MyNewPlace Blog

The notably progressive major metropolitan centers of the American northwest (San Francisco, Portland and Seattle) all have drawn up plans to green over central parts of their cities. Moving beyond the concept of isolated LEED certified buildings, these cities are planning to maximize sustainability initiatives by introducing ways that adjacent buildings can use collaborative green technologies to become more efficient.

This ambitious new brand of urban renewal, though still theoretical, would essentially establish eco-districts (referred to as 'sustainability districts in Portland and ‘climate benefit districts in Seattle), that we picture as open air green houses connected by water park like grey water systems and dotted with futuristic windmills and plated with solar panels. This would be really cool looking, resembling an outdoor botanical garden that was useful or an urban Swiss Family Robinson neighborhood.

San Francisco's plan, announced around this time last year, has yet to get off the ground; bids for solar panels to be placed atop City Hall (domed building at the left of the plaza) will be sought before November this year, which are predicted to produce 5 percent of that buildings annual electricity needs. The completed plan (for the whole Civic Center area) hopes to reduce water use by 80 percent, energy by 33 percent and greenhouse gas emissions by 2,225 tons and is part of a partnership with the Clinton Global Initiative.

In Portland, two pilot projects have been proposed to create sustainability districts, one at Portland State University and one in the Lloyd neighborhood. The proposals for these plans, helmed by SERA Architects, include community-based thermal systems, such as hot water heaters for multiple buildings and designing a system to deliver rain water from all buildings to those that use it most. For example, at Portland State University, dorms would be able to use run off from neighboring buildings for use in their many and often used dorm toilets.

These plans use the idea of sharing community resources to maximize efficiency. Just as it is cheaper and more efficient to power 100 apartments than 100 standalone homes and just as it is cheaper to cook food for 4 people rather than cook for 1, these cities hope that buildings can act much in the same way, pooling their resources to provide cheaper and more efficient ways to power their communities.

Would you look for an apartment in an eco/sustainability/climate benefit -district? Can owners or employees of apartments see significant problems with being part of an “energy-community?"

Yesterday, we posted an article in our Apartment Guide about a creative way to bring the outdoors inside apartments. The indoor vertical wall garden is just about as cool a way of decorating your apartment as shag carpeting and Absolut Vodka ads.

As briefly described in that article, (so I'll expound here) my apartment in San Francisco has this room in between the kitchen and the family room that reasonable people would consider the dining room and furnish with a large dinner table. We actually had a few ideas for this room, one of the more interesting ones consisted of making it into kind of a little personal cafe with 2 or 3 small tables around the perimeter of the room, an old record player in the corner, and some kind of beaded entranceway. Eventually, however, we turned it into a makeshift greenhouse, with a wide variety of plants. Frequent guests are asked to kindly bring a plant in exchange for temporary lodging.

Since plants are a great way to keep apartments healthy by oxygenation, filtering out chemicals from the air and keeping temperature and humidity stable, they are always good to have around an apartment, or any building for that matter. In fact, a video presentation from the TED lecture series elaborated upon how the inclusion of nearly 60,000 plants of 3 different species of plants in an office building in New Delhi was extremely effective in mitigating the harmful respiratory effects of that city's polluted air.

That presentation recommended 3 types of plants, the Areca Palm, which produces oxygen during the daytime, Mother-in-law's Tongue, which produces oxygen at night and the Money Plant, which effectively filters formaldehyde out of the air.

Even if your apartment was somehow encapsulated in an airtight envelope, if you had (for each person) 4 Areca Palms and 6 Mother-in-Law's Tongue plants, they would be able to convert enough C02 to oxygen for you to survive indefinitely. Here is a short video explaining the project at the Paharpu Business Centre in New Delhi:

We thought that it would be a great idea for leasing agents or property managers to either put a few plants in each new apartment unit, or have a nice little greenhouse or catalogue for new renters to pick from. It may sound like such a simple idea, but our whole apartment gets really excited when we get a new plant and the mass of green expands a little bit more.

Of course, if you want to get really fancy, installing some vertical wall gardens in apartments, or offering that as a feature could be a great way to market your apartment community's emphasis on going green. Our favorite vertical wall garden product is definitely the Woolly Pocket Garden Company. Check out their site for more info.

