Green Building Services

Market Timing

Even in a tough economy, it makes sense to go green.

Property improvements for increased energy efficiency make financial sense. Real estate managers have realized energy efficiency improvements are a proactive approach to increase net operating income through 1) the reduction of energy-related expenses for gross leases or 2) the ability to collect higher rents for efficient spaces under net leases. While most real estate investors are not specifically targeting green buildings for their portfolios just yet, some are.  And some favorable short-term market indicators and financial mechanisms will boost the number of savvy property owners implementing efficiency measures.

Although a large percentage of commercial and multifamily loans came due during 2012, anticipated market setbacks never materialized. In fact, the commercial real estate market saw increasing occupancy rates, property values and net operating incomes, and delinquency rates for all major classifications of lenders actually declined in the last quarter of 2012.

According to a Deloitte study on factors affecting the real estate market in 2013, new construction is still at record low levels so increases in occupancy rates are to be expected. Lodging, apartments, industrial, retail and offices are all enjoying decreased vacancy, which is beginning to drive growth in the office, industrial and retail sectors. The next two years appear to be relatively safe as the percentage of commercial loans that will be maturing is relatively low, and even when 10-year loans come due in 2015, multiple factors hold promise to stave off default.

To help building owners save money while riding out the shifting market tides, financial mechanisms are now available to make undertaking building energy improvements easier to swallow.  One mechanism, Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE), allows building owners to use voluntary property tax assessment to spread out the cost of improvements and acquire a reduced loan rate.  The PACE financial incentive is available in many cities and counties across the country.  PACE legislation has passed or is in process in 28 states.  For example, in California, PACE financing is currently available in San Francisco, Sacramento and Los Angeles County.  In Oregon, Multnomah County is piloting a PACE program.

We’ll continue this conversation, so look for our next installment on real estate trends.

Doha, Qatar

In 2000, GBS formed with a guiding set of principles, and we grew by building on principles and expanding our horizons. While those principles are still essential to give our work direction, our driving force comes from our belief in the potential of our clients, our buildings and our world. This belief in your potential and our unshakable optimism about the future are the truths we hold to be self-evident.

We’re emerging from a challenging economic time. As cited in a recent NAIOP newsletter, Robert Bach, national director, market analytics at Newmark Grubb Knight Frank, noted the debt service ratio is its lowest level since 1993, which better positions consumers to help grow the economy in 2013. According to Bloomberg, housing starts are at their highest level since 2008. The commercial real estate market has market has grown 22 percent in the past year. The U.S. Census Bureau data shows that construction spending for February, 2013 was 7.9 percent above estimates and the first two months of this year performed 6.6 percent above the same period in 2012.

Further, in their last published Global Office Indices MarketView (Q4 2012) report, CBRE indicated that: “Property value and rent growth continued in the Americas, balancing flat performance and modest declines in the EMEA and Asia Pacific markets.” And according to Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services, Inc., real estate investor sentiment has hit another peak due to low interest rates and improving fundamentals and is currently at a record high.

Despite past market difficulties, you managed to exponentially increase sustainable buildings in the past five years. More than 4,000 projects were LEED certified in the past year alone, and you embraced the Living Building Challenge with over 140 active projects that are reshaping the world’s view of what’s possible. If these achievements were cultivated during economic inertia, imagine what we can accomplish with the sparks of economic renewal!

We believe that making the world a healthy and safe place for ourselves and our children that respects and celebrates nature is a cause worthy of our dedication. We have confidence in you as partners in this exciting future. As facilitators, catalysts and advocates, we want to bring you the energy, tools and resources to help make this happen.

We believe in your potential and the potential of your buildings. Let’s unlock it.

Everyone at GBS is passionate about what we do, and on this day we want to share our love and let you know how much we care about and believe in you. You are doing great work and we are inspired by your commitment. Let’s join hands in the coming year and change the world!  As 2013 unfolds, we think the following concepts (with a sprinkling of Valentine infusion) will play a significant role in the future  we seek together.

We believe in you

In 2000, GBS formed with a guiding set of principles, and we grew by building on principles and expanding our horizons. While those principles are still essential to give our work direction, our driving force comes from our belief in the potential of our clients, our buildings and our world. This belief in your potential and our unshakable optimism about the future are the truths we hold to be self-evident.

