Cashing in with Green Buildings - They're Not Just for Tree Huggers Anymore

View of green roof at Gaslight Lofts

For years, environmental activists have advocated the construction of "green" buildings, instead of conventional buildings, to conserve precious natural resources. However, an increasing number of bottom-line driven businesses are constructing green buildings or renovating older buildings to make them more "green." In an era of skyrocketing energy costs and dwindling supplies of fresh drinking water, it pays to be green. "Absolutely, it can save you money," said Kenneth Pientka, chief operating officer of Madison-based Planning Design Build Inc. Green buildings have features such as: high-efficiency heating and air conditioning systems; extensive windows for natural light that reduces electricity and heat system usage; more efficient lighting systems; low-flow toilets; waterless urinals; and green roofs with grass and plants (see accompanying story). The green building features add more to construction costs of a building, but they result in cost savings over the long run, Pientka said.
Most well-done green buildings cost 2 to 5 percent more to build than a regular building, and it takes about three to five years of energy savings to make up for the higher construction costs, he said.

In 2003, Sigma Group moved from space it was leasing in Oak Creek to a new 26,000-square-foot building with several green building features in the Menomonee River Valley in Milwaukee. The company's services include providing expertise for brownfield remediation. The firm's new Milwaukee headquarters were built on a former brownfield. "We wanted to walk our talk, showing our customers that with the right degree of planning and knowledge, you can develop in a brownfield," said Sigma Group principal Kenneth Kaszubowski. The Sigma Group building has a high-efficiency mechanical system for heating and air conditioning. Such systems cost more to install upfront, but they save money in the long run by reducing energy use, Kaszubowski said.

"It does cost a little bit more, but the payback is so quick," he said. "If you have any kind of long-term vision at all, it makes a lot of sense." However, green building elements do not necessarily have to add to construction costs, according to Paul von Paumgartten, director of energy and environmental affairs for Glendale-based Johnson Controls Inc. When Johnson Controls built the 160,000-square-foot addition to its downtown Milwaukee Brengel Technology Center in 2000, the company saved $250,000 on construction costs by using green building elements, he said. "It didn't cost us more," von Paumgartten said. "It doesn't have to cost you more."

The Brengel Center was one of the first LEED-certified buildings in the nation, receiving a silver rating. LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. It is the building industry standard for green building certification and is determined by the U.S. Green Building Council. Johnson Controls also upgraded the older portion of the 440,000-square-foot Brengel center. The facility's LEED certification was later improved to a gold rating. The Brengel Center has an indirect lighting system (with T5 fluorescent lamps), which uses less than one watt per square foot. Each cubicle has a personal environment module that controls the amount of heat, light and ventilation for the employee at his or her desk. If the employee leaves the desk, the personal environment module automatically shuts down, saving energy use. The facility also has low-flow fixtures in the bathrooms to reduce water usage.

Johnson Controls saves $333,000 a year on energy costs because of the energy efficient systems in the Brengel Center, von Paumgartten said.
"That validates what everyone has been saying, that green buildings save 20 to 50 percent of operational costs," he said. "Those are big numbers." Now the company is planning to upgrade its Glendale headquarters. Once that project is complete, Johnson Controls expects its headquarters to be a platinum level LEED building, the highest ranking possible. Improving building efficiency is a core business for Johnson Controls. The company offers products and services that optimize energy use and improve comfort in buildings. The company uses the Brengel Center to show customers the benefits of green buildings.

"We have people visiting us almost daily, and they are all interested in green buildings," von Paumgartten said. "Our customers are coming from all over the world to talk to us about green buildings." New green buildings feature many different systems that reduce the consumption of energy and the use of water. Some buildings have lighting systems with sensors that adjust the brightness of the lights in the building based on the amount of natural light coming in the windows during the day. Different types of windows can be used for different parts of the building to maximize the amount of light allowed into the building, but also to limit the amount of heat that comes in.

