GlobeSt.com: What are you seeing as the largest challenge? The size? The accessibility of sustainable material?

Bonifay: There are a number of them. I think the biggest challenge today has been the economy and the lack of capital and so that has put on hold a lot of new construction. What we are seeing though is there has been financing available for a lot of folks out there, especially in office space. If you want to have class A office space, people believe that they have to green their buildings if they want to stay competitive in the leasing market, but I think everything has come down to the availability of capital.

I don't think on the materials side that that is as big a problem here in the US than it may be in some of these international developing markets, where they may not have access to those materials yet. But it requires a whole new approach to the development process. In a way its thinking about things, all the way from the engineers to the architects to the general contractor to the vendors that are supplying the materials. And a different way of building and maintaining things onsite. So it's a whole continuum.

That in turn has fueled the whole certification process through groups like US Green Buildings Coalition, etc. So, you now are seeing more requirements for certification for all types of professionals that are involved, because if you want to get a certification for a building, you need to be planning it that way from the very beginning. So that you get the required number of points and you can get to that level of certification.

Economic incentives are important, because of the lack of capital in the market. I'm part of an economic incentives group at the firm seeing how we can layer federal or state programs together to make the difference in financing the necessary money to move a project forward or not.

GlobeSt.com: Do you think the economy is driving more sustainable practices?

Bonifay: Yes. This is an interesting thing when we did a national real estate summit in March and we did some surveying of our audience, because we were seeing other national reports that were saying they really thought the cost of going green was a deterrent. Our participants really did not feel that way. They thought the energy savings and the benefit to the bottom line were actually driving them to undertake the sustainable development practices because it just made good business sense and the difference in cost was very minimal.

When you look at the payback, the timeframe has gotten much shorter. Originally people would be talking about it being $10-$15 more per square foot and you'll get it back over 15-20 years. Now you're talking about cents per square foot with a payback of 3-5 years.

GlobeSt.com: It's still been hard to figure out the monetary value of it in the short term. How do you find that price point to green a building?

Bonifay: What's necessary is to get the data and information out; so that there's enough of a history and a timeline on these projects that they can actually determine what is that dollar value. The other thing is the Department of Energy has a huge program now. And they're looking at just analyzing the metrics of in a commercial marketplace. USGBC is tied into that. We're getting that data in that's going to convince the average landlord out there that this does make good sense. With CBRE or JLL, they manage millions of square feet around the globe and they have bought into this whole heartedly and are actually providing a training component through one of their key folks who goes out to work with various developers. I think we've just been behind the curve a little bit in Florida.

GlobeSt.com: You said FLA seems to be behind some of the other out-front states, why do you think Florida is dragging its heels?

Bonifay: CA is having a lot more work at the local level, but also at a state level where there's legislation that requires certain standards. We've seen that more in Virginia, Maryland, New York because they are a huge city-state, but they have fostered legislation in the past. We aren't seeing that at the state level in Florida. But we are seeing a lot of interesting initiatives that are coming out of local governments. And b/c it's the right thing to do, right here in Orange County, they have an Orange to Green initiative, a lot of local governments are doing their own regulation.

GlobeSt.com: So, at more statewide initiatives, you're looking at more city and district-based initiatives.

Bonifay: Yes, in the state there has been some money out there, but not as much because in the past everyone wanted to be in Florida, so we didn't have to worry about some of the economic incentives that have been a big component of development in the northeast and the Atlantic coast, primarily.

GlobeSt.com: Do you think it's essential to have controls that monitor savings so they can immediately measure metrics?

Bonifay: Yes, I think that's going to be the next step because I don't think it can be "I think we're doing this amount." Right now we're seeing the ability to actually monitor that, so that companies can see how much more energy efficient they are.

There are also companies out there that are specializing in this because they come in and do an analysis of your existing building and they tell you what's needed, then they give you their projection on your cost savings and they're only going to get paid unless you realize those savings.

Some things are easier to do than others. The energy area is easier to measure, but another whole component is production of workers based on the space that they're in or the light allowed into the building. The Hearst Building in New York City was a huge undertaking and they fit a new structure over a historic structure, so there were a lot more complications, but they've actually put in the measurements and the metrics, that building has been open three years now…and they were on our green panel saying, "I'm not one of these goofy environmental guys, I'm a businessman and this is what it has meant for us." And even showing what it's done for employee productivity. Investments are in people, but if you can get them less sick days, but that's harder to measure.

GlobeSt.com: There are some buildings going out of date, big box retailers that have gone out of business and outdated industrial buildings. Do you see more of this becoming conversions or do you see more knocking these buildings down and putting up new sustainable buildings?

Bonifay: I think that's the real question right now. That is the equation that a number of these folks are going through. "Do I do the renovation and do it as a sustainable building" b/c I think most people believe that that's where the money is and that's what tenants are going to want. Or really sit down and pencil it out, should they redo what they've got or knock it down because it's so antiquated and not appropriate for a retrofit. And just start over with a LEED certified shell and let the tenants get a LEED certified interior and let them finish it out.

And I think in a number of cases, if the location is right and the value is in the property, then it may be more cost effective to knock down the building and start over…. Retrofit where it makes sense where you have that property values. I think that's what you're seeing with a lot of the new stuff overseas and that's what you're seeing in India and China right now. I think it's the underlying value of the property and the location, which is in large part going to drive that decision. The age and the quality of the construction.