The Greenest Building is the One You Don’t Build

April 7, 2009

George Ahn
President and Chief Executive Officer
TRIRIGA Inc.

Email this story Print this post Add your comments

With the passing of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan, $6.7 billion has been allocated for renovations and repairs to federal buildings, including at least $6 billion focused on increasing energy efficiency and conservation.

These provisions mark a critical shift in the way we think about green buildings: existing buildings – not just new buildings – are critical to a low-carbon economy. In fact, the greenest building is the one you don’t build.

Consider that 95 percent of our building stock remains static year to year, and that most existing buildings are startlingly inefficient in their energy use, and you’ll understand the immense green opportunity presented by existing buildings; they offer the single-greatest opportunity to improve energy efficiency and improve profits across an organization.

More than just transforming our approach to buildings themselves, the stimulus bill is revolutionizing the way organizations must report on their environmental projects, particularly on how they use government funds. In order to secure stimulus funds, organizations have to prove that they will use the money wisely.

For example, contracts must be fixed-price to the greatest extent possible, and they must be secured through a competitive bidding process. In addition, every financial step of the project must be documented in a way that is easily auditable.

With these standards for accountability and transparency, using an Excel spreadsheet is no longer sufficient – organizations need to turn to new technologies with bid-tracking capabilities, auditing tools, and other project management features that can streamline the process of controlling the budget and reporting on it.

While many organizations will struggle with these legislative measures, the prepared ones understand the need for enterprise-class software to manage their building efficiency projects and report transparently on the ROI from these projects.

In addition, reporting standards now focus primarily on financial transparency and accountability, but environmental reporting requirements are not far behind.

We will likely see a cap-and-trade model in the United States for limiting carbon emissions in order to reach a low-carbon economy. In fact, Obama has already stated that he will implement an economy-wide cap-and-trade program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent by 2050, and we can expect incremental changes leading up to that goal.

In a low-carbon economy, organizations must report their carbon emissions – including those from their buildings – and they need to put the right systems in place now. Technology is the key to those systems. For example, technologies exist today that help organizations measure, manage, and reduce their environmental impact and report on every detail of their improvements so the public knows how funds are being spent.

Organizations need to evaluate their technology strategies now in order to be in the right position to receive stimulus funds, use them wisely, meet financial reporting mandates, and prepare for near-term environmental legislation.

George Ahn is the president and CEO of TRIRIGA Inc., a leader in integrated workplace management solutions. The company’s TREES software helps businesses measure, manage and reduce the environmental impact of their real estate portfolios.

Email this story Print this post Add your comments

Advertisers

Make sustainability part of your strategy.

Get equipped at the SAP Sustainability Resource Center. >>

Unclear about the EPA's new GHG Rule?

Learn how it could affect your business. >>

EPA mandatory emissions reporting starts Jan 1st

CSA Standards can help your organization get ready for compliance. Find out how. >>

Product Environmental Compliance Best Practices

How to achieve compliance at a significantly lower cost. Download the full report. >>

Join the Discussion

Reader Comments

George – You are spot on about the incredible opportunity the stimulus package offers to dramatically improve the energy efficiency of existing buildings – and about the need for transparency and accountability in spending stimulus dollars. One suggestion: performance contracting is an excellent way to accomplish this. Energy efficiency improvements are paid for with the guaranteed savings they generate in lower utility costs and in operational efficiencies. The savings can also be used to offset the initial cost of installing solar panels or other renewable energy systems. Performance contracting needs to be in every organization’s toolkit when it comes to funding energy efficiency improvements with transparency and accountability.

Paul von Paumgartten | April 8th, 2009

George – Nice title! It seems my comments to your 9/9/08 article about not building as the greenest building strategy are taking root. Unfortunately I don’t see the correlation between the title of this article and its body.

The concept of not building more buildings as the greenest development strategy is based on underutilized space caused by portfolio strategies and space planning protocols that do not address today’s nature of work. The result is vacant office space. 50% – 70% of assigned office space is vacant at any point in time. This means that we are operating buildings as though they are at full capacity when, in fact, they are at 30% – 50% capacity.

Improving new and existing building performance is important. It’s just not the first step in developing a cost sensitive, self-funding sustainability strategy. Such a strategy needs to include protocols that review vision, services, policies, processes, and practices in conjunction with real estate portfolio strategies and space planning.

A holistic approach focused on the 3R’s beginning with Reduce has direct impact on ROI. For example, improving portfolio space utilization provides an opportunity to consolidate the portfolio keeping higher performing building, shed lower performing buildings thus reducing the capital and operating costs, improving organizational effectiveness.

This approach also amplifies reduction in energy demand beyond what can be gained by improving building energy efficiency alone.

That being said, I find your comments aligned with mainstream thinking and second Paul’s observations. I would also point out that while the EECB grant program drives administrative transparency, energy efficiency, and consumption reduction, its emphasis is on technological solutions versus low cost high impact solutions such as behavioral, policy, process, and practice changes.

Another data point supporting your position regarding the need to act now is the upcoming EPA rule on mandatory CO2 emissions reporting. While the current draft is focused on large emitters, there is discussion about including consumption data from sectors with large demand profiles. Whether this provision is included in the final version of this rule is yet to be seen. Regardless of the outcome, we can expect some dramatic changes to the supplier-consumer engagement model.

George Gosieski, Business EcoSystems | April 9th, 2009

Does this ARRA include private sector?

John | April 9th, 2009

Recent Daily News [ see all ]

11/23/2009
11/20/2009
11/19/2009

Charts [ see all ]

European Paper Industry Cuts CO2 Emissions by 42% since 1990

S. America Takes Most Urgent View of Copenhagen Talks

Nike Tops Annual Climate Action Scores

Oceans May Trap more Carbon than Forests

Jobs

View All Jobs >> Post a Job >>

Comments and Discussions

Rod Johnson on Stimulus Package Delivers $2.4 Billion for Electric Vehicle Projects
"Will this stimulus be extended to other electric utility vehicles?"

Charli on Trade Group on EPA Chemical Regs: ‘If Everything is a Priority, Then Nothing is a Priority’
"Thanks Environmental Leader, for..."

James Beddingfield on Oceans May Trap more Carbon than Forests
"Another great thing about an ocean-based carbon sink is that it can’t..."

Custom Organic Shirts on Climate Scientists Alleged to Have Manipulated Data
"Wow, EL – should have seriously done even some background research..."

Phil on Climate Scientists Alleged to Have Manipulated Data
"Pete old boy, why don’t you just trot out the math that carries you from your..."

Roy Tindle on Climate Scientists Alleged to Have Manipulated Data
"It’s worth reading the report on RealClimate, a website by climatologists:..."

TreeBanker on SEC Charges Four in ‘Green’ Investment Ponzi Scheme
"This is a real shame because Matria and their subsidiaries have access..."

Environmental Leader