Seeing green: corporate America is starting to catch on to the green building trend.

Local governments, schools and universities are leading the green charge, incorporating environmentally friendly components in design and building to ensure better indoor air quality, improve energy efficiency and prolong the sustainability of buildings. In fact, It appears building owners across all sectors are going green.

According to an article in the Chicago Tribune, there are 400 Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED)-certified buildings throughout the nation and 3,400 others working towards LEED Certification with the U.S. Green Building Council.

Academic facility owners are champions in adding green building elements to new construction and renovation projects. Phillips Exeter Academy, a prestigious college preparatory school in southern New Hampshire, has recently completed a new academy center for which it hopes to receive LEED certification. As the project began, the construction management and demolition team separated building debris into eight separate receptacles to optimize recycling, a major element of green building.

The benefits of these efforts are paying off. The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) promotes buildings that are environmentally responsible, profitable and healthy. S. Richard Fedrizzi, USGBC president, recently said that employees work 2 percent to 16 percent more efficiently in green buildings, and research shows that students in green schools have 20 percent better test scores.

The construction management industry estimates that as many as 50 percent of all requests for proposals are asking about green building practices, proving that clients are aware of the important trend. At a minimum, project clients, such as Phillips Exeter Academy (pictured under construction below), request that a waste management plan be incorporated into building construction or renovation.

According the to the U.S. Green Building Council, office buildings in the United States account for 36 percent of total energy use--surprisingly more than manufacturing plants--30 percent of greenhouse gas emissions and 30 percent of raw materials use. Additionally, construction debris output equals at least 136 million tons annually. Despite this statistic, this business group remains a laggard in the use of sustainable building practices. Compared to most industries, corporate America hasn't pushed for green elements in their renovations and build-outs as strongly as other building owners.

WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY

It's time for corporate America to demand green building in office construction. Companies are seeing brighter economic days ahead, and many are gobbling up office space to lock in good, and rising, rental rates.

According to the McGraw Hill Construction Industry Intelligence Report for the first time since 1998, construction of office buildings and renovation of existing space has risen, with growth expectations of almost 15 percent in 2006. This growth indicates that the environment is ripe for corporate building owners to consider incorporating green elements into construction plans.

Not only has the construction of new office buildings started to increase, existing tenants are finally leasing and renovating more space. Corporations are optimistic about a rise in new hires and will need space for the larger workforce. A corporation in Greater Boston leased twice as much office space as it currently requires and decided to renovate both portions for a quick conversion when additional workers are hired.

PAYBACK

Corporate America should go green not just for the environment, but also its wallet. Building green offers several economic benefits, ranging from lower building operating costs to state and federal authorized tax breaks for companies using renewable energy sources and cleaning up brownfields. As companies take more space--and invest to support renovation in the future--it makes sense to consider green building at the onset of construction projects. Green initiatives can be achieved from small projects, such as using environmentally friendly products and separating material for recycling purposes, to a large project focus on sustainable design to achieve LEED Certification.

One national study examined data for 100 green buildings in the United States to prove that investments in green building materials and initiatives were worth the initial costs. The study found that financial savings of green design are between $50 and $70 per square foot in LEED buildings, over 10 times the additional cost associated with building green. Benefits were achieved through reduced energy, water and waste; lower operations and maintenance costs; and enhanced occupant productivity and health.

Owners of buildings that house several different corporations impress their tenants with their progressive efforts to maintain a structure that is healthy for the people inside as well as for the environment outside. As competition for Class A office space again heats up across the nation, it's important for building owners to distinguish themselves from competitors to attract more tenants and keep buildings full--and have the buildings operating at vastly lower fuel costs.

Additionally, state and federal governments have started to offer tax breaks and other financial incentives to building owners that build green. For example, in order to entice building developers to consider environmental impact during site selection, many municipalities have declared site cleanup expenses as fully deductible for the year in which they are spent. When developers build on sites that were previously developed, damage to the environment is limited. Also, since buildings account for over a third of U.S. energy consumption, incentives and other assistance programs are offered to offset the cost of installing alternative energy systems.

SMALL STEPS, BIG DIFFERENCE

Some building owners are under the impression that green building would require major changes to building construction plans with a large initial investment. Though owners can opt to undergo a full-scale green construction project, specifically to achieve LEED Certification, even some smaller projects can make a substantial difference. The following quick tips provide a starting point for building owners who are interested in building green.

* Hire construction managers with green building expertise. In the past five years, certified membership in the U.S. Green Building Council has increased from 5,000 to more than 19,000 members. It is not uncommon for construction managers to have a LEED-Certified expert on staff to advise clients on incorporating green initiatives. A green certified professional can suggest simple project elements that can make a big difference.

* Allow time in your construction schedule for salvage and recycling. Properly disposing of or reusing construction material is one of the easiest ways to observe green building and achieve immediate benefits. As many corporate projects, particularly renovations, include an element of demolition, not only is sorting and recycling an easy step towards LEED Certification, it also makes good business sense. Builders and subcontractors should understand materials recovery and reuse techniques and know where to purchase and resell recycled building materials. Additionally, whenever possible, the construction team should sort salvaged materials on site using separate containers to reduce contamination.