"Glass technology has really become advanced," Pientka said. Sigma Group used bow truss construction for its roof, which allowed for the installation of a series of large windows that let a significant amount of natural light into the building, reducing electricity usage. "Some of the offices, during the day, we don't turn the lights on," Kaszubowski said. Extensive natural light also creates a better work environment and improves employee productivity, he said. Some building owners have installed waterless urinals to reduce water use. "It works well," Pientka said. "Everybody is worried about the odor. They put a material on the wall of the urinal that makes it very slippery, so the water droplets don't collect." At the bottom of the urinal is a special cartridge that releases a liquid that is lighter than urine, so it floats on top of the urine, preventing any odor.

Each waterless urinal can save 40,000 gallons of water a year, which would fill a decent-sized in-ground residential swimming pool, Pientka said.
Low-flow toilets also can reduce water use. Planning Design Building Inc. is experimenting with specialized toilets for women's restrooms with a handle that can be pushed up to flush for just liquid waste and down to flush solid waste. A typical toilet uses 1.6 gallons of water per flush. With the specialty toilet, the liquid waste flush only uses one gallon.

Liberty Property Trust, a Malvern, Pa.-based real estate investment trust (REIT), has installed waterless urinals and low-flow toilets in the bathrooms of an office building the firm owns in Brookfield at 245 S. Executive Drive. Liberty Property Trust is expanding the building from 60,000 square feet to 72,000 square feet and renovating much of the existing space, adding numerous other "green" features, including aerated faucets that use less water and a drip irrigation system which uses less water to keep the exterior landscaping growing. "This building is going to use 500,000 gallons less water per year," said John DiVall, vice president for Liberty Property Trust's Milwaukee office.

The building's green features will result in at least 10 percent energy cost savings for the facility, DiVall said. The building's tenants will benefit by paying less for their energy bills, he said. That will help the building compete for tenants with other office buildings in the area, he said. "We're going to be able to point across the street and say, 'We're cheaper (for energy costs) than there, cheaper than there and cheaper than there,'" DiVall said. "So you can pay us a little more in rent and still have lower operating costs." The reduced energy costs will help Liberty fill the building with tenants more quickly, DiVall said.

"I know it's helping us. We're very close to signing a lease for 1-1/2 floors with a big national company with a lot of employees," Divall said, declining to identify the prospective tenant. Liberty also will include many of the same green elements in a new 30,000-square-foot building the company is constructing for the U.S. Defense Department in the Park Place business park on the far northwest side of Milwaukee. "Ground up is easier to do (green) than a core and shell," DiVall said. Businesses in southeastern Wisconsin increasingly are embracing the idea of making their buildings green, despite the upfront costs, to take advantage of the long-term benefits.

"It's definitely catching on," Pientka said. "We feel it's the wave of the future. Some of our clients have embraced it, but others continue to reject it."
"It is a megatrend that is transforming the building industry," said von Paumgartten, who served on the U.S. Green Building Council board for six years. "Most developers are cautious. Most of our construction has always been done on the cheap. They perceive there's going to be more expense and more risk. The owners of the buildings, they are the ones that are going to drive it and demand it."

Barrett Creates "Milwaukee Green Team"

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett wants to improve the environment in the city, but he says he wants to do so in a business-friendly manner.
Earlier this year, Barrett created the Milwaukee Green Team, comprised of 11 business, community and environmental leaders, whose mission will be to create a plan to make the city's environment cleaner. One of the Green Team's workgroups will determine if the city should require private developers to include green technology in their projects when public financing is provided. "We will set a Milwaukee Green Standard that provides leadership and practical solutions to help keep our water and air clean, our resources conserved and our people prosperous," Barrett said. "I've asked the Milwaukee Green Team to seek opportunities to make us a greener, cleaner city without putting us or the private sector in the red."

The members of the Green Team are: City Planner and University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Architecture School Dean Robert Greenstreet; Sixteenth Street Community Health Center environmental health director Peter McAvoy; Cross Development Group Inc. owner Carla Cross; Alterra Coffee owner Lincoln Fowler; Alderman Ashanti Hamilton; Legacy Redevelopment Corp. president Sally Peltz; former mayoral senior aide James Rowen; Greater Milwaukee Committee president Julia Taylor; The Brico Fund president Lynde Uihlein; UWM associate professor of architecture James Wasley; and Milwaukee Department of Public Works environmental services superintendent Preston Cole.

