The Boston Redevelopment Authority is contemplating a widening of its green building zoning code to include smaller projects, potentially requiring all new construction of 20,000 square feet and more to be LEED-certifiable, a senior BRA architect said Wednesday morning.
John Dalzell, an official on Boston’s green building task force, told an Urban Land Institute forum that the task force is "looking at dropping the bar" on the city’s LEED zoning code. Currently, Boston zoning requires that projects 50,000 square feet and more be LEED certifiable.
LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, a national designation given by the U.S. Green Building Council to only the "greenest," most sustainable buildings.
Dalzell said the change in the first-in-the-nation green zoning code is one of several measures the BRA and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino are considering as they look to push sustainability forward. They’re also examining a performance benchmarking system similar to the one being pushed on the federal level by Congressman Ed Markey. The city is looking to keep up with sustainability initiatives in cities like San Francisco, Seattle and Chicago, Dalzell said.
"It’s good, healthy regulatory competition," said Dalzell. "It’s part of our competitive practice. [Sustainable benchmarking] matters to corporations, institutions and individuals. In this economy, it’s more important than ever."
Dan Probst, commercial brokerage Jones Lang LaSalle’s chairman of energy and sustainability services, also told the ULI group the economic downturn has forced institutional real estate investors who had been "a little slower to come to the table" to contemplate overhauling their buildings’ energy systems.
"There’s been a very dramatic shift in the last six months," Probst said. "There’s been a tremendous increase in interest on the investor side. Today, it’s all about saving money. Energy has risen to the top of the list."
He added that property owners have begun using building vacancies as an opportunity to initiate energy projects and reposition assets as LEED properties.
Probst pointed to the example set by the Empire State Building in New York. Jones Lang LaSalle recently helped the owner of the landmark building overhaul its energy use. The firm is estimating the project will save the building $4.4 million on its annual $11 million energy bill. Much of the work involved window replacement, HVAC overhaul, daylighting and insulation.
"Nothing is very high tech about any of this," Probst said. "The things that get the headlines are the new buildings, but if we’re really going to have an impact, we’ve got to make an impact on existing buildings. That’s where a lot of the opportunity is going forward."
