Whether they are property owners or tenants, many organizations are taking steps to green their commercial real estate. What fewer organizations are doing is measuring and tracking the success of their sustainability initiatives. But it’s a practice that is gaining traction and therefore growing increasingly important, argues Adolfo Silva, principal, Ecovert Sustainability Consultants.
“What we’re really looking for now is a way to measure and quantify our success, and metrics-based sustainability is a way to discover opportunities to take sustainability to the next level,” he said.
Silva made his case recently at IFMA Toronto’s FM Education Day, in a session called Facility Management – Metrics-Based Sustainability. He cited regulatory compliance as being among the factors driving organizations to track and report on their sustainability initiatives, pointing to the move by some U.S. jurisdictions to mandate energy and water use reporting as an example.
Other metrics that may be tracked include greenhouse gas emissions and waste diversion rates.
One of the questions organizations confront in getting started is how to benchmark and calculate data in the absence of a single, broadly accepted industry standard, Silva said. Further barriers are the need to implement technology such as meters, train staff, standardize data between departments or collect data from multiple tenants, he added.
Silva recommended getting started with self-education, by consulting resources such as Real Property Association of Canada (REALpac), and following established programs, such as Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED).
The latter is precisely what Dream Unlimited did at 438 University Ave., in partnership with its anchor tenant, LoyaltyOne.
Case study
In 2010, Dream Unlimited (formerly Dundee Realty) decided to pursue LEED Gold for Existing Buildings: Operations and Maintenance (EB:O&M) at 438 University Ave., a 322,423-square-foot building that combines office and retail space.
For the property owner, the move was seen as one that would contribute to its corporate social responsibility, cost efficiencies, competitiveness in the marketplace and tenant retention, said Jeff Hufnagel, supervisor, building operations.
“If the tenant sees that you’re being socially responsible, not only on a corporate level, but also on an environmental level, the tenant’s more apt to feel that you have their best interests at heart,” he said.
Dream’s initiative involved extensive sub-metering of gas, water and power; boiler plant replacement; a lighting retrofit; domestic water and plumbing retrofits; and variable speed motor control. The company is still in the process of obtaining LEED certification at 438 University Ave., but already, these measures have helped hike the building’s ENERGY STAR rating from 52 to 84. They have also led to a 17-per-cent improvement in the building’s energy efficiency.
Improved tenant satisfaction has since been reflected in tenant surveys, Hufnagel said. Of Dream’s 19 tenants at 438 University Ave., anchor tenant LoyaltyOne occupies approximately 60 per cent of the building.
Jeremiah Brenner, manager, corporate responsibility, LoyaltyOne, said developing sustainability initiatives was a strategic imperative for his organization, identifying LEED as a great way to support green spaces. Energy, air quality and building efficiency were areas of particular concern for LoyaltyOne.
At 438 University Ave., Brenner’s organization has not only worked with Dream on the LEED initiative, but has also conducted internal metric-tracking. Annual energy audits, for example, revealed that, in 2013, LoyaltyOne reduced its total energy consumption by 7.8 per cent, resulting in a decrease in total energy cost of 4.2 per cent. Another internal initiative has been to move to daytime cleaning so lights can be turned off earlier.
For the tenant, the sustainability initiative was seen as one that would contribute to lowering operating costs, employee recruitment and retention, and a healthier environment for building occupants, he said.
“Communication and information sharing are key to this,” Brenner said. “A lot of the time, LEED EB:O&M, I’ve noticed, is behind the scenes — the replacement of the chillers and the boilers and all the things that we’ve talked about — so employees taking up that space don’t really see it happening, and to their knowledge, the building’s running as it’s always been.”
The benefits of sustainability initiatives can be shared through digital signage and internal organization newsletters.
“LEED EB:O&M’s a great way of helping to reduce your footprint and actually get some metrics in place as a foundation for sustainable programs in your company,” he said.
Michelle Ervin is the editor of Canadian Facility Management & Design.