Dedication when riding the real estate cycle

Finally, the Real Estate Cycle is climbing out of the depths we have   experienced for the past five years.  It’s about time!  As the real estate market emerges from the doldrums, sustainability is clearly front and center and with it, and we’re excited for the industry to make quantum leaps beyond what we accomplished in the past decade.

Ardent Resilience: We need a Living Future

2013 may well become known as the Year of Resilience. Several significant natural disasters in the past decade challenged humanity and left us questioning how we inhabit the earth. Last year, Hurricane Sandy punctuated our frailty in the face of climate change.  We enter this year with great optimism and resolve that we can develop regenerative and resilient systems.

Infatuation with human behavior

People: you’ve got to love them. When it comes to the built environment, we know that the choices individuals and groups make have a significant impact on resource use.  At the Oregon BEST Occupant Behavior Forum we explored strategies and technologies to bring about effective and lasting changes in occupant behavior.  Stay tuned… we promise more on this.

Devotion to closing the circle: Material reuse

We embrace reuse. In 2012, we hosted a session on materials reuse at Greenbuild that asked over 200 charrette participants to provide creative reuse strategies for the five most challenging salvaged materials on the market.  In March, we will present at a four-day deconstruction workshop to train deconstruction practitioners and help create markets for reused materials.

Harboring a crush on building reuse: The Greenest Building study

In January of last year, we released the study The Greenest Building.  The study gained a lot of attention and we are seeing increased interest in the environmental value of reuse. Over the past decade, we’ve helped hundreds of buildings continue to be “the Greenest Buildings” through rehabilitation, or just great sustainable O&M practices.

New fondness for Portfolio/Volume

If the last decade was characterized by a focus on one building at a time, we believe that this decade will all about scaling up.  At least that is what we are seeing through our partnerships and collaborations with our clients and in our projects.  Whether it is a large scale sustainable urban redevelopment, portfolios of existing buildings, or green retail rollouts, the sustainability movement is expanding exponentially by tackling our most vexing issues in the built environment by embracing the whole, rather than one small bit at a time.

Deep retrofit:

For centuries, we’ve retrofitted buildings to keep them up-to-date and functional, but these retrofits have been pretty superficial, like a cosmetic one-night stand.  But in recent years, we’re seeing deeper dedication to more meaningful energy retrofits.  Deep retrofit describes renovations that seek greater than 50% reduction in energy use and flip the typical pro forma on its head.  At the New Buildings Institute Advancing Deep Energy Retrofits for Commercial Buildings summit in New Orleans, we delved deeply into the strategies and policies necessary to help make deep retrofits to become common practice.

Desire for transparency: Google funds USGBC

In a bold move, Google embraced the USGBC’s call for product transparency and gave the organization a boost with a $3 million grant for healthy building materials research, transparency tools and materials policies.

Committed to our future

Everyone is captivated by visions of the future: witness our fascination with science fiction and predictions of trends that pledge to shape our world in years to come.  Numerous programs work to harness that energy and establish the “… (your project type here) of the future.”  We enjoyed David Zach’s piece on the future, which helped us put the future in context.  The future may not be that into you, but we are. We’ll take 2013’s changes and predict the trends we anticipate for the new year ahead.

As the Super Bowl of retail approaches this Friday, GBS encourages you to think green and support retailers that are implementing sustainability measures in their business processes and their stores.

Newsweek ranks the top 10 green US retailers in this order:

1. Staples
2. Best Buy
3. Home Depot
4. Wal-Mart
5. Kohl’s
6. Target
7. JC Penny
8. Sears
9. Whole Foods
10. Lowe’s

Sustainability doesn’t start and stop with where we shop, but how we shop.  Follow the tips below to green your holidays even more:

• Carpool – If you’re waking up for the door busters bring your fellow shoppers instead of meeting up with them later.
• Ride your bike – Eliminate the transportation related CO2.
• Shop Online – Social Science Research Network has an argument for shopping online over brick and mortar stores.
• Take your own – Take your own shopping bags and coffee mug.  Some retailers are charging a small fee for each bag, so save some money and check out these 25 reasons for bag reuse.  If you’re stopping at your favorite coffee shop – reduce your waste by using your own mug.
• Buy reused and local materials – Search for products that were made within a day’s drive of your house, or give a new life to an antique.
• Third party certifications – Give preference to products that have been certified by organizations such as ENERGY STAR, FSC, USDA Organic, etc.