"The Milwaukee Green Team will not only look at what's going on in the public sector, they will take inventory of all of the innovative green products taking place in the private sector," Greenstreet said. "We want this group to serve as a resource to help promote the best green ideas."
The city is setting an example to promote green building construction with the Highland Gardens public housing facility at 1818 W. Juneau Ave. The building has a green roof, with plants on top of the roof that will absorb stormwater, reducing runoff into the city's sewer system which has been overburdened during some storms, forcing overflows. Green roofs save energy costs by reducing the heat absorbed by the roof.

In addition, the city's Department of Public Works building under construction at the former Tower Automotive site features several energy efficient design elements. Barrett said his vision for the Milwaukee Green Team is to find innovative solutions that conserve resources and improve the quality of life for residents, yet are financially beneficial for the building owners. "I'm asking the Milwaukee Green Team to show me the money," Barrett said. "Show me how businesses can save money in the long run using green technology and show me how more city residents can earn money by taking jobs in the environmental field. Studies show this is a fast-growing job sector in the rust belt."

Green Roofs Reduce Storm Runoff

By Andrew Weiland, of SBT

The boldest feature of a completely "green" building is a "green" roof. Milwaukee city officials are encouraging building owners to add green roofs, because the grass and plants absorb water, rather than conventional roofs, where stormwater immediately runs off and flows into the sewer system. Green roofs help reduce the burden on Milwaukee's sewage system, which has had some problems with overflows during heavy rainstorms. "Green roofs, in a way, are an urban comparable to stormwater ponds in the suburbs," said Robert Monnat, chief operating officer for Mandel Group. "It doesn't make sense to use highly valuable urban land for stormwater ponds."

Green roofs are not cheap. A conventional roof costs about $5 per square foot, while a green roof can cost $14 to $18 per square foot, according to Norm Ammermann, senior sales representative for Milwaukee-based FJA Christiansen Roofing Co. Inc. To create a green roof, a waterproof membrane must be installed under four inches of soil. Perhaps the biggest benefit of green roof, for the owner of the building, is that green roofs tend to last twice as long as conventional roofs, Ammermann said. A conventional roof lasts about 15 to 20 years, while a green roof lasts about 30 to 40, he said.

Another benefit is that green roofs reduce the roof temperature. On a hot summer day, a typical black roof could be 140 to 160 degrees, while a green roof on the same day would be 95 to 100 degrees, Kenneth A. Pientka chief operating officer of Madison-based Planning Design Build Inc. said. As a result, green roofs help reduce the air conditioning costs for a building. "It amounts to about a 75 percent savings on your air conditioning costs in the summer," Ammermann said.

Ted McNamara, vice president with the Milwaukee office of FJA Christiansen, said green roofs do not absorb as much summer heat, resulting in cooling equipment operating less frequently and more efficiently, both reducing energy usage and extending the lifespan of the cooling system. "Your air conditioning equipment is not put through the stresses of the surging of the on and off cycles," McNamara said. "And your building will maintain itself at a much more constant temperature." However, green roofs are heavier than conventional roofs, so the building structure must be able to support it. One square foot of a green roof weighs about 24 pounds, Ammermann said. Installing a green roof on an existing building may require structural improvements that add even more to the cost, he said.

"Not every building is a candidate for a green roof," Ammermann said. "It does add a significant amount of weight." FJA Christiansen recently completed installation of its first green roof in the Milwaukee area at its own offices at 2101 W. Purdue St. The new roof, which required more support beams to be put in place to support the increased weight, was completed after about six days of work. Many of the businesses that are putting green roofs on their buildings are doing so for aesthetic reasons, which provide less tangible benefits. Mandel Group put a green roof on top of the parking garage for its Gaslight Lofts development in Milwaukee's Historic Third Ward. The green roof provides a park-like grassy area, with some small plants, creating an appealing view for residents and a relaxing place that they can enjoy the outdoors. The back doors of several of the apartments open up right to the green roof, creating a large backyard feel.