Last week, the city of Los Angeles passed new regulation designed to reduce the amount of water buildings use each day. Now, new buildings, which include Los Angeles apartments, will be required to install low-flow faucets, toilets and shower heads and some ancillary plumbing equipment that will help reduce water usage.

This new law joins other conservation measures already on the books such as a citywide recycling program for apartments, and last year's requirement that all projects above 49,999 square feet or apartments over 49 units must comply with a general LEED-certified standard. To get a somewhat clearer idea of what it means to be LEED certified by the USGBC you can download their 2009 Project Checklist for New Construction and Major Renovation here.

The USGBC website does not give many specifics, but once a developer submits a building to be registered, they can sign in and access guidelines, model materials, best practices and criteria that LEED uses to make decisions. Any new building in LA, therefore, must register with the USBGC and then would be advised to hire architects, contractors, mechanical engineers and landscape architects that are all themselves LEED certified.

This is definitely a sign of things to come; the recent Cap and Trade bill contained within it provisions for a national building code with stringent environmental requirements, and many localities are beginning to require rather than incentivize sustainability measures.

Just last week, the U.S. Department of Energy announced that six states and Puerto Rico would receive $162 million, (no not each) to put towards improving commercial and residential building's in those states.

To find out more information on tax incentives and rebates visit the National Apartment Association's Green Communities website.

The GREEN Act Reintroduced

According to Multi Housing News Online, Colorado Representative Ed Perlmutter has reintroduced legislation (H.R. 2336) that would bring energy efficiency to the single and multifamily housing markets. Mr. Perlmutter's district, located on the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains, gets about 300 days of sun every year(and a whole lot of wind), so Denver apartments are sure to be prime candidates for renewable energy sources.

From the Congressman's floor statement:

“The GREEN Act would take steps toward addressing energy consumption within housing by establishing minimum energy efficiency standards for HUD and providing incentives to the private sector to move our housing and building stock to energy efficient standards."

HUD announces Funding for Energy Efficient Projects

Additionally, it sounds as though HUD has already responded to demands for greater energy-efficiency. HUD received 4 billion in stimulus money; $2.95 billion was allocated by formula (according to state and city populations and needs) and $995 million will be distributed by a competitive grant process, whereby public housing authorities will compete for grants. (10 million goes to HUD for administrative costs, a little something for the effort)

The revised Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA), which is HUD's guidelines on how to apply for grants and summary of those projects that are eligible, includes a 4th section, for the “creation of Energy Efficient, Green Communities." (page 12 of NOFA) This will allow Public Housing Authorities to use stimulus money to make low income apartments and other public housing more energy efficient.

Even if Rep. Perlmutter's perseverance does not yield higher standards for PHA's housing (like last year's attempt) at least the government is pushing a green apartments agenda.

In this month's issue of units, (published by the NAA) the dominant theme was how green technology is going to shape the apartment industry. Coming up at the end of this month the NAA will host the first annual Green Conference and Exposition in Phoenix. You can register or find out more information at the NAA's Green Communities site.

Covered in the latest issue, which are sure to be elaborated upon at the upcoming conference, were how apartment management companies can take advantage of government incentive programs to bring greater sustainability to their properties.

This latest issue is full of important information for apartment owners. For example, in the Political Insider section, the NAA/NMHC joint legislative program highlights the desire for lawmakers to enact climate change legislation designed to curb energy consumption.

Chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Jeff Bingaman has stated that buildings account for 40 percent of U.S. energy consumption and that cutting building emissions across the board would be a relatively inexpensive way to curb total energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.

In response to several witnesses at a March 9th hearing of that committee who contended that building codes should be lead to a 30 percent improvement in energy efficiency, the NAA/NMHC submitted written testimony based on their Strategies and Costs to Exceed ASHRAE 90.1-2004 Requirements in a Multifamily Apartment Building report, which helped legislators appreciate the costs involved with regulations that would implement the reductions of either 15, 30 or 50 percent. Such blanket regulations on all buildings would affect some sectors and climates more than others.

However, since legislative propensity to act looms large and appears imminent, the NAA advises apartments to consider the benefits of preemptive greening efforts. The federal government just extended the deadline to 2013 for building owners to deduct costs from certain projects that reduce energy consumption. If owner revamps their interior lighting, building envelope and/or heating, cooling, ventilation or hot water systems to reduce energy consumption by 50 percent, they can deduct $.60 to $1.80 per square foot of the building on that year's tax returns.

