When it comes to including green, sustainable components in renovations of aged buildings, sometimes the aphorism holds true – you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.

Often, the upfront costs to upgrade existing structures with the environment in mind can far outweigh the benefits to a property owner who cannot wait five or 10 years for the payback in efficiency. And if tenants are not pushing for a more eco-friendly working environment, anyway, what’s the point?

In many cases, especially for Fortune 500 companies and other large corporate employers or institutions, their tenants and employees are the point. They have the leverage to push hard for green buildings against big landlords that can afford the expense and want to retain their highest-profile renters.

An example of this “bigger is better” approach can be found in the recent construction of tax and auditing firm KPMG’s 96,000-square-foot offices at Boston’s Two Financial Center property, owned by Lincoln Property Co. The project achieved a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold certification, the second-highest rating offered by the U.S. Green Building Council.

“Larger [landlords] can afford to spend the money on LEED certification because they charge higher rents,” and have the money to spend, said Steven Brooks, vice president of Berkeley Investments in charge of asset management.

Who Needs LEED?

On a typical 200,000-square-foot building, the entire process for LEED certification – which includes commissioning by a LEED expert to ensure systems operate efficiently – generally costs half of one percent of construction expenses, or a quarter of 1 percent for each step.

While commissioning costs can vary, construction costs on a building that size range from $150 to $200 per square foot. Using the more conservative $150, the price just to test the systems and get the certificate would total about $150,000, according to information provided by James Batchelor, president of Cambridge-based architecture firm Arrowstreet.

But smaller landlords beget smaller tenants. Most of Berkeley’s tenants occupy between 5,000 and 20,000 square feet in Class B buildings in Boston’s downtown area, according to Brooks. He said it’s simply not on those companies’ radar to pay the higher rents that would result from costly, green renovations. Berkeley does have a few renewable energy companies on its tenant roster, Brooks said – and even they are not pushing for LEED certification.

Some of Berkeley’s buildings do have eco-friendly components that are part of the LEED-certification checklist – including energy efficient lighting with motion sensors, bike racks and/or a rooftop garden. But Berkeley’s properties are not LEED certified, and what’s more, their tenants know those kinds of comprehensive upgrades would drive up rents.

Still, strict LEED certification is not necessarily required for maintaining an eco-friendly property.

“If somebody does all the things that enable you to get LEED certification, but not actually get the certification, the only thing LEED does extra is it tells people that [the property owner] cares about the environment,” Arrowstreet’s Batchelor told Banker & Tradesman. “It reminds [the public] that taking care of the environment is important to another person, and they recognize the importance of it.”

“But people are very mindful of every extra cost,” he continued. “Some of the [green components] you might put on the list to do might not have a quick enough payback for commercial owners.”

Challenges Of Age

There are “a fair amount of people” that share the goals of energy efficiency, but choose not to spend money getting a space LEED-certified, Batchelor said. That doesn’t stop them from making the extra effort to improve air quality and efficiency in their properties. Those owners can also benefit from a lack of public scrutiny, as students and workers at high-profile universities or large corporations sometimes demand to study or work in green buildings.

But Batchelor said in general, he agreed with Brooks – few Class B building owners will go through with full LEED-certification because of the costs, although they will make some inexpensive upgrades.

“We’ve done lighting upgrades with timers, initiated green product standards with vendors and put single stream recycling into some buildings,” said Stephen Brodsky, COO of Synergy Investment and Development, which operates a portfolio of Class B assets in Cambridge and Boston. “The challenge with our buildings is a lot of them are older, and to meet some of the LEED standards is incredibly difficult given the costs.”

For new construction or major rehab projects of more than 50,000 square feet in Boston, City Hall mandates those buildings are required to be LEED-certifiable, though the city does not require owners to get the actual certificate.

Jim Hunt, the city’s chief of environmental and energy services, said many developers – and their marketing teams – are going above the base requirement set by the city because they view the LEED approvals as a marketing tool.

“Once developers get a taste for it, they see actually meeting the minimum standards isn’t that tough, and it doesn’t take too much to go higher,” he said.