Five Ways to Save through Sustainability in Commercial Design in 2021
In the commercial real estate industry, “sustainability” and “green building” have been buzzwords for more than a decade. Ask any developer: they would likely love to invest in and be recognized for greener building practices. But, more often than not, the ultimate driver behind decisions made on building materials, footprints, and construction methods comes down to the impacts on the project’s bottom line, not the impacts on the planet.
However, there has been a wave of innovations in the commercial building sector over the past ten years that are starting to change that trend. If you’re a commercial real estate broker, commercial developer, commercial builder, or real estate investor, keep reading to discover five accessible ways for you to go green, while “saving green.”
Whether planning a new development, adaptive repurposing an old structure, or even renovating a current commercial building, consider incorporating the following materials and practices into your next project to benefit the planet without sacrificing profitability:
- Start with Passive Energy Design
When incorporated correctly from the get-go in your build or remodel, passive energy design can lead to hundreds of thousands of dollars of savings over the lifetime of your building. Passive design is nothing new — in fact, architects and builders have been doing it without knowing it for centuries. However, this age-old principle is often overlooked when creating commercial properties in place of factors such as roadways, views, and site composition.
The first thing to consider in your passive design is climate: if you’re building in a cold or seasonal climate, you may want to position your design in such a way to take advantage of natural heat from sunlight, whereas a hot climate building will benefit more from the natural shade. Working with the right architecture and engineering teams is crucial to ensure your structure takes advantage of the earth’s natural environment, costing you less to heat and cool your building in the long run.
2. Invest in Solar Power
Installing solar panels on a commercial building usually requires a significant upfront investment, however, especially in sunny areas of the U.S. such as Florida, Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, California, and others, commercial property owners can see a rapid return on investment. Not only can solar panels reduce or eliminate electricity costs for a commercial building, but there is also additional hidden profit potential. For instance, many projects using solar panels can qualify for Federal or state-level grants or tax credits to offset the cost of installation. In addition, excess solar energy created by the panels can often be resold to local power companies, creating a passive stream of income for your business.
3. Go Low-Flow on Water Fixtures
On average, a large office building can use more than 20,000 gallons of water a day. That’s an average of 50 gallons per worker. Not only can installing low-flow water appliances such as sinks, toilets, and dishwashers help conserve our earth’s clean water supply, these modern fixtures can save you serious money. According to the EPA, commercial buildings that installed low-flow toilets alone reported savings of 20% annually on utility costs.
Faucets are another easy place to create savings; you can retrofit existing faucets with aerators in order to lessen the flow of water. This is especially important for sensor-activated faucets, which tend to use more water than manual faucets.
4. Consider a Distributed Energy System (DES)
Distributed Energy Systems (DES) have gained popularity in the green building community in recent years for a variety of reasons, not least of which is their ability to salvage “lost” or “wasted” energy from power systems inside large buildings. A DES brings together multiple power systems into a singularly powered system, usually fueled by a combination of traditional and renewable energy sources.
For example, a traditional energy system would have a separate grid for heat and electricity, but with a DES, both heat and electricity would run off of the same system, often powered by a combination of solar, wind, hydroelectric, or natural gas, and a more traditional power source such as a fossil fuel power plant. All of these power sources, as well as the power outputs, are connected to a microcontroller that regulates the blend of energy sources and outputs for maximum environmental, and cost-efficiency.
5. Choose Renewable Materials
Bamboo is one such material that has been rapidly gaining in popularity over the past decade. In addition to its strength and durability — allowing it to serve as a replacement for elements such as hardwood flooring or wall paneling — bamboo is fairly inexpensive. According to TheSpruce.com, “Hardwood flooring costs roughly $4 to $8 per square foot for standard materials, such as hard maple or red oak, while more unusual hardwoods can cost upwards of $10 per square foot. Bamboo flooring has an average price of about $3.80 per square foot, within a range of $2 to $5 per square foot.”
Bamboo gets its points for sustainability due to the fact that it is technically a grass, not a tree, and grows to full maturity in a span of several years, meaning it can be replanted and grown again much more easily than hardwood forests.
Recycled plastic is another material that is being incorporated into many different design elements. According to Green Building Solutions, the use of recycled plastics instead of other less-efficient building materials in construction saved more than 467.2 trillion Btu’s of energy over the course of one year, which is enough to power households in 11 out of 50 states for an entire year. Recycled plastic is being used to create roofing tiles, flooring, windows, and is even being used to make stronger versions of cement.
If your project is a housing, hospitality, or office concept, consider incorporating reclaimed materials into the interior design, not only for sustainability but to create a warm and cultured aesthetic. Reclaimed items such as wood beams, windows, glass, tile, and other elements lend commercial spaces character that is impossible to replicate with newly constructed counterparts. When looking to source reclaimed materials, start locally, in order to cut down on any shipping and transportation costs and environmental impacts as well.
In addition to the ways listed above, sustainability is increasingly leading to long-term profitability for developers and investors. Buildings with a LEED or other green certification are estimated to increase in value at a rate of 20% more year-over-year than their non-green competitors. As our society evolves and values shift towards environmentally-friendly practices across all elements of life, there will be a higher premium on the spaces we inhabit that follow suit. Thankfully, what’s good for our planet can also be good for your business.
For sustainable investment opportunities or development guidance, contact us today at www.metro1.com.
