Leadership of BOMA International is advancing its troops on a variety of fronts. But regardless of the issue— whether it be energy efficiency, carried interest or mandated sustainability thresholds—one overarching goal guides the group's efforts: to increase the freedom and capability of its 17,000 members in 93 local associations to chart their own course for success.

A prime case is the Obama Administration's Better Buildings Initiative, launched early last year in part to make commercial properties 20% more efficient by 2020. "It makes sense and it dovetails nicely with the BOMA Seven-Point Challenge," comments president and COO Henry Chamberlain, explaining that the goal of the challenge actually exceeds the Obama plan both in terms of threshold percentage and timeframe, seeking a 30% reduction by the end of this year.

But the two programs are not totally aligned, and as chairman Boyd R. Zoccola explains, a major sticking point comes in the incentives the government program sets out. "We'd like to see more robust and reasonable incentives," he says, holding up the Empire State Building's recent $13-million energy retrofit as a prime example. Zoccola, who is also EVP at the Indianapolisbased Hokanson Cos., says that while the retrofit "hit the ball out of the park," and cut consumption by over 40%, the upgrades didn't qualify for a single federal tax incentive. "The bar is simply set too high."

Joseph W. Markling, who takes over when Zoccola's term ends during the BOMA Every Building Conference & Expo in Seattle this June (see sidebar, Page 68), says the impact of toohigh thresholds will be lack of interest. Even arbitrary standards sound good to the untrained ear, he says, "and the incentives sound like a lot of money. But we need incentives that are meaningful and substantial. Otherwise, if people know they can't get to 40%, they simply won't try. Incentives have to work for both sides. Every building is different."

"Depending on your portfolio, your tenant mix and the type and age of the buildings, there can be a lot of solutions to produce a high-performance product," agrees Chamberlain. "There are a lot of ways to get that done—Energy Star, LEED, the BOMA 360 program and all sorts of management practices you can leverage up. But to make any one of them a generic bar for the industry to clear just doesn't make sense."

The BOMA leaders have mounted a major initiative to alert legislators as to why the industry finds it difficult to take advantage of the program, as well as to increase the incentives and to decrease the payback period. As a corollary to that, the association is also wary of recent moves to make energy efficiency a state-by-state mandate.

"We're not big fans of mandates," says Markling, managing director of strategic accounts for CBRE in Camarillo, CA. "We're fans of cooperation and understanding. If there is a focus on this at the state or federal level, then it has to be done in cooperation with the people who are most affected. We're businesspeople, and if we can deliver our product with the service levels the tenants want and be competitive for 10 cents a foot cheaper than the next guy, we win huge. We're already incentivized by the capitalistic nature of what we do."

As with the Better Buildings Initiative, one of the problems with mandates is that they cut with too wide a blade. A recent New York City requirement that owners benchmark their buildings by energy usage illustrates both the point at hand and how the association fights for its members. While most multi-tenant buildings are fairly straightforward, how do you provide benchmarks for mixed-use properties where managers might not have access to individual meters? Zoccola says that during his term the association lobbied tirelessly and successfully for "aggregate, whole-building information so they can properly benchmark their buildings."

BOMA's initiatives, of course, range far beyond energy and sustainability, and the group is standing shoulder-to-shoulder with other industry associations, including the Real Estate Roundtable and NAREIT, in the ongoing carried interest battle. "BOMA directly represents about a million jobs, plus we house 21 million office workers," says Chamberlain. "At a time when the government is so focused on job creation, this would be terribly disruptive to the real estate marketplace. We banded together with a host of industry groups and went public with a heavy lobbying and ad campaign to make that statement."

Obviously the issue is still in play, and the groups continue their fight. Zoccola, for one, can speak personally to carried interest's potential impact. "It's an important tool for my development business and how we structure ownership entities. Equity participation is on the rise as lenders become more conservative. So carried interest is an important tool to smaller companies that are not institutional owners."

With stocks or bonds, "There are no jobs that stay when those gains are made," adds Markling. But real estate is an ongoing enterprise. "There's a product left over. The jobs and the asset in which investment groups can invest are still there. But government broad-brushes everything and penalizes everyone."

The carried interest debate, as with sustainability and performance thresholds, will be ongoing conversations for BOMA, both on Capitol Hill and within the ranks of its own community. So will a variety of other topics, from technology to new methods of work and tenants' changing demands on their workspaces. But they all come down to one of the platforms Markling will stand on as his term commences: to "help our locals promote the tools that will benefit their members." And through these tools, help those members "build a thriving business community."

These tools include, but are certainly not limited to, such initiatives as the BOMA 360 program and the Experience Exchange Report. "We look at our role as bundling our products to help our locals share and build their memberships," he says. Proper and complete use of these tools, he affirms, is the best way "to build a strong business environment for our locals."

For years now, the industry has been on a rollercoaster of rapid change. We saw it as the recession rolled over us and now as it regains its strength. Staying ahead of the issues is key to maintaining relevance for any association, especially after the drooping membership that all trade groups suffered in the depths of the downturn. BOMA was no different, weathering a 5.7% slippage in 2009. The tide has clearly started to turn, and membership slipped only 1.5% in 2010 and a mere 0.9% in 2011.

As the membership continues to rebound against the backdrop of a slowly returning economy and a slew of massive global changes, the leadership of BOMA sees—and is seizing— the opportunity. "It's a great time to help our members figure out where the industry is going," states Chamberlain. "It's a challenge, but it keeps the adrenaline going."