From Simple to Sophisticated:Strategies to 'Green' Buildings

The Buildings Owners and Manager Association International reports the commercial real estate industry spends approximately $24 billion each year on energy and contributes 18% of US carbon dioxide emissions.

• Energy represents the single largest controllable operating expense for office buildings, typically a third of variable expenses.
• Office buildings account for nearly 20% of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States.
• If only 2,000 buildings adopt BEEP’s no- and low-cost best practices over the next three years, energy consumption and carbon emissions will be reduced by 10%–creating $400 million in energy savings and a 6.6-billion pound drop in carbon dioxide.

An ever-expanding universe of products is available to create green commercial space. At a conference on green solutions in April sponsored by the National Association for Industrial and Office Properties, vendors gave more than 400 developers from the US and Canada a look at the latest energy efficient systems and sustainable solutions.

Participants included Jessup, MD-based Tate’s Building Technology’s under-floor air-delivery system that reportedly can reduce energy costs by up to 50%, a high recycle-and-post-consumer-content carpet-tile system from La Grange, GA ‘s InterfaceFLOR and a demountable architectural wall system called Altos from Teknion in Toronto, Ontario.