Energy Star and uses technology to help analyze and hedge sustainability risk. Technology plays a big factor in how you measure efficiency and share with others, notes US Energy Group COO David Unger (center). |
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| Our esteemed moderators: Arent Fox's Stephen Del Percio and FTI Schonbraun McCann Group's Elizabeth Kulik. Just who's looking for sustainability? Sounds like almost everyone. Christopher says CodeGreen has been helping building owners even if they're not going for third-party cert—it's all about the bottom line and the market is driving demand for LEED and Energy Star. Talent is coming out of college, familiar with sustainability, and wants to work for environmentally conscious companies, Michael adds. At the tenant level, consumers are asking for green buildings, and selling them on just energy efficiency isn't good enough, Charlotte says. |
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| In the past two months, Christopher has received frantic calls from owners with large vacancies—prospective tenants are asking about sustainability, which is driving decision- making for Class A properties. At Hudson Yards, Related wants co-gen power, and the reliability from that second source of energy is attractive to anchor tenants, Charlotte adds. If you're not going to consider sustainability, you'll have to mitigate the risk of obsolescence and lack of tenant interest, John warns. |
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| Event sponsor ConEdison Solutions' Tom Krol and Mike Forese present Green Fox Communications' Barbara Parker with the coveted iPad, raffled off to one lucky attendee. |
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| Great sponsor MechoShade Systems' Karen Surgeon-Bennett,Amir Barzagan, Jan Berman, and Rachel Berman. MechoShade is a global manufacturer of manual and motorized shading systems that help buildings save money on AC and lighting costs, and increase occupant comfort by reducing glare. You can find its system at the New York Times HQ, new Goldman Sachs HQ, and Interactive Corp.'s HQ, as well as the USGBC's LEED Platinum office in DC. It reduces solar heat gain by as much as 60%, Jan says—the NYT's auto shade reduced lighting loads by 70%. Clients have the ability to manually override the system, but 96% of the time they leave it on automatic, he says. |
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| Honest Buildings' Larry Lane with Perkins+Will's Rachel Casanova and Janice Barnes. Perkins+Will, who was just named No. 1 in sustainable design by Architect magazine for the second year in a row, is putting a big focus on its sustainability advisory services, assisting its clients with operations, employee education, and investment in sustainability. The firm has over 1,100 LEED accredited professionals, 73 LEED certified projects, and over 200 LEED registered projects, they say. |
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| Lutron Electronics' Cathy Lambe and Peter Saccomanno with Teknion's Steven Pressacco and Donovan Hatem's Andrea Nash. Lutron manufactures products to regulate both natural and regular lighting, including vacancy sensors and timers. They're busy helping commercial properties install retrofits in order to comply with new lighting control codes included in the Greener, Greater Buildings Plan. Did you know that the City Council found that non-residential lighting is responsible for almost 18% of the energy used in NYC's buildings and roughly 18% of carbon emissions from buildings? |