The NAA is aware that regulation is imminent and seeks to persuade apartment communities that they are going to have to make retrofits to bring their properties up to green code anyway and not taking advantage of current incentives could be a huge mistake.

This week, in recognition of Earth Day as well as the upcoming Green Conference, we'll be focusing on these types of issues.

This morning we received an email from the good folks at the National Apartment Association announcing the first annual 2009 Green Conference and Exposition, which will be held April 28th and 29th at the Phoenix Convention Center, which happens to be a LEED Certified Building.

The Green Conference will focus on how the multifamily industry can use energy efficient methods and institute green design to increase occupancy rates and resident satisfaction while cutting down on operational costs. Major topics to be covered are:

• Identifying and taking advantage of government incentive programs to help mitigate initial costs
• Measuring and leveraging your carbon footprint
• Using green property assets to achieve higher appraisals and access capital

Last year around this time, we mentioned how apartment owners and developers could take advantage of a little known provision in 2008's Economic Stimulus Act, which allowed a 50 percent tax increase in the amount of “qualified leasehold improvements" an owner or developer could write off for the first year.

This year's American Reinvestment Act, (widely known as the 2009 Stimulus Bill), prioritized energy efficiency by directing a bulk of funding to its development, identifying the sector as an opportunity to stimulate job growth and implement sustainable and reliable energy sources that would save money and resources in the long term.

Looking through summaries of the bill, we were not able to identify anything specific that would benefit the multifamily industry in particular; however, we are confident that the speakers and presenters at the Green Conference will have a much better idea on the specific programs and incentives that owners and developers can use. View a full schedule of events and information on the featured speakers here.

Apartment living already incorporates many of the principles of green design, as it allows residents to share resources and facilitates smart community development. Think about the difference between the environmental impact of individual homes spanning the countryside, all with two car garages versus a high rise apartment building where residents have access to public transportation.

This morning, we saw that Stanley Fish's column in the New York Times had evoked quite a backlash in its comments section. Professor Fish's article about the cumbersome nature of recycling, though it reads a bit like an Andy Rooney diatribe, does highlight some important points.

Our interest stems our own preoccupation with the subject of green apartment living and trying to find ways that apartments for rent can be more environmentally responsible.

The article basically asks whether or not pursuing an eco-friendly lifestyle is worth the trouble. Of course, by investigating ‘living green' Professor Fish is trying to get at what determines whether or not someone is actually living green, and how, if at all, can it be defined?

The specific quandary that appears to have been the impetus for the article is primarily the byzantine nature of determining whether your actions are actually eco-friendly. He uses the example of switching from Proctor and Gamble products to Kimberly-Clark because the former company tested on animals, only to find that the latter did not use pre-consumer recycled materials in their products.

He makes a similar case, though admittedly it is a bit trite, by questioning whether washing cloth napkins is better than using recycled paper napkins. One uses water, but ones creates waste, but which one is greener?

These are valid points. Though the comments on the article call Professor Fish lazy and selfish, all he is doing is trying to provide some questions to an ambiguous and new social mandate. With many company attempting to ‘greenwash‘ their products to appeal to the popularity of ‘going green' it is sometimes difficult to know the best way to reduce your carbon or ecological footprint.

This seems to get to the latent point in Professor Fish's article. He seems to be expressing that green products and services must offer some tangible benefit beyond their simply being classified as eco-friendly. Is a product that has an ‘eco-friendly' sticker worth more solely in virtue of its classification as such?

While this can be debated, it seems as though the time, as opposed to money, one spends trying to lessen their pollutants is indeed worth it. The amount of time that it takes to get into greener habits around your apartment is not that much of a sacrifice and can be easily incorporated into your normal routine.

One of the blogs we look to for tips on matters such as these, the Focus Organic Blog, provides ten great tips on how to go green in your apartment.

Let us know how you go green in your apartment as well as what features your apartment building employs to conserve energy or water.

Perhaps you can even help us better draw out the definition of going green. Let us know!

We saw a great public service announcement yesterday from the Apartment Marketing Blog for Los Angeles apartments. Apparently the city of Los Angeles will provide free resources to apartments for rent with 5 or more units.

