The need for collaboration between commercial
real estate and municipal leaders in the creation
of green best practices was a major focal point of one
in-depth educational session at the virtual BOMA International
Conference & Expo this July. The session, aptly titled
“Collaborative Climate Action Planning: Public Sector and
Real Estate Working Together to Develop Successful Climate
Policies,” delved into how these types of partnerships
can create better outcomes for all stakeholders.
Featuring this session was part of a long-term, ongoing
effort by BOMA International, a 13-time ENERGY STAR®
award winner, to equip BOMA members with the tools
they need to engage with local decision-makers on the
creation of mandatory requirements. In 2017, BOMA International
released the Energy Benchmarking Ordinances
Engagement Toolkit to support efforts to collaborate and
work with local officials and stakeholders. Since then, the
BOMA International advocacy team and BOMA local associations
across the United States have continued to work
with local leaders on these efforts.
WORK TOGETHER
Cities throughout the United States and around the world
are moving toward the imposition of regulations governing
emissions in commercial buildings. In fact, presenter
Marta Schantz, Fitwel Ambassador, LEED Green Associate,
pointed to more than 30 U.S. locales that now require
energy benchmarking. That regulatory growth aside,
Schantz, the senior vice president of the Urban Land Institute’s
Greenprint Center for Building Performance, stated
that real estate leaders should focus on the “business case”
of high compliance. “Reducing carbon emissions is tied
directly to increased building value,” she said. “When you
can put a positive spin on the fact that there are regulations
coming that will affect your building operations, at
least you know it has a positive effect on your bottom line.”
And, working with regulators on the creation of those
requirements is likely to yield the best results. “City policymakers
aren’t real estate experts and vice versa,” Schantz
explained. “So, being able to understand the business of
each side of the coin is very helpful to both.” Regulators
can learn more about how their decisions would impact
the commercial real estate sector, while property professionals
can help guide decision-making—and get a preview
of what is coming.
THE GROWTH OF REGULATION
The move toward greater local regulation doesn’t stop at
benchmarking and can include “more actionable items,”
according to Schantz. “There are localities that require
building tune-ups, audits and equipment upgrades. Seattle
and Philadelphia, for instance, have building re-tuning
requirements, and New York City has mandates for lighting
upgrades and submetering installations.”
Other cities dole out letter grades that rate building
health. Chicago, specifically, uses a star system “encouraging
tenants to understand and make decisions based on the clearly displayed performance of the building,” she
said. Other cities, such as Washington, D.C., also impose
building performance standards. Further, she stated, “California
is employing ordinances with net-zero codes for all
new construction, set for 2030. Also, individual cities along
the West Coast are setting all-electric new construction
ordinances.”
But, don’t think the movement is mostly a coastal phenomenon.
Henderson, Nevada; Des Moines, Iowa; and St.
Louis are just a sampling of landlocked municipalities following
suit. In short, energy policies are coming to a city
near you. Involvement in the creation of those mandates
serves to everyone’s benefit.
As commercial real estate leaders have made an effort
to be actively involved in the process, government officials
have learned to reach out proactively to get buy-in. One
municipality that has enacted a series of regulatory moves
in conjunction with local business leaders is Washington,
D.C. Session speaker Katie Bergfeld, LEED AP BD+C,
PMP, chief of the Building Performance and Enforcement
Branch of the District’s Department of Energy and Environment
(DOEE), noted in a case study as part of the education
session that the vision for an energy-efficient city is
part of the Sustainable DC initiative.
The process of creating the initiative included numerous
public meetings and real estate outreach efforts to ensure the real estate community could provide input to inform
the ultimate building performance requirements.
At its core, Sustainable DC aims to “cut citywide energy
usage by 50 percent and greenhouse gas emissions by 50
percent by 2032,” she said. The program also calls for netzero
new construction starting in 2026. It also is the aim of
the multi-tiered program to “increase our use of renewable
energy to 50 percent by 2032.” Those goals are all based
on a 2006 baseline. In addition, in 2017, D.C. Mayor Muriel
Bowser “committed to make D.C. a carbon-neutral city by
2050.”
Admittedly, it is a massive initiative, and Bergfeld
explained that there are many related initiatives involved
in bringing the reduction of energy usage to fruition.
Clearly, successfully enacting those programs continues to
be a joint effort. “We can reach our goals as long as we’re
working alongside our stakeholders and making sure our
programs are as flexible, efficient and effective as possible,”
Bergfeld concluded.
This article originally appeared in the September/October 2020 edition of BOMA Magazine.