Design Tips & Trends
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LEED Certification or Simply Green Initiatives!LEED Certification, going GREEN and Sustainability By Dana Anderson |
LEED Certification, going GREEN and Sustainability are all hot headers in the real estate news since 2008 and will continue into coming years. Since the 2009 LEED CI (Commercial Interiors) certification it has become more and more prevalent in discussions regarding the leased commercial office environment. This is great news to our work environment and initiatives to help save on our global resources, which is part of our social responsibility. However there is still the hurdle for many tenants of the cost increase in overall TI (tenant improvement dollars).
Many experts still are teaching that going Green doesn't cost more but they are really looking at return on investment ROI cost for the building owner. The ROI documented statistics is after 10 years and in many cases 20 years. These ROI’s are coming from increased rental rates or tax incentives and a 20% result in life cycle savings of the total construction costs. As you can see this completely leaves out the benefits to a tenant less than 25,000 square feet and looking at a leased terms of three, five, seven or even ten year leases.
There are many surveys that support thru USGBC, RREEF Research and other organizations that state Corporations believe in going Green and being sustainable. Our mission as consultants to the commercial tenant then should be, not necessarily to get them LEED certified but to help them understand things they can do in the design of their space that really matters to not only our Global Resource issue but to their own ability to attract and retain employees by having a better work environment.
People in the U.S. spend 90% of their time indoors. Statistics say that productivity can be enhanced by 6.7% by using high-performance lighting and 3.6% by having individual temperature controls. Lighting designs also are reflected in lower incidence of headaches and sick building syndrome. The access to natural daylight also has a dramatic difference in employee moral and productivity. There are a lot of things that do not cost additional money to a project just a change in approach and design while others do have a direct impact to the bottom line.
Product manufacturers are getting better at coming up with sustainable solutions. Shaw Industries a leader in the carpet industry released the first cradle to cradle broad loom product this year. This is a huge stride in the increase cost of using the only prior approved cradle to cradle carpet tile options with starting cost at $22/yd installed versus a standard TI allowance of $15/yd to $18/yd.
Key Conclusions are that we can all do our part no matter the budget, size of the project or length of the lease. Below are just a few other considerations you can mention to your clients.
• Office recycling programs (some landlords offer this as a free service to their tenants)
• Access to public transportation
• Demographic Access to Day lighting
• Temperature Controls
• Consideration to Higher Efficient light fixtures
• Motion Sensor Controls or time clock
• Low flow plumbing fixtures
• Sensor fixtures
• Low VOC paint, wall coverings, and glue
• Recycle content products
• FSC certified woods
• Cradle to Cradle products and manufacturing processes
• Use of local vendors and manufacturers
• Reuse of existing conditions or architectural features
• Recycle demolished materials
• Donate used materials or products to organizations
This is just a small list of things that can be considered on a project to support the Green Initiative with zero to minimal cost increase to an overall project budget.