Happy shopping!

Balance: A stable mental or psychological state; emotional stability.

As someone who travels a lot for work I am always concerned about keeping balance with regard to my health and wellbeing. What time zone will I be in? Will I get enough sleep, have the opportunity to exercise, eat the right foods? How will I get everything that needs to be done at the office while on the road? What will the weather be like and how much should I pack? You know the drill. It’s a little crazy making but after 12 years of travel for GBS, I find that I get a little better at it all the time and I’m learning tips along the way. For me it is an art of discipline to stay balanced while traveling, which isn’t always so easy to accomplish.

Toronto, Canada:
Global Design Alliance meetings
The first leg of my journey took me to Toronto, Canada. I checked into my hotel, which is a very nice hotel downtown. I love my work with green building and sustainability but sometimes we just learn too much. For example I’m always checking flush/flow rates of toilets and aerators, how materials are used, the types of cleaning products being used, if they just sprayed the room for pest management, etc. Most recently, I have learned about  how to look for bed bugs: those nasty little critters you never want to bring home with you. So the first thing I did entering my room for the week was quickly pull back the sheets and check the cracks and crevices of the bedding for anything that moved. After a thorough investigation I hung up the majority of my clothes but left the rest in my suitcase instead of putting them in drawers. Lesson one, the least amount of contact in any given room the less chance of picking something up. Refer to Green Guide to Hotels for more.

I was In Toronto to attend a conference with GDA (Global Design Alliance) members. We spent the next three days in all-day meetings and late-night dinners. Incredible delicious food, lots of wine and great conversation. I don’t eat gluten and avoid dairy as much as possible, so it was great that several of the finer restaurants offered gluten-free pasta on the menu. Tip: after a rich meal, drink peppermint tea. It helps the digestive system before you to go bed. Bon Appétit!

I was due to present the Bentall Kennedy 1900 16th Street case study at the NeoCon conference in Chicago conference on Monday so I spent the weekend in Toronto. Toronto is an extremely international city. Statistics Canada discovered that Toronto is more ethnically diverse than Miami, Los Angeles, & New York. 49.9% of Toronto’s population is foreign-born making it one of the most multicultural cities in the world. People on the street seem to be in good health, genuinely happy and have a high sense of fashion. In fact, they have an incredible shoe museum their called Bata Shoe Museum.

The traveling Picasso Exhibit at the AGO museum was brilliant and inspiring. On Saturday I ventured on my own to Niagara Falls to see the falls from the Canadian side, ride the boat where you can experience the Mist of the Falls and see Niagara on the lake.

Chicago, IL
June 11, 12
Whenever I go to Chicago I am reminded of what an industrial city it is. Chicago has a particular smell, sound and color like I have never experienced in another city. One great thing about Chicago is its Millennium Park and when I arrived on Sunday the taxi driver told me about a jazz festival there. The park’s design is brilliant. Seeing everyone gathered for the jazz festival with people soaking their feet in the manmade stream that runs through the park drove home that great architecture and urban design lend heart and culture to a city. Millennium Park does that for Chicago.

After my Bentall Kennedy case study presentation on Monday and a barrage of meetings, it seemed that I had walked forever. I was wearing a pedometer and discovered that I got in over 20,000 steps that day. A good day consists of around 10,000 steps and by now I was getting tired. Dinner with a former co-worker helped me to find balance again as she told me about her new business adventures. But by Tuesday morning I was up too early and headed to another airport and city. I was definitely not feeling balance that morning.