"The environment at Gaslight is pretty cool," said Monnat. "Some homes have direct access to the green roof. It basically amounts to an outdoor living room for these people. It's phenomenal." It cost about $175,000 more to put in the green roof on the Gaslight Lofts parking garage, Monnat said, but it provides an added amenity that makes the apartments more valuable. Mandel Group also will put a 17,000-square-foot green roof on top of the parking garage for the University Club Tower, the luxury condominium high rise that the company is building near the lakefront in downtown Milwaukee. That roof will include a dog run area.

The University Club Tower parking garage green roof will cost an additional $600,000 to $650,000, said Phillip Aiello, senior development manager for Mandel Group. Big Bend Development will incorporate green roofs in a condominium development the company will build at the former site of the Milwaukee Center for Independence at 1339 N. Milwaukee St. in downtown Milwaukee. The development will feature an eight-story, 40-unit building; two 13-story, 43-unit buildings; and eight three-story, side-by-side townhouses. Construction should begin in late spring and be completed in 2007. "They're little parks on top of structures," said Randy Scoville, a partner with Big Bend Development. "It makes the site more appealing. Instead of having all paved surfaces that are kind of unattractive, you provide an amenity. It doesn't come free. There is a cost to it, but it does provide an added amenity."

Green Retrofits Make Older Buildings More Efficient

By Eric Decker and Andrew Weiland, of SBT

It is easier to make a new building "green" than to add environmentally friendly features to an existing building. However, commercial building owners can add green features to their buildings to save energy costs. There are an estimated 4.5 million commercial and industrial buildings in the nation, with a total of 60 billion square feet of space. Those buildings use 30 percent more energy than they need to, according to Paul von Paumgartten, director of energy and environmental affairs for Glendale-based Johnson Controls Inc.

Johnson Controls helps clients improve the energy efficiency of their buildings. "We go to existing buildings and harness energy out of them, and we use the savings to pay for the upgrades," said von Paumgartten, who served on the U.S. Green Building Council board for six years. From 1990 to 2000 Johnson Controls saved its customers $17 billion in energy costs and 2,500 mega watts of electricity, which is enough to power all of the homes in California for two years. "If we just keep doing what we're doing over the next 20 years, the savings is $95 billion," von Paumgartten said. "Energy efficiency is the gift that keeps on giving. When you sustain it, the benefits are profound."

Liberty Property Trust, a Malvern, Pa.-based real estate investment trust (REIT), owns 63 million square feet of real estate throughout the United States and the United Kingdom, including about 1.5 million square feet of office, industrial and flex space in Wisconsin. The company has made a commitment to make more of its buildings green. The reduced energy costs make the properties more attractive to tenants. "Why not do it if you can?" said John DiVall, vice president for the Milwaukee office of Liberty Property Trust. "It's the right thing to do. We're doing it first of all because it's the right thing to do as a good corporate citizen. But there is no question, for our customers, their costs are going to be less."

Some commercial building owners are adding green roofs to their facilities to make the roofs last longer, reduce energy costs and enhance the aesthetics of the buildings. Existing buildings can be retrofitted with new plumbing systems that feature waterless urinals and low-flow toilets (see accompanying story). The owners of existing commercial buildings can invest in other types of upgrades that reduce energy costs, according to Patrick Balistreri, co-owner of Total Energy Savers, a West Milwaukee-based company that finds and seals air leaks in buildings.
Many commercial buildings have cracks or openings near windows or where a roof meets a vertical wall. By finding these leaks and properly closing them, Balistreri said, owners of commercial buildings can easily save large amounts of energy and reduce their energy costs.

Other common sources of air leaks are around electrical outlets, light switches, pipes and air ducts that travel between floors in multi-story buildings. When a building has air leaks, its heating, cooling and ventilation (HVAC) system has to work harder, adding wear and tear to the system and increased costs, Balistreri said. Balistreri says he helps his clients save on their energy bills. "It's not a huge capital expenditure, but it involves a lot of educational training," he said. "Saving energy was not a big thing here." However, with electricity and natural gas costs rising to unprecedented levels this winter, Balistreri believes more companies in southeastern Wisconsin will start looking for ways to reduce their energy bills. "It's a real simple science," he said. "You tighten up your building envelope and ventilate it correctly, and your building will work better."

By Andrew Weiland, of SBT

November 25, 2005, Small Business Times, Milwaukee, WI