Green Design and Construction Makes Good Common Sense

by Lonnie Coplen

Green design and sustainability are today's buzzwords and tomorrow's design standard. As public concern over environmental performance grows, both public policy and consumer demand will drive more environmentally responsible building design and construction.

Challenges remain, primary of which is the difficulty of evaluating the cost/benefit profile of green strategies. Sustainable practices nevertheless have a firm foothold in New York City's construction market, with public agencies set to demand even more green building in the future. If your organization hasn't yet embraced green design, now is the time to get informed.

Measuring environmental impact and demonstrating improved environmental performance can be challenging. Green design strives to compensate for what economists call the "negative externalities" of building construction. Externalities are by-products or spillovers of the free market; negative externalities are by-products viewed as having a social cost. For example, energy production results in greenhouse gas emissions that have a harmful effect on the environment. One challenge of negative externalities is that they are difficult to quantify.

In an attempt to measure the performance of green design, the U.S. Green Building Council launched the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, system. LEED evaluates environmental performance from a "whole building" perspective, providing a definitive standard for what constitutes a "green building." A voluntary building rating system, LEED is based on accepted energy and environmental principles and emphasizes state-of-the-art strategies for sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection and indoor environmental quality.

The effectiveness of green design can also be measured in more straightforward ways. Investing in green construction pays for itself 10 times over, says an October 2003 study prepared for a group of more than 40 California government agencies. The study, conducted by the Capital E Group at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory with input from a number of state agencies, reflects the most definitive cost-benefit analysis of green building to date.

The New York City Department of Design and Construction (DDC) provided early leadership in the application of green design principles with the 1997 formation of its Office of Sustainable Design, subsequent publication of its High Performance Building Guidelines, and, in 1999, development of 16 green pilot projects, now in various stages of design and construction.

Another leader in green design is New York City Transit's Capital Program Management division, which boasts ISO 14001 registration, a voluntary program that demonstrates commitment to reducing the agency's environmental footprint.

A dozen showcase projects of the NYCT incorporate sustainable features such as building-integrated photovoltaic power systems, rainwater and graywater harvesting, high-efficiency lighting, integrated systems design to maximize energy efficiency, extensive recycling of construction debris and procurement of "green" construction materials.

The greening of New York City is set to continue. DDC is in the process of implementing sustainable practices beyond its pilot program. The team designing MTA's future Fulton Street Transit Center has been directed to pursue the highest possible LEED certification, and the future 2nd Avenue Subway and 7 West Extension projects will be green projects.

If you're ready to make the commitment to green design and construction, the following five-part strategy can be helpful:

1. Get the corporate commitment. It takes top-down executive commitment to lead to real transformation. Do the research and craft a business argument specific to your industry. Then sell it to the head honchos.

2. Establish the corporate machinery needed to transform your practice from within. Consultants can be invaluable in facilitating transformation, but in-house champions who know your business and are drawn to the principles of sustainability will burn hotter and longer than any outside resource.

3. Identify performance parameters, key indicators and goals. As the MBAs will tell you, "If it can't be measured, it can't be managed." Consider ISO 14001, which is systematic, focuses on management systems and provides implementation flexibility. Monitor continuously and keep records.

4. Be real, and look for real value. One of the hardest things for a company to do is get beyond "low-hanging fruit"-changes that don't cost much time or money to implement. Harvesting the low-hanging fruit is an important first step, but you must move beyond it. This means identifying unwanted environmental consequences, deciding what changes meet your sustainability goals and are feasible and developing a realistic action plan.

5. Look for rewards, and blow your own horn. Recognition is one of the best fuels for management momentum that the business world can offer.

Lonnie Coplen is a project manager based in the New York office of Carter & Burgess.