Washington DC
June 13, 14
Washington DC is a city of deals, negotiations, and hard-working well-meaning people trying to find the right answers and solutions to problems. I met with the USGBC and almost every meeting I had involved some aspect of this. I found lots of opportunities, and where they will lead only time and effort will tell. I met a friend for dinner who was kind enough to drive me to see the White House and give me a short history lesson about the city. We discussed relevance, how to stay current with the ever-changing times and a barrage of new information, constantly evolving design and technologies, and the importance of doing meaningful work. Again, an example of people trying to find the right answers to their questions. I walked along the Potomac River and one morning I was greeted by a small deer no more than five feet from me. An urban dweller, the deer had no fear of me while munching on the leaves and nature returned balance to me.

After nine days of travel starting with Toronto, Canada, Chicago, IL and ending in Washington DC I was finally headed home. DC’s Palomar Hotel by Kimpton was my favorite of the trip with exceptional service and a very well outfitted gym. The United Airlines staff was the nicest and most helpful that I have ever experienced on every leg of my journey. I write this entry 34,000 feet above ground. I look forward to walking in my own city’s park, sleeping in my own bed, eating in my own kitchen and sharing stories with friends and family. My business trip was successful with the Global Design Alliance meetings, presentations at NeoCon and meetings with the USGBC. Seeing new sites and old friends while making new friends along the way always helps. That’s what I do enjoy about traveling and what brings balance back into my life.

Happy Travels,
Elaine

When I stage an interactive charrette with a project team, organization and key stakeholders, one of my first objectives is to bring to light the vision and strategies for the effort. From there, we articulate a set of associated principles that guide the project from the outset. These principles are powerful guideposts that steer every team member’s activities in a specific direction and become beacons to drive the project’s success.

We get great results, and this same concept can be applied to any endeavor – a project, campus, portfolio of facilities or an organizational culture. More than 12 years ago, GBS began to galvanize a set of principles to define our path. Our principles propel us forward – they remind us of why we do what we do and define how we do it.

Here are three of our Green Building Principles®

Make Less Mean More – Our projects and efforts reduce the amount of inputs and leverage each decision to gain more from every input. One clear example is using the structural components of a building as finish material, as it reduces environmental impacts, demands fewer materials and generates cost savings.

Teach by Example – We believe green building projects should visibly demonstrate their sustainable features and engage occupants through appealing strategies. Our educational projects in particular become living examples of this principle in action to inspire the next generation of practitioners and occupants toward sustainable work and lifestyles.

Passive Buildings, Active People – Occupant behavior has been an often overlooked part of the sustainable design equation. We can have lasting positive impacts by focusing less on technology and more on engaging people to make daily decisions that help buildings perform well. We’ll be at Greenbuild 2012 next week and this is the principle we’ll be sporting on our giveaway T-Shirt.

So now, it’s your turn. We want to hear from you. What principles motivate you and impact your work? Or, in the absence of defined principles, what guides your decision making?

We’ve got a variety of ways you can contribute to the conversation. Feel free to write in the comments section below. Better yet, click on our Tweet #greenbuildingprinciples dedicated to sharing principles and let us know yours. Or come by Booth #633S at Greenbuild in San Francisco beginning November 14th and log your principles into our Book of Green. You’ve got to share one of your principles to get a T-shirt at Greenbuild (while supplies last) so Tweet now or visit us in person. We’d love to meet you and talk about what makes this work worth doing!

GBS Consultant and IDC-Oregon President, Alicia Snyder-Carlson attended the 2012 ASID National Legislative Symposium! She writes about the experience in the latest ASID Oregon Chapter newsletter.

Special Thanks to:

The 2012 ASID National Legislative Symposium, held in Atlanta, GA brought together leaders from ASID and IIDA, as well as various coalition leaders from all across the country to learn and share experiences around interior design legislation pursuits. 

In a combined effort to better arm designers to help shape the future of the profession, the conference offered attendees an incredible and invaluable event for both novice and experienced individuals who are interested in interior design legislation.

As an ASID Member and the current IDC-Oregon President, I found myself somewhere in the middle, with just over two years of experience pursuing legislation in Oregon.  I was selected to represent Oregon’s design profession this year, thanks in large part to the ASID Oregon Chapter.

The conference taught me valuable lessons regarding lobbying, providing testimony at bill hearings, how best to meet with legislators, and understanding the economic and professional benefits of licensing.  The three most important lessons I learned were: 1) Efforts to pass interior design legislation extend far beyond our profession; 2) We all need to build better relationships with our legislators; and 3) We need to stick with it and keep showing up because if we don’t, our opposition certainly will!