The Department of Public Works in LA will provide free recycling services once a week, free blue bins for recycling as well as educational materials for residents. All multifamily residential buildings such as apartments, townhomes, condominiums and mobile home parks that have at least 5 units are eligible for this great new service.

This program is a great way for landlords to allow their renters to go green in their apartments. Recycling is one of The Three R's and is probably the easiest ways to green your apartment in Los Angeles. The fact that it is free makes it that much easier for landlords to get their tenants into the habit of recycling.

If you are a tenant and would like to let your landlord know of this great service you can call 1-800-773-2489 or send an email to multifamily@lacity.org.

For more information on how to go green in your apartment, check out our apartment guide and our green apartment living blog posts. We are staying on top of the latest news to help renters and apartment owners to go green.

Not only can it help save the environment, which, according to today's report from the EPA, we should all be concerned about, but often times it can help you save money. We are glad to see that cities like LA are helping the multifamily industry become even more eco-friendly.

What kinds of things do you do to make your apartment green?

There is no questioning the fact that the multifamily housing industry has been moving toward more environmentally friendly construction techniques this past year. Both political and market factors have driven the apartment rental industry to embrace sustainability and green living.

Apartments, in general, are fundamentally considered a rather green housing option; by sharing space and resources, apartments require much less energy and pollute much less than sprawling suburbs comprised of single family homes.

In a previous blog post on green apartments, we've cited how living density is a basic concept of sustainability and essential for maintaining ecological balance.

In the past few months, green apartment living has spread to the affordable housing arena. In last week's apartment rental news roundup we pointed out how actor Ed Norton, the Hulk himself, had gone totally green and testified as a trustee of Enterprise Community Partners to the Senate Banking Committee. He presented information on the success of the Enterprise Green Communities initiative in lowering costs by focusing on energy and water conservation.

Responding to the testimony, Representative Ed Perlmutter (D-CO) introduced H.R. 6078, the Green Resources for Energy Efficient Neighborhoods (GREEN) Act of 2008. The act would allocate funds and increase incentives for the private sector to invest in green affordable housing.

Some of the key mechanisms employed by the bill include:

• requiring Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to finance energy efficient and location efficient mortgages
• providing grants to local communities for energy efficient single and multifamily housing
• requires insurance companies to provide coverage for homes not connected to the power grid

One would expect that if it were indeed cheaper to make energy saving retrofits and improve conservation methods, the market would adjust accordingly. However, initial costs can be discouraging. This legislation, however, seems to be able to dovetail nicely with the environmental incentives buried in the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008, which we reported on a few months ago.

What do people out there think of green standards on apartments for rent? We'll be keeping a close eye on new developments, as this burgeoning topic continues to gain momentum in the multifamily industry.

We recieved a press release from the folks at the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) that outlined two recent studies that are relevant to apartment owners.

The two studies, one done by the New Buildings Institute (NBI) and one by the CoStar Group, demonstrate not only the savings on energy costs of LEED and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) certified buildings, but that they also outperform their non-certified cohorts.

According to the NBI study, USBGC Gold and Platinum certified buildings are able to save almost 50 percent on their energy bills. EPA Energy Star certified buildings also use an average of 40 percent less energy than average buildings.

Perhaps even more notable, and of particular interest to apartment owners is that the CoStar Study reported that LEED buildings have rent premiums that are $11.24 per square foot higher and have a 3.8 percent higher occupancy rate. For Energy Star buildings, the respective figures are $2.38 per square foot and 3.6 percent.

These new reports quantify the the long term benefits for apartment owners of making green improvements to their apartment buildings. Demand for green apartments seems to be on the rise, as more renters are looking to rent an apartment that is environmentally friendly.

Last week, the MyNewPlace blog posted an article highlighted a section of the Economic Stimulus Act that would allow apartment owners to make these types of improvements and upgrades. The tax write offs that are designed to promote commercial construction also apply to leasehold improvements in apartment buildings.

Since the major reason that apartment owners shy away from making these improvements are the high initial costs, the tax break, which allows for 50 percent of these expenditures to be deducted from taxable net income, significantly decreases the up front cost.

Given that this tax break would mitigate the initial cost of the project, coupled with the data from these new studies, apartment owners would be prudent to consider LEED or Engergy Star Certification.