January 18th - 2007

Commercial projects take the LEED

More focus on the environment and sustainability is not just a wave of the federal opposition party.

More focus on the environment and sustainability is not just a wave of the federal opposition party. In Canada, going green is gaining favour in markets that were tapped to be late adopters, such as speculative office buildings, the condominium market, the retail sector and heavy manufacturing. Developers at the Real Estate Forum in Toronto, from November 28 to 30, said that pressure is starting to build for environmentally-friendly construction. Users are starting to demand it.
 
Big box goes green
The retail market was thought to be one of the toughest markets to crack in the movement for environmentally and energy efficiently designed buildings, but that will change now that Wal-Mart has gone green.
 
Stephen Carpenter, President, Enermodal Engineering, reported that a new Wal-Mart prototype green store has significant energy savings. One of the major changes came by adding doors to the food display cases and replacing the lighting system in them with LED (Light Emitting Diode) lights. LED lights use 25% of the power of the old lighting system, and have a much longer life, so much so that the designers doubt that they will ever have to change the light bulbs. The display cases also have sensors so, if there is no one in the aisle, the light goes out.
 
Other projects, such as Stratus Winery in Niagara-on-the-Lake, logistics and transportation company Steelcare in Mississauga, and condominium projects in Markham have opted for green design and some have or will apply to become LEED Canada certified. (LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design). Stratus benefits have been 49% water savings, 42% reduction in energy use, and 83% reduction in construction waste diversion, said Carpenter, with comparable numbers in the other projects.
 
The LEED Green Building Rating system, administered by the Canada Green Building Council, is a voluntary standard for rating high-performance, sustainable buildings.
 
Get in on ground floor
The green movement is about high performance. Owners and occupiers choose green buildings for the healthier environment, increased employee retention and lower operating costs. The most successful projects, said Carpenter, will have all of the professionals involved contributing their expertise in the design phase. Get involved with projects with:

  1. An integrated design process. Do a cost benefit analysis on all the ventures that you are going to look at and then move forward. Everyone has to be involved at the beginning: architect, engineer contractor should sit at the same table rather than work in subsequent phases. The best results happen when the tenants and facility managers are in the room as well. They have a wealth of knowledge that will benefit the project.
  2. Someone on the team who is a green building consultant /facilitator/specialist whose sole role is to make sure that the project results in an energy efficient, environmentally efficient building. If you add that function to one of the other team members it will get lost. Make it a one-stop responsibility.
  3. A set and separate LEED building budget. Don’t sacrifice the LEED budget if the building is over budget. The LEED should stay on budget just as the rest of the building should stay on budget.

The cost to go green
The panellists said that the incremental costs of going green are low: one percent to four percent depending on the LEED certification level. They also said that the cost is offset by the benefits, the biggest being good sales and positive coverage in the media.
 
“Get educated and comfortable with green,” said Nancy Cohen, of Cushman & Wakefield LePage Inc. “Basic LEED certification does not cost more or take longer.” Cohen also suggested embedding green projects in your financial analysis.
 
“Think about the next generation’s legacy,” she said.

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