Businesses growing green

Businesses growing green

Written by Tiffany Young Thursday, 24 April 2008

City initiatives keep businesses on the green track

 

With IBM Tivoli Systems, Inc. on Burnet Road being the first Austin company to earn Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification in 2002, Northwest Austin businesses have been progressive in their efforts to go green.

While IBM voluntarily planned its green building projects, the increase in Northwest Austin businesses is mainly due to regulations by the city for certain developments.

City regulation for development

In a survey conducted by the City of Austin, residents said they believe individuals have the highest responsibility for lessening global warming, followed by business and industry. However, the majority of respondents also believed the city should establish laws, building codes and requirements protecting the environment.

“When the various [City of Austin] boards and commissions started requiring green building ratings for different growth areas in town, that’s when you saw a lot of people beginning to participate,” Sue Barnett, who founded Austin’s Commercial Green Building Program, said. “It was the requirement factor instead of the incentive factor [that made businesses develop green buildings].”

One such development that must meet certain green guidelines provided by the city is The Domain. Barnett, now an independent LEED and green building consultant, is working with developers of The Domain’s Whole Foods and office tower on obtaining LEED certification.

“The planning department wants to encourage people to build in certain places,” Barnett said. “If they’re trying to build in some sort of threatened place or a place where it’s got a fragile habitat, then they’ll require a LEED or green building rating.”

LEED certification

Going green is becoming the expected way to do business, making it necessary to establish standards for environmentally friendly businesses and development projects. While concerned citizens could take a builder’s word for it that they are being environmentally sound, they no longer have to. A third party certification program, LEED, has become the nationally accepted benchmark of high performance green buildings.

According to the U.S. Green Building Council, LEED certification is a Green Building Rating System developed by an open, consensus-based process led by LEED committees. Projects are awarded on a point system based on sustainability, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, materials and resources, indoor environmental quality and innovation and design process.

The IBM/Tivoli project earned LEED certification and a four-star rating out of a possible five stars from Austin’s Green Building Program, earning a spot in Forbe’s “World’s Greenest Office Buildings” for sustainable design in July 2006.

Big business

Whole Foods recently announced it would do away with plastic bags in all of its stores by this week, in honor of Earth Day. It is the first U.S. supermarket to completely eliminate disposable plastic bags.

Earlier this month, Dell Inc. announced that it is increasing its green power use, supplied by Waste Management and TXU Energy Wind Power, at its Parmer Campus from eight to 17 percent and its 2.1 million sq. ft. headquarters campus to 100 percent.

“It’s time for our industry to take a lead role in creating a clean energy future,” Paul Bell, president of Dell Inc. said. “Powering an entire campus with green power is an important step in becoming the greenest technology company on the planet and the right thing to do for our shared earth. At the same time, we’re using green technology to drive operating expense down.”

Businesses benefit

Gary Liss, a consultant hired by the City of Austin to come up with a zero waste plan for the city, backs up Dell’s theory that saving the planet can save money.

The Planning Group of the Zero Waste International Alliance defines zero waste as a goal to guide people to emulate sustainable natural cycles, where all discarded materials are resources for others to use. Zero waste means designing and managing products and processes to reduce the volume and toxicity of waste and materials, conserve and recover all resources and not burn or bury them.

“Every business we’ve worked with has saved money,” Liss said at a recent Austin zero waste plan meeting. “Zero waste is the only sustainability measure that has a 90 percent threshold, and it gets people to record what they’re doing.”

Part of the consultant process includes determining which businesses in the area are already practicing zero waste. Local businesses Liss is looking into to see if they fit the bill are: Dell, Applied Materials, Goodwill Computer Systems, TRIAD Recycling, Balcones Recycling, Allied Recycling, Barr Mansion and Habitat Suites.

When Liss asked Bank of America, which is already practicing many Zero Waste principles, what other benefits businesses could expect from zero waste practices, they said reducing liability, avoiding penalties, benefiting from incentives and marketing their business as “green” were among the greatest benefits.

Rebates

Some small businesses are seeing the savings and marketing benefits as well.

Michael Bass opened fitness franchise Max Muscle, November 2007, in the Randall’s Shopping Center at the corner of Research Boulevard and Braker Lane. When Austin Energy approached Bass about replacing his lighting with efficient lighting, he took them up on the offer.

“It wasn’t particularly expensive, and in the long run, it will save some money,” Bass said. “In this day and age, it’s just smart to let people know you’re concerned in helping save the Earth.”

Bass made sure to get a sticker to display in his window to let customers know he was participating in the program.

Austin Energy offsets most of the cost with their small business lighting program, in which they send a certified lighting contractor to do a complete audit of the facility and provide a comprehensive proposal that outlines the cost of the lighting retrofit, the amount Austin Energy will cover and anticipated energy savings.

“I got the price at cost for doing it,” Bass said. “The energy saving device was free.”

Whether looking for a home, doing business, eating out or remodeling a home, residents have abundant green choices in Northwest Austin.

Northwest Austin’s first LEED building IBM Tivoli Systems, Inc.

• 200,000 sq. ft.
• Completed January 2002
• LEED certified
• Four-star rating from Austin Energy Green Building Program
• Recognized in Forbe’s top ten greenest buildings
• One hundred percent of energy usage by windpower

Green building program beginnings

Austin’s Green Building Program predates all other green building programs in the nation. In 1992, the Austin Green Building Program won the United Nation’s Government Honors Award at the Earth Summit.

Sue Barnett had worked with several environmental organizations when she began working with the city on energy audits in the environmental department. Barnett began Austin’s Commercial Green Building Program and started offering large rebates. After not seeing an increase in companies taking advantage of the program, some city departments decided to make it a requirement in certain areas to build green. If businesses wanted to develop near preserved land, they would have to meet green requirements.

Today, there are three options for green building for Austin companies: LEED certified, Austin’s Green Energy Program rating, or both.

In the beginning, the Green Building Program only offered advice on building green, but when the residential rating system took off, the commercial Green Building Program decided to incorporate ratings, as well.

“Americans are just inherently competitive is what I think, and they just really want to brag about how much better they do than their neighbor,” Barnett said. “It also allows structure to a concept that seems pretty nebulous. If you’re just saying green building, it’s kind of hard to understand what that really means, so having that sort of rating will just have a basic comparison.”

Barnett, a charter member of the U.S. Green Building Council and a member of the Sustainable Building Coalition, is now a sustainable design specialist that helps businesses become LEED and Green Building rated.

There are also cash incentives based on ratings. For a map of Green Building projects in Austin, visit www.austinenergy.com/go/greenmap.