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The Green Perspective
By Kevin L. Ratner
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From the international media market, to Hollywood, to the local grocery store, green is permeating itself through the daily routine of our lives. Green choices range from hybrid vehicles, to low-flow bathrooms, to compact fluorescent light bulbs – all accessible to the mass market – to more ambitious green choices such as photovoltaic solar panels and wind-generated energy sources. Ultimately, the future of the green movement will be to influence every sector of commerce, government and social behavior. Today, the challenge is to create steps toward cumulative, positive impacts on mitigating global climate change and improving the health of our global community.
The ‘Greening of America’ is well underway, and its place in the political, public policy and corporate arenas is firmly rooted as a leading priority. In the real estate industry, efforts to identify green building and sustainable development practices have been underway for many years, but have only recently become all but a regulatory development requirement that has forced the building industry to take a hard look at the costs, development impacts and implementation of building green.
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| It is Best Practice |
Unfortunately, there are barriers to attaining real sustainable outcomes, including the risk of too much misdirected regulatory oversight, too many misguided private or public directives and, ultimately, the weight of sustainability’s own message sending it to the edge of overkill. On the bright side, there are many positive incremental steps toward ‘sustainability’ and those steps are worth evaluating and emphasizing. At Forest City, we have taken stock of our role in the development community and have committed internal resources to incorporate sustainability into our business. The greatest challenge in implementing sustainable practices lies with the public sector. At its very best, sustainability is holistic and requires more than a regulatory or incentive-based approach. It will require coordination on a scale not yet achieved by the public sector at a regional, national and global level to realize the full benefits of sustainable, ecologically friendly development.
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| Incremental Greening – Building by Building |
| Public and private buildings have significant impacts on the environment. According to U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), buildings account for: |
12% of U.S. Water Use
30% of Greenhouse Gas Emissions
65% of Waste Output
70% of Energy Consumption |
| These statistics are staggering, but small, incremental steps toward the greening of buildings are available today, and due to decreasing costs, are accessible to the large consumer markets as well. |
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Surprisingly, the impact of these small changes can result in substantial savings. For example, if every U.S. household replaced one incandescent light bulb with a compact fluorescent light bulb, the country would save $600 million in energy bills--enough energy to light 7 million homes, and prevent greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to one million cars.1 In addition, water conservation solutions can begin in the home with low flow shower and dual flush toilet features. |
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More substantial impacts to the environment, such as improvements to air quality and reductions of water usage, require early planning and development considerations. These improvements can result in higher building efficiencies and, when coupled with design and site integration, the result is optimized energy and reduced resource consumption. Changes like these can result in the following average savings: |
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Cumulative, incremental change can result in direct positive impacts to the environment. |
| The Triple Bottom Line – Economic, Social and Environmental |
According to recent reports, building construction and operation consume the largest amount of natural resources in the country. In an effort to better understand the role a developer can play in being “part of the solution,” Forest City embarked on a comprehensive approach toward sustainable development practices. Key to developing a sustainable development strategy was the creation of a Sustainability Initiatives Group to increase company awareness and to develop an internal competency of the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Rating System. Equally significant was the decision to add sustainability as one of the company’s Core Values. The ‘Triple Bottom Line’ concept emerged from this process wherein Forest City will strategically and competitively balance environmental resources, economic objectives and social systems to operate the business and to invest in new opportunities. Implementing the Triple Bottom Line means understanding the methods of sustainable practices that are available to a real estate development company, assessing existing operational practices, and importantly, understanding the market demand for eco-friendly, sustainable development. |
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The USGBC’s LEED Green Building Rating System is currently the most widely accepted tool to evaluate green building systems. Forest City is taking an approach of adapting LEED standards as a minimum compliance requirement on new development projects. This approach is based upon an appreciation of the early state of research and understanding of the real environmental costs attributable to development. Therefore, until the true nature of the problem of environmental degradation is identified, there are no clear answers, but goals have been outlined with a company-wide commitment to reach them. |
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Another opportunity often overlooked is the attention given to existing operations and maintenance practices. Forest City has initiated an educational campaign to engage tenants in over 30,000 units through the monthly online “New Leaf” newsletter,which provides residents with information for sustainable living, practical tips, such as how and where to buy local, organic foods, and ideas for saving energy. These efforts are focused on increasing the awareness of our end users. With tools such as New Leaf, tenants and occupants (including contractors and onsite builders) learn the positive environmental benefits of working or living in a green building. |
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Sustainability should extend beyond development formulas and programming strategies to the surrounding communities. Diverse communities that may not be able to attain the luxuries of environmentally responsible projects, stand to benefit the most from sustainable development practices as conditions of overcrowding and environmental degradation are often disproportionately present in their neighborhoods. Green development should not be relegated only to affluent communities, but rather a universal strategy should be implemented of rebuilding entire communities to a green standard building by building and block by block. |
| Green in Demand |
The consumer market for green living is already here. While the depth of the demand will likely increase over time, the challenge to the development community is to keep pace. According to recent national surveys, the green consumer is willing to pay premium rents for green building features such as energy-efficient appliances, low flow bathroom features, native, drought resistant landscaping and onsite recycling programs. Green communities are now a nationwide trend and part of a larger movement toward healthier lifestyles and sustainable living practices.
Each passing year, Americans’ concerns about global environmental conditions increase. Historically, the issue of sustainability has been viewed as a politically divisive touted by fringe interests. But today, the consumer market has defined that green is no longer a political afterthought, and that sustainability is here to stay. Importantly, the green consumer is a sophisticated buyer and increasingly knows the difference between bonafide sustainability efforts and ‘green-washing’. Green consumer tools, such as the recently created Climate Counts website, allow consumers to purchase from eco-friendly companies by looking at a product scorecard online or by having the information sent directly to their cell phones. |
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| Regulatory Support for Green |
Just as a call to action has been placed upon the private sector, the public sector has also received the message – Go Green! Across the country, cities both big and small have initiated sustainability programs to address local issues and establish regulatory controls and incentives for green development practices and energy efficient technologies. These regulatory efforts can be density bonuses, expedited entitlement and approvals processes, or energy grants and rebates through utility providers.
Government programs are admirable and should be recognized as a concerted effort to provide incentives toward sustainable development practices; however, the greatest challenge to the public sector is the ability to coordinate and collaborate on sustainability efforts across jurisdictional and agency boundaries. Cities have turned to the LEED rating program to establish benchmarks for green building goals, but the value of individual certification is diluted unless it is part of a larger sustainability strategy. Piecemeal policies that nibble at the edges of a global issue have little potential to strike at the core of the problem. The opportunity lies with the public sector to provide leadership through intra-jurisdictional and interagency cooperation. The challenge becomes: break patterns of ‘silo’ thinking, and cross boundaries into neighboring cities, counties and across state borders.
The public sector must also train and educate staff to effectively navigate in an environment of daily change and competitiveness. Investing in public sector competency in sustainable development practices and green building procedures should be a priority for government officials, if the value of green development opportunities is to be fully realized.
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| A Green Future |
The future of green is you. It is in the small, independent actions of people across the globe making incremental changes in their behavior to contribute toward the common good. It is in the efforts of private and public sector leaders setting forth a joint approach to address macro environmental issues. And at the end of the day, it is the collective decision to surpass the perceived barriers to reap the benefits of a healthier community and a sustainable future for the families of today and tomorrow. |
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| Kevin L. Ratner is the President of Forest City Residential West, Inc. |
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