Boston's biggest property owner going all green
Equity Office cites social, fiscal benefits to upgrades
By Casey Ross
Globe Staff / August 28, 2008
The city's largest property owner - spurred by high energy prices and rising demand from tenants - is seeking "green" certification for all of its office buildings, marking a major milestone in Mayor Thomas M. Menino's push to make Boston the nation's most environmentally friendly city.
Equity Office Properties Trust, which owns 20 structures in and around Boston, is outfitting its buildings with features ranging from energy-saving heating and cooling units to new bike racks as part of a multimillion-dollar effort to stamp its buildings with the green label.
"We're doing this from a social responsibility perspective, but it's also become necessary to maintain tenants," said Greg Shay, president of Boston operations for Equity Office. "It's gotten to the point where not taking action is somewhat foolish."
Equity Office, which was acquired by Blackstone Group last year, operates office towers across the country, but it is installing the green technologies only in its Massachusetts properties, beginning what could become a national effort, executives said. The company's marquee addresses include One Post Of fice Square, Rowes Wharf, and 60 State Street.
The effort by Equity Office will result in a 50 percent increase in the city's stock of green-certified office buildings, bringing the total to 34 from 23. The company is still tallying total savings, but executives estimate they will save $1.5 million in electricity costs by 2012 on six buildings where upgrades are underway.
While early environmental efforts have focused on curbing vehicle emissions, commercial and residential buildings consume about 70 percent of the nation's electricity and they also account for 39 percent of its carbon dioxide emissions, making homes and workplaces the largest collective source of harmful greenhouse gases, according to the US Green Building Council. Transportation accounts for about 30 percent of emissions.
The Menino administration has strongly encouraged property owners to seek green certification for existing buildings, which continue to be a drag on the city's effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The city enforces a zoning law that requires all newly constructed buildings larger than 50,000 square feet to achieve certification under Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), a program operated by the US Green Building Council, a nonprofit that promotes sustainable building design.
But the law does not apply to existing structures, meaning the city's efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are largely tied to the slow pace of redevelopment. Currently, only one existing office tower, managed by Beacon Capital at One Beacon Street, is certified under the program; Equity Office's plan will increase the number to 12 by 2013.
"The real pioneering innovation here is that Equity is committing to upgrading its existing properties, not just new construction," said James Hunt, Menino's chief of energy and environment. "Executives are now seeing that this is good for the environment, and it's good for public health."
Equity is seeking to achieve at least minimum LEED certification for all its buildings in the Boston area. The program is based on a ratings system that measures the efficiency of commercial and residential buildings. The system assigns silver, gold, and platinum certifications based on a building's adherence to an environmental checklist.
The checklist includes dozens of conservation measures, ranging from paper and plastic recycling to use of water-saving plumbing features to installation of automatic lighting features and rooftop landscaping. Equity Office said it expects to spend about $4.7 million on a pilot program that includes upgrades to four buildings. The effort will ultimately result in all its buildings being upgraded over the next several years.
Another major landlord, Boston Properties Inc., which owns the Prudential Tower, is also instituting green technology in its buildings. Executives said the firm is seeking to upgrade 11 million square feet of commercial space in Boston, Cambridge and Waltham.
The campaign has included extensive improvements to the Prudential, where the company has introduced automatic lighting switches and faucets, and employees use only ceramic coffee mugs and glassware instead of Styrofoam or paper products.
Environmental regulators said the movement toward green buildings has been aided by the sharp increases in costs for fuel and electricity, which have been crippling corporate budgets across the country.
Ian Bowles, the state's environmental secretary, said the campaign by Equity Office is part of a broader shift toward green buildings among universities, hospitals, and other major energy consumers that are under heavy pressure to cut costs - and appear green-conscious to the outside world.
"It's reflective of the high price of fossil fuels and growing concern about greenhouse gases," Bowles said of the Equity campaign. "It's really starting to drive the commercial real estate industry to focus more on green building."
Another motivating factor is the high demand from tenants.
Executives at Jones Lang LaSalle, an Equity Office tenant at One Post Office Square, said the real estate firm has welcomed upgrades to the building, including the mandatory use of green cleaning products as well as energy-efficient light bulbs and plumbing features.
"The cost of energy is going up and energy consumption is going up, so anything to help with that is a significant benefit," said David Slye, managing director for Jones Lang LaSalle in Boston. He said benefits of air filters and increased use of daylight also improve the working environment for employees.
Studies have shown that implementation of green technologies can increase productivity between 10 and 15 percent, according to the State Environmental Resources Center, an organization that tracks the impacts of green energy policies. The group cites research showing that cleaner air quality and better temperature control improves alertness of employees and decreases absenteeism.
Shay, of Equity Office, said
the vast majority of large office tenants are asking about green technology during negotiations, and many are now listing LEED certification as a baseline requirement.
"We really find that you can get knocked out of the running if you don't have it," he said. "It's very difficult for anyone to argue that this is a social movement that's not here to stay. Green is not going anywhere, so you either adopt it or you're playing catch-up."
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