With these lessons in mind, IDC-Oregon is now focusing its efforts on encouraging Designers to understand how far our reach extends to other professions: we support millworkers, carpenters, contractors, custom artists, vendors and other manufacturers in our daily work.  We need to communicate to our legislators that a strong interior design profession leads to a healthy building profession.

We want to be advocates for our profession: when a bill hearing is scheduled, we need you, your clients, your friends and family to show up and get involved!   Even if life prevents you from attending every event, you can write letters or meet with your legislator instead.  We must tell our legislators why interior design legislation is important to us or they simply won’t know.

We are in this for the long haul.  A bill typically takes more than three legislative sessions to get passed, and after is passes, we’ll likely always be fighting to keep it in place.  So when you get tired of writing letters every year and feel like we aren’t getting anywhere, just remember that we can’t do it without you!

The ASID National Legislative Symposium refueled my passion to help pass this important bill in Oregon.  I have become a “lifer” in pursuit of interior design licensing and hope you will join me, IDC-Oregon, ASID and IIDA in this important fight.  I believe 100% in the power of Interior Designers to change the world!

Thank you again to the Oregon Chapter ASID for making the ASID National Legislative Symposium trip possible!  I also thank IDC-Oregon for working so hard to show us the way, and to IIDA and the rest of the profession for making licensing for Oregon Interior Designers a priority.  Stick with it – I know we’ll get there one day!

- Alicia Snyder-Carlson, Assoc. IIDA, Allied ASID, LEED AP ID+C. Alicia is a sustainability consultant at GBS where her focus is on commercial interiors, natural material selection, efficient lighting options and occupant well-being.

Did you see GBS was featured in Sustainable Business Oregon this week?

Date: Thursday, June 7, 2012, 9:50am PDT

By Wendy Culverwell
Business Journal staff writer

Green Building Services Grows Up

‘A small company that spun out from Portland General Electric Co. in 2005 to promote sustainable building has altered its outlook as worldwide interest in green building soars.

Green Building Services Inc. began with about a dozen energy efficiency experts eager to bring the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) building rating system to the construction industry.

It quickly emerged as a go-to resource for green-minded developers as LEED grew to dominate the certification market. In Portland, GBS consulted on almost all the groundbreaking projects that earned the area’s first LEED plaques.

Today, GBS employs 30 and has a global reach. Its recent projects have taken it to 24 states and 19 countries.

GBS began as a LEED consultant on new construction and redevelopment projects. In the past year, it has reorganized and now wants to make all buildings more efficient by offering technical support and training to help existing building owners green their buildings.

Ralph is one of GBS' four Principals

Targeting existing buildings offers the biggest opportunity to have an impact, DiNola said. Existing commercial buildings consume an estimated 40 percent of energy used in the U.S.

Ralph DiNola, one of four principals, said GBS reorganized after recognizing it wanted to do more than help developers secure the coveted glass “LEED” plaques for their buildings.

“Working one building at a time is not going to bring about the change that needs to happen. We have decided we would like to have more impact,” he said.

Nevertheless, its roots remain firmly planted in the LEED universe.

More than 12,600 buildings have won LEED certification, with 320 in Oregon alone, according to the U.S. Green Building Council. GBS consultants played a role in more than 5 percent of all global projects, making LEED a sizeable source of business.

More than 80 percent of its business comes from referrals and repeat business and training agreements with current customers.

In Oregon, GBS’s fingerprints are on numerous local projects. The Oregon Convention Center expansion and the newly opened Bud Clark Commons at Union Station are prominent examples. Globally, its largest undertaking is a 77-acre, 110-building Msheireb Downtown Doha project in Doha, Qatar.

The company doesn’t disclose revenue.

Its strategy targets organizations that own and operate large real estate portfolios such as school campuses, corporate parks, convention centers, sports stadiums and retail chains.

“If you can reduce energy use in a store by 20 percent and repeat it 500 times, that’s how you get impact,” he said.

