Jun 19, 2009
By: Dees Stribling, Contributing Editor

Green building standards may not seem to be on the front burner of commercial real estate as much this year as last, simply because very little new development is breaking ground these days. Yet think and planning and policy shifts regarding sustainable real estate go on, anticipating the day when development will begin again.

Perhaps one of the most far-reaching of these shifts is the slow movement from voluntary green standards to green mandates. In the United States, LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) by the U.S. Green Building Council is the commercial real estate hallmark of such green building standards, but previously the standards were all voluntary. Now cities and other localities are the main driving forces behind mandating green building codes, which typically incorporate parts of LEED, and observers expect a more serious push in a greenward direction by the federal government now that Barack Obama is president.

Perhaps most notably among the cities, in the fall of 2008 San Francisco enacted an ordinance that mandates green building standards to new commercial structures over 5,000 square feet—most everything, in other words. New residential construction over 75 feet high (that, most multifamily properties) also fall under the new mandate, as do any building renovation involving a structure larger than 25,000 square feet. New or renovated buildings in the city now have to conform to relevant LEED or other building standards, though in practical terms that means LEED will predominate.

Moreover, there are movements toward mandating LEED or elements of LEED in such diverse places as Austin, Dallas, Portland, Ore., and Seattle. Adherence to LEED or part of LEED will probably become a condition of entitlement in these and other places in the near future.

Some stares are also having their say. In late 2008, the California Building Standards Commission voted to mandate measures among building owners that will reduce energy and water use, along with encouraging the recycling of construction waste and other green measures. For now, the code is voluntary, but it’s going to be phased in over the next few years.

The upshot for commercial real estate interests is that now is the time to figure out what green means in terms of their business—what to do, how to pay for it, and how to make it pay. “Most of my clients are already acquainting themselves with green standards, and some are actively pursuing green in their properties and business,” Michael Lingerfelt, president of Orlando-based architecture firm Lingerfelt International, told CPN.

As an example, Lingerfelt cited a major chain of causal-dining restaurants. “The company is looking at sustainability in every aspect of its operations, including where the food comes from and how it’s prepared and presented, but also the restaurants themselves, inside and out,” he said. “Among many other initiatives, the company is investigating power generation from waste vegetable oil. It might seem like a small thing, but in a chain that size, it will add up.”

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