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.