LEED was the green building industry’s “gateway” to widespread acceptance by owners and operators of both public and private facilities.

Before 2000, there was no widely accepted third-party verification system to confirm green claims. Its success inspired even more ambitious rating systems, including the Living Building Challenge –– an advocacy group and certification process for green buildings operated by the International Living Future Institute.

DiNola said the firm embraces the new generation of ratings systems other than LEED. It is certified to work on Energy Star and the American Institute of Architects’ 2030 Challenge. But LEED remains its bedrock. Federal, state and local governments have adopted it as a minimum standard for public buildings, ensuring its market dominance. The city of Portland has long required that its projects comply with LEED status.

DiNola said outside verification will continue to shape its business as private corporations increasingly turn to LEED or other rating systems to support social responsibility policies.

GBS is a long-time consultant to the Oregon Convention Center, 777 N.E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., now girding itself for its third LEED campaign.

Portland’s massive meeting hall scored its first LEED award in 2004 when it qualified for an Existing Building award on the eve of hosting the U.S. Green Building Council’s annual convention.

It renewed in 2008 and faces a second renewal this year. GBS is helping guide it through the process, which includes assessing how well it operates.

Brittin Witzenburg, sustainability manager, is eager to raise the center’s green credentials. It qualified at the silver level in its last round. Now, she’s gunning for the higher platinum rating.

“GBS is doing great things for the convention industry,” Witzenburg said.’

By Wendy Culverwell
Business Journal staff writer

http://www.sustainablebusinessoregon.com/articles/2012/06/green-building-services-grows-up.html

Notes from the Road: Two Months in Doha, Qatar- Caitlin Francis Reff lived and worked in Doha from January – March 2012.

Traditional Qatari Building Materials consisted of gypsum plaster, sand, earth, stone and coral. Wood was imported from India or Africa for roof support.

Earlier this year, I found myself in the great state of Qatar for two months. I was working onsite with GBS, Interface Global, TiME Qatar and others on the Msheireb Downtown Doha project. Throughout my experience, I was continually impressed, surprised and sometimes shocked by a country that is: extremely wealthy, dominated by an expatriate population, experiencing rapid growth, preparing for major world events (COP 18,  2022 FIFA World Cup), planning for post-oil era (while currently sitting at the top of the global per-capita carbon emissions list),  striving to meet their Qatar National Vision 2030, and is host country and headquarters to Aljeezera.

March 8th, 2012 was International Women’s Day and I was fortunate enough to attend the “Women in the Sustainable Built Environment: Qatar Prospects” event, hosted by Qatar University, Qatar Green Building Council, the National Association of Women in Construction Qatar, and the Royal Institute of British Architects Gulf Chapter.

It was great to connect with local and expatriate women in Qatar, seeing as though this is a very male-dominated society. The conference focused on issues of sustainability through the “unique lens applied by women in construction”. While I typically grapple with the concept of a “unique women’s lens” back home (how is sustainable design & construction really any different from a gender perspective?), I found that it is quite relevant in Doha, where women are a distinct minority in the industry. At the conference, several young Qatari women Architecture and Urban Planning students presented their senior projects. It was inspiring and encouraging to hear their innovative ideas for shaping the future of Doha. Qatar is on a path towards improved social equality, environmental stewardship, and cultural heritage and these women demonstrated their passion, knowledge and commitment to that reality.

Needless to say, but I will: Msheireb Downtown Doha (MDD) is an incredible project. The developer, Msheireb Properties, is genuinely dedicated to large-scale sustainable urban regeneration. The project has already garnered many awards and is serving as a template for the sustainable urban growth of modern cities everywhere.

Also, through work on LEED for Neighborhood Development (LEED-ND) for the MDD project, an answer to the question raised by my colleague in his November 9^th, 2011 post was discovered… before air-conditioning, Qataris were quite comfortable within their homes thanks to ingenious traditional architecture, consideration for building orientation and massing, and use of natural and local building materials.

The Malqaf, translated to “Windcatcher” naturally ventilates homes without the aid of mechanical systems or energy use. I toured the Al Wakra Fishing Village historic preservation project last weekend; here are some shots of an authentic Malqaf in effect!  Breezy, beautiful and cool….