Ghost in green building

In midtown Manhattan, home of the nation’s priciest office space, the equivalent of 16 office towers, each 40 stories high, now stand empty. This statistic, from the Wall Street Journal, underscores the vast damage inflicted on commercial real estate by the economic downturn. Given the ailing market, this hardly seems the time to invest in expensive green upgrades. But a recent report suggests just the opposite.

Issued by sustainability organization Ceres and investment services company Mercer, “Energy Efficiency in Real Estate Portfolios: Opportunities for Investors,” points out several reasons why both property owners and investors may want to consider improving buildings now.

• Several studies indicate that efficient buildings command a premium in both rent and sales prices, and a shortage of green buildings exists to meet demand.
• New programs and support are available through private and public sources to finance efficiency retrofits. The federal stimulus package alone earmarks $11.3 billion for energy efficiency.
• Efficiency upgrades can decrease operating expenses.
• Inefficiency could mean financial penalty if the US moves forward on pricing carbon dioxide emissions.

We are experiencing an unquestionable increase in the greening of buildings – a good thing since buildings account for 39% of energy use in the United States. But property owners would probably pursue more efficiency if not for the misconception that efficiency upgrades are expensive. Owners often believe energy efficiency upgrades will cost as much as 17% more than they do, according to the report. These “ghost expenditures” are scaring building owners away from making upgrades, the report says.

“Evidence suggests that in many cases, the most effective changes have low upfront costs and result in significant operational cost savings, rental premiums, shorter vacancies and reduced obsolescence, as well as slower depreciation, and therefore higher capital values,” the report says.

Some investors aren’t afraid of the ghosts. Financial services giant TIAA-CREF is well on its way to reducing energy use 10% for its real estate holdings, a goal it hopes to achieve before the year is out. Begun in 2008, the effort already is saving the company $4 million a year in reduced energy costs.

Likewise, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS), the world’s largest pension fund, is on target to meet a 20% cut in energy use for its real estate by the end of this year.

'As fiduciaries, focusing on energy efficiency in our real estate portfolios just makes sense,” said Anne Stausboll, CalPERS CEO, “CalPERS invests in millions of square feet of real estate so cutting back on energy use and lowering operating costs can only boost the value of the properties in our portfolio, while also contributing to climate change mitigation.”

The report provides advice about how to proceed with green investments for both property owners and those who invest in real estate trusts and other securities. It can be found at www.ceres.org/realestatereport.

Environmental engineering

Environmental engineering is the application of science and engineering principles to improve the environment (air, water, and/or land resources), to provide healthful water, air, and land for human habitation and for other organisms, and to remediate polluted sites.

Negative environmental effects can be decreased and controlled through public education, conservation, regulations, and the application of good engineering practices.

In the U.S., minimum education requirements for environmental engineers typically include a Bachelor's Degree in environmental (or civil) engineering from an accredited college..

Civil engineering

In modern usage, civil engineering is a broad field of engineering that deals with the planning, construction, and maintenance of fixed structures, or public works, as they are related to earth, water, or civilization and their processes. Most civil engineering today deals with power plants, bridges, roads, railways, structures, water supply, irrigation, environmental, sewer, flood control, transportation, telecommunications and traffic.

In essence, civil engineering may be regarded as the profession that makes the world a more agreeable place in which to live. Engineering has developed from observations of the ways natural and constructed systems react and from the development of empirical equations that provide bases for design.

Civil engineering is the broadest of the engineering fields, partly because it is the oldest of all engineering fields. In fact, engineering was once divided into only two fields, military and civil. Civil engineering is still an umbrella term, comprised of many related specialities..

Geologic fault

Geologic faults or simply faults are planar rock fractures which show evidence of relative movement. Large faults within the Earth's crust are the result of shear motion and active fault zones are the causal locations of most earthquakes. Earthquakes are caused by energy release during rapid slippage along faults..

Earthquake liquefaction

Earthquake liquefaction, often referred to simply as liquefaction, is the process by which saturated, unconsolidated soil or sand is converted into a suspension during an earthquake.

The effect on structures and buildings can be devastating, and is a major contributor to urban seismic risk.Ancient earthquakes have caused liquefaction, leaving a record in the sediments (paleoseismology).

Air pollution

Air pollution is a broad term applied to any chemical, physical (particulate matter), or biological agent that modifies the natural characteristics of the atmosphere.

The atmosphere is a complex, dynamic natural gaseous system that is essential to support life on planet earth.

Stratospheric ozone depletion due to air pollution has long been recognized as a threat to human health as well as to the earth's ecosystems. Worldwide air pollution is responsible for large numbers of deaths and cases of respiratory disease.

Enforced air quality standards, like the Clean Air Act in the United States, have reduced the presence of some pollutants.

While major stationary sources are often identified with air pollution, the greatest source of emissions are actually mobile sources, principally the automobile.

There are many available air pollution control technologies and urban planning strategies available to reduce air pollution; however, worldwide costs of addressing the issue are high.

The most immediate method of improving air quality would be the use of bioethanol fuel, biodiesel, solar energy, and hybrid vehicle technologies.

The World Health Organization estimates that 4.6 million people die each year from causes directly attributable to air pollution.

Many of these mortalities are attributable to indoor air pollution.

Worldwide more deaths per year are linked to air pollution than to automobile accidents.

Research published in 2005 suggests that 310,000 Europeans die from air pollution annually.

Direct causes of air pollution related deaths include aggravated asthma, bronchitis, emphysema, lung and heart diseases, and respiratory allergies

Smog

Smog is a kind of air pollution, originally named for the mixture of smoke and fog in the air.

Classic smog results from large amounts of coal burning in an area and is caused by a mixture of smoke and sulfur dioxide.

In the 1950s a new type of smog, known as Photochemical Smog, was first described.

Smog is a problem in a number of cities and continues to harm human health.

Ground-level ozone, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide carbon monoxide are especially harmful for senior citizens, children, and people with heart and lung conditions such as emphysema, bronchitis, and asthma.

It can inflame breathing passages, decreasing the lungs' working capacity, and causing shortness of breath, pain when inhaling deeply, wheezing, and coughing.

It can cause eye and nose irritation and it dries out the protective membranes of the nose and throat and interferes with the body's ability to fight infection, increasing susceptibility to illness.

Hospital admissions and respiratory deaths often increase during periods when ozone levels are high.

EPA has developed an Air Quality index to help explain air pollution levels to the general public.

8 hour average ozone concentrations of 85 to 104 ppbv are described as "Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups", 105 ppbv to 124 ppbv as "unhealthy" and 125 ppb to 404 ppb as "very unhealthy." Smog can form in almost any climate where industries or cities release large amounts of air pollution.

However, it is worse during periods of warmer, sunnier weather when the upper air is warm enough to inhibit vertical circulation.

It is especially prevalent in geologic basins encircled by hills or mountains.

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