* Insist on green products. With the increased attention on green building, more building material manufacturers are producing green products. The Forest Stewardship Council sells wood that is harvested using environmentally responsible foresting tactics. GreenGuard tests compounds such as paint and adhesive for volatile organic compound release that can be harmful to building occupants. Companies such as BioShield and Dunn-Edwards offer organic paint that emits fewer fumes. Also, EnergyStar sells roofing with solar reflection for alternative energy use. The price of these premium products continue to fall as they become more widely available.

RELATED ARTICLE: Following the LEEDs.

As a provider of roll-off containers and recycling options to contractors in the Atlanta area, Patterson Services, Mableton, Ga., pays Close attention to construction and demolition trends.

The company's Cynthia Poselenzny says what the Patterson Services is seeing is a fair amount of attention to the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) and its LEED system for filling out a scorecard of the environmental friendliness of building projects.

The USGBC LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) program provides contractors several ways to score environmental points, some involving energy efficiency or using recycled materials--and others involving recycling materials on the job site.

Poselenzny says Patterson Services has noticed an increasing number of requests by contractors to make sure it tracks the recycling rate of materials placed in its roll-off containers, as well as a greater interest in recycling services offered by the company.

In residential and mixed-use developments, Patterson can deploy a Packer 750 or Packer 1000 grinder made by affiliated company Packer Industries, also based in Mableton. The machine can grind up many types of materials and re-use them onsite as mulch, soil additive or as ground cover.

"We're seeing some changes happen very rapidly," says Poselenzny regarding the heightened interest of general contractors and their subcontractors toward recycling. "We've worked on 10 or 15 LEED projects in the Atlanta area," she notes.

Many customers are requesting diligent tracking of materials and techniques so they can have LEED-auditable proof to calculate a recycling rate, One recent example involved a Centers for Disease Control project that achieved a 79 percent rate, according to Poselenzny.

Beyond grinding materials on site, Poselenzny says Patterson Services is willing to help customers arrange for the recycling, re-use or resale of materials in a number of ways. "We like to get involved at the project planning stage and help figure out how things can best be recycled," says Poselenzny.

Patterson Services can help a project manager keep track weekly of where their recycling percentage stands, and help provide guidance toward the crucial tale end of a project when a lot of recyclable cardboard and other material must be rescued from disposal. "We have found that a customer can really ruin their ratio at the end if, in the rush to finish a project, employees just begin to dump a lot by weight into disposal containers."

Poselenzny says the LEED system is becoming well entrenched and that it behooves subcontractors to be aware of the requirements if they bid to be involved on a LEED job site. "As a subcontractor, if you are working on the job site and don't understand where your tonnage should be going, you may have a major mess on your hands and an unhappy general contractor," she warns.

--Brian Taylor CALIFORNIA UNVEILS GREEN BUILDING WEB SITE

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration has unveiled the "Green California" Web site, designed to help further knowledge in the state of green building practices.

The site includes guidelines, reference materials, engineering, data and environmentally friendly purchasing information to assist state and local government agencies and California businesses with the shift toward environmental sustainability.

"We believe this new Web site will become the primary 'go to' site--the new, centralized, electronic reference library--for engineers, architects, building managers, contractors, purchasing agents and other business and government officials and environmentalists in their quest for a green California," says State and Consumer Services Agency Secretary Rosario Marin.

The site, www.green.ca.gov, is focused primarily on two areas. It provides reference materials for the design, construction and operations of green buildings. It also provides government and business officials with information on environmentally friendly products and services, such as office supplies, paper products, office machines, building materials, etc.

More information on green building in California is available at www.green.ca.gov.

USGBC PREPARES FOR DENVER

Downtown Denver will serve as the home for the 2006 Greenbuild International Conference & Expo, taking place Nov. 15-17 at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver.

Last year's Greenbuild Expo was held in Portland, Ore., in early November. The event included some 90 educational sessions, 15 educational tracks with master speakers, plenary sessions, green building workshops and tours, receptions and nearly 580 exhibits filling 60,000 square feet of space, according to show organizers.

More than 10,000 people from 30 different nations were in attendance, including architects and engineers, facility managers, developers, contractors. builders, interior designers, federal, state, and local government employees and product manufacturers.

Among the topics discussed at sessions were ongoing changes to the LEED documentation and certification process.

A LEED certification plaque ceremony was also held, and 90 LEED-certified projects were recognized by Tom Hicks, the vice president of LEED, USGBC.

Updates and expansions on the LEED system will again be on the program for the 2006 event, according to show organizers.

The show's Web site includes a number of session topics that have already been selected as well as a registration form and information on conference hotels.

Additional information on the 2006 event will be posted as it becomes available to the event's Web site at www.greenbuildexpo.org.

The author is director of engineering services at Shawmut Design and Construction, a $500 million construction services firm headquatered in Boston. He is also a LEED-accredited professional. He can be reached at [phone] or [e-mail].