High-Performance Green Bldg. Code Standard Moves Forward

With all eyes on the green real estate and energy management programs springing up at major corporations, banks and commercial real estate firms across the country, a new high-performance green building standard that could alter the regulatory side of the industry has quietly moved into the last stages of development.

Known as Standard 189P (Standard for the Design of High-Performance Green Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings), the standard is the nation's first to target inclusion in building codes. It's goal is to achieve a minimum 30% reduction in energy costs -- and equivalent carbon emissions reductions -- over the current energy efficiency standard, says the American Society of Heating Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), one of the standard's creators.

The standard would also address renewable power generation, lighting and water efficiency, sustainable site-selection and indoor air quality, and could require other elements such as a transportation management plan.

ASHRAE has partnered with the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IESNA) and the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) to develop the initiative. But unlike USGBC's LEED program, a voluntary green certification mechanism, Standard 189P would provide baseline environmental requirements as a prerequisite for a Certificate of Occupancy.

"Standard 189P will become the benchmark for all sustainable green buildings in the United States because it is being developed for inclusion into building codes," ASHRAE President Terry Townsend said in a statement.

The standard's first public review period concluded a few weeks ago. ASHRAE is now sorting through the comments -- which could reach 1,000 -- before sending them off to the project committee for review. The committee plans to meet this month to fully analyze and respond to the comments, which could result in some tinkering to the standard or another review period, according to Gordon V. R. Holness, a 2007-2008 ASHRAE board member and Chairman emeritus of Detroit-based design firm Albert Kahn Associates Inc.

The Board is expected to publish the standard sometime before the end of year. Working closely with a number of organizations including the International Code Council, ASHRAE would then lobby state and local jurisdictions to implement the standard in building codes.

ASHRAE is optimistic the standard will catch on quickly, in part because it features "consensus-built standards" that are "practical, realistic and economic," Holness told CoStar. The standard is designed to act as the high-performance counterpart to the current energy efficiency standard, ANSI/ASHRAE/IESNA Standard 90.1, which was developed in the 1970s and is used today in building codes worldwide.

In some cases, according to Holness, the standard would help address the disconnect between tenants -- who want green features for energy cost savings and employee benefits like improved health, productivity and retention -- and landlords, who aren't always incentivized to go green, particularly if their tenants are on triple-net leases.

"The green movement is growing in strength. We're seeing a lot more public interest, much greater awareness and understanding," Holness said. "We're working very hard to develop technical and engineering aspects to support this effort. We're very much driving this issue because it's so critical."


Charm City Sees 'Silver' Lining

The City of Baltimore is preparing to join its neighbors to the north and south in passing a progressive green building requirement across both public and private sector development.

The provision would mandate energy and environmental requirements equal to a Silver LEED rating for substantially all new commercial projects and significant rehabs within city limits, although projects wouldn't necessarily need to register under LEED to comply, says Jim Kraft, Baltimore's 1st District City Councilman and the bill's main sponsor.

The provision would be phased in over the next two years, with city-funded projects conforming next year and compliance by private development expected in July 2009.

It is moving to a final vote this month before being signed into law. "We don't anticipate any problems," Kraft told CoStar.

The bill began with recommendations from the Baltimore City Green Building Task Force, which spent a year studying sustainability issues in Baltimore and published its findings in partnership with Kraft's office in 2006. The better part of another year was then spent developing and amending the legislation, Kraft said.

"We have literally had hundreds of people working on this for two to three years. We've spent a lot of time on this bill," he said.

If the bill is enacted, as Kraft expects it will be, Baltimore will join East Coast neighbors Boston and Washington, D.C. as the only major American cities to officially put public/private green development provisions on the books.

While such standards are becoming common among publicly funded projects, requirements on privately funded development are scarce. Aside from Boston and Washington, which passed their provisions last winter, just a handful of small cities and towns have crafted green standards across both public and private sector development.

Kraft said the Boston and D.C. provisions were studied in forming Baltimore's requirement. Boston's provision, which became effective in January, is a modified version of the LEED system that includes city-specific credits in the areas of groundwater recharging, historic preservation, transportation and energy.

Washington's provision will be phased in until it takes full effect in 2012, serving in part as a model for Baltimore's approach.

"One of the reasons for the phase-in was to make sure we could sufficiently train and budget for inspectors to enforce the provision," Kraft said. "Those were key factors."

With the green building movement riding a wave of recent initiatives from leading industry firms, and a rise in energy costs and an increase in public awareness, Kraft says the timing is right for a green development standard in Baltimore.

"What's interesting to me is a year ago if you talked to people, they said they can't do it. Now with rising energy costs, a lot of these people are saying 'Look, you don't have to convince us.'

"They know over the life of the building that they're going to get more money back than they pay up front."

Kraft said he approached the development teams of the proposed $550 million Harbor East complex -- which will house Legg Mason's corporate headquarters and a Four Seasons Hotel -- and requested that the projects be developed to green standards.

"Within two months they came back to me and said they would do Silver [LEED certification] on both," he said.

Kraft has also introduced bills that would create an Office of Sustainability and an Environmental Management Program, provide property tax credits for high-performance green buildings, expand the city's annual energy consumption reports, and create an annual greenhouse gas emissions report.