Going Green in Salt Lake
Wed, 06/10/2009 - 15:01
Going green was the topic of discussion at CREW Utah's monthly meeting. Courtesy iStockphoto.
Advantages of sustainable building discussed at CREW luncheon
The benefits of green building were introduced to members of the Utah chapter of Commercial Real Estate for Women at a luncheon Tuesday.
Nearly 30 women, mostly CREW Utah members, attended the event to hear a panel discuss Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED).
“It’s all over the place … everyone is going green,” Ken Anderson, a certified plans examiner for Salt Lake City, told the group. “I think that’s great. I think it’s the way we need to go.”
To emphasize the green topic of the meeting, CREW Utah met at Big-D Construction, an LEED Gold certified building that is also on Utah’s historic registry. In addition to occupying a green building, Big-D Construction is working on several buildings which are to be LEED certified. One of these buildings is the Swaner Nature Preserve in Park City.
LEED is a certification system developed by the U.S. Green Building Council that measures how well a building or community performs in energy savings, water efficiency, CO2 emissions reduction, improved indoor environmental quality and stewardship of resources and sensitivity to their impacts, according to the U.S. Green Building Council. The certification process outlines how builders and operators can implement green building design, construction, operations and maintenance.
To meet the LEED certification requirements (the prominent way to determine if a building meets energy-efficient standards), Michael Jeppesen, a member of the United States Green Building Council who is LEED accredited, said there are five basic principles which should be followed when constructing a building: sustainable sites, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, materials and resources and indoor environmental quality.
Creating a sustainable site means locating a building close to public transportation and on previously developed land. Builders are encouraged to minimize impact on ecosystems and waterways and landscaping accordingly, according to the U.S. Green Building Council. Water efficiency can be met by using more efficient appliances, fixtures and fittings. Energy and atmosphere, materials and resources and indoor environmental quality encourage design that promotes employee health and wellness.
“It’s really about the people,” Jeppesen said. “It is not necessarily about the energy efficiency.”
Meeting all of these standards is no simple feat, Jeppesen explained. It requires a lot of planning on the part of the developer.
“Green building theory says lets plan, plan, plan, plan and plan and get all the stakeholders together and really think about this building,” Jeppesen said. “It is a totally different mindset.”
Jeppesen said developers have to meet with everyone involved with the project and discuss the development in great detail to determine what steps can be taken to meet LEED requirements. This can take a lot of time for a developer before the construction process can even begin, he said.
Salt Lake City is offering time-wise incentives to developers to encourage more green buildings, Anderson said. Projects which demonstrate sustainabililty will be expedited through the planning process.
“By recognizing that ‘time equals money’ for many projects, this program offers tremendous savings for the applicant, while doing the right thing for the environment, once again demonstrating Salt Lake City’s commitment to improve building sustainability,” according to a handout from Anderson.
To qualify for the Expedited Plan Review, commercial applicants must meet the design criteria for LEED Silver or greater in their permit application. Those who qualify are moved to the front of the line in the planning process, Anderson said. A more detailed list of qualifications can be found at www.slcpermits.com.
Anderson feels that the incentive program will be key component in getting developers to shift toward green development, following the example of Salt Lake City which, from now on, plans to only build LEED certified buildings.
“This is a way for us to push this capability and really encourage people to build green,” Anderson said.
Other municipalities are offering incentives for sustainable building, according to Anderson, but he wasn’t sure which cities have building green programs.
Programs like those offered by Salt Lake City, Anderson hopes, will help to offset any cost differences builders see in green development and change a misconception that LEED is more realistically an acronym for Lots of Extra Expenses in Development.
“We need to change that mindset,” Anderson said.
The panel agreed that those opinions might be swayed as the cost of green building becomes more comparable to the costs of traditional building.
“We are going in the right direction, but there is some education that needs to be provided,” Anderson said.
***
Three years ago 13 women introduced Commercial Real Estate for Women, a national organization with more than 60 chapters in the United States and Canada, to Utah residents. The goal of the organization of CREW Utah was to unite Utah women who are professionals in the commercial real estate industry. The union would allow members to network and advance in their careers.
CREW Utah meets monthly for breakfast, lunch and dinner lectures. Experts from various real estate disciplines share their knowledge with group members, which now have reached almost 30, during these monthly meetings. The June luncheon, which focused on going green, was just one of many events hosted by CREW Utah.
By Kelly Lux
Get E-mail Updates from RealEstateNewsUtah.com
Receive FREE periodic updates from RealEstateNewsUtah.com. Subscribe here to be added to our mailing list.
Real Estate News Utah Blog
Follow Us
