Houston Green Building

The City of Houston and the U.S. Department of Energy announced today that the city has joined the Better Building Challenge and has pledged a 20% reduction by 2020 in 30 million square feet of public and private buildings. The U.S. DOE press release can be found here:

http://energy.gov/articles/city-houston-joins-better-buildings-challenge-partners-energy-department-reduce-energy

Houston joins 60 other cities and corporations in joining the BBC, adding to the BBC’s total of 1.6 billion square feet pledged to date. While already undergoing an extensive efficiency retrofit program in its own buildings, by pledging to the BBC, Houston can apply for some of the program’s $4 billion in private and public funds to further its efforts.

Texas politics are maddening. Every other January we dive in full of hope and every other May we go home empty-handed. And those are the good years. Then 2011 rolls around with astronomical budget deficits, education issues and redistricting…and look what happens. Two major green building bills have passed and await the governor’s signature or his distraction with presidential politics.

House Bill 51 – Green Building Bill for State Buildings and Higher Education Facilities.

Text: http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/tlodocs/82R/billtext/pdf/HB00051F.pdf#navpanes=0

Finally, a green building bill for Texas! It allows for certification using one of many rating systems or building codes. An advisory panel of eight will be created consisting of the usual CRE interest groups plus a chemist, the Energy Systems Lab at A&M and someone from the Brick Industry Association to make recommendations to the State Energy Conservation Office. One lesson we learned is not to mention LEED by name, but rather as a “rating system created by the U.S. Green Building Council”.

Positive things about the bill are that it states that green design services will be considered additional service, not basic services and that any applicable federal deductions under 179D must be allowed to go to the designers.

Negatives are that it allows University / College Boards of Regents to approve or not these requirements for each project and it does not go into effect until Sept 01, 2013 (which is after the next legislative session so its vulnerable to modifications or negation before it even takes effect). And it did not pass with overwhelming support, including a Nay vote from my state rep. But this opens the door to market pressures on the private sector and erases even more excuses for not building green and I’ll take it a hundred times over.

House Bill 3391 – On-Site Water Reclamation Including Rainwater Harvesting, Condensate and Blowdown for Potable and Non-potable Use at State Buildings.

Text:  http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/tlodocs/82R/billtext/pdf/HB03391F.pdf#navpanes=0

Ironically, this bill is less “watered-down” than HB 51. State building with roofs over 10,000 square feet must include some type of on-site water reclamation. This is a good piece of legislation. It addresses concerns about cross-connections with municipal supplies. It encourages school districts to consider adopting these practices. And if you want to see just how integrated legislation is, take a look at the intricacies of this bill. It addresses financing for rainwater harvesting projects, addresses HOA concerns and limitations and even adds a line item to Real Estate Seller Disclosure forms. I feel this law will be a real eye-opener as to the ease of green methods and I hope it will debunk many of the myths out there.  

Now the governor could still veto these bills, but let’s pray they pass under his radar. Hats off to the many people and organizations that have worked tirelessly against repeated failures for the last 6 years of advocacy to get to this point. It really matters. Recently, Cushman & Wakefield did a comparison of how green CBDs were and Houston faired well except for state green policies. These laws will help tremendously in both reality and perception. May this be the impetus for more progressive and money-saving policies in the near future.

Some framework is in place for green building tax deductions at both the national and the lower levels. At both the federal level and local level, tax benefits exist to help promote green buildings in Houston. These benefits not only affect owners, but some can also apply to the designers.

Federal Incentive- EPAct §179D Tax Deduction

 As part of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, the EPAct §179D Tax Deduction allows energy efficient construction or retrofitting expenses to be deduced for buildings in operation after December 31, 2005 and before January 1, 2014.  These may include lighting, HVAC, hot water systems, and building envelope. If such systems are installed and reduce the total energy and energy costs of the whole building by 50%, a maximum of $1.80 per square foot (of the area affected by an efficient system) can be deducted.

The beneficiary of the deduction is the company or person who pays for construction, typically the owner. However, if it is a government owned building, the designer (architect, engineer, environmental consultant, or energy service provider) can benefit from this tax deduction.  If the Better Building Initiatives proposed by President Obama become reality, then the tax deductions will become tax credits, potentially doubling the incentive.

For more information, please see http://www.sourcecorptax.com/energy/energy_efficiency.htm

http://www.dsireusa.org/incentives/incentive.cfm?Incentive_Code=US40F&re=0&ee=1

Harris County Green Building Tax Abatement for LEED

 An owner of a new building that has registered and is pursuing LEED Certification can receive a partial tax abatement for up to ten years after construction is complete.  This ranges from 1-10% , depending on the certification level. 

 Before construction is completed, the application for a LEED Certification Tax Abatement is due.  The amount spent on LEED related building components must be $100,000. Once processed and approved, one can receive the benefits for up to 10 years. This applies to projects outside of the incorporated area.  

 Harris County Guidelines:  http://www.hctx.net/CmpDocuments/103/Economic%20Development/2008-05-20%20Approved%20Tax%20Abatement%20Guidelines.pdf

Application: http://www.hctx.net/CmpDocuments/103/Economic%20Development/Harris%20County%20Green%20Building%20Tax%20Abatement%20Application.pdf 

City of Houston, Texas, Ordinance No. 2009-858:  Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Tax Abatement

Like the Harris Country Tax Abatement, an owner of a new building that has registered and is pursuing LEED Certification can receive a partial tax abatement for up to ten years after construction is complete. For the percentage discounts available, these are the same as the Harris County Tax Abatement. Before construction is completed, the application for a LEED Certification Tax Abatement is due. The amount spent on LEED related building components must be $100,000. Once processed and approved, one can receive the benefits for up to 10 years.

Please note, a building can only take advantage of the city or the county tax abatement, not both.

http://www.codegreenhouston.org/tax-incentive-rebates/index.php

President Obama has just announced a collection of initiatives and actions that are designed to encourage a 20% reduction in energy use by commercial buildings by 2020.

The initiative calls for aggressive reform of existing tax (transforming the current deduction into a credit) and other incentives for retrofits. President Obama is calling on corporate and institutional leaders to committing to making progress toward this goal. The hope is a ten-fold increase in commercial retrofit take up. Also, the Administration is launching a Building Construction Technology Extension Partnership to provide workforce training in areas such as energy auditing and building operations.

More Details:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/02/03/president-obama-s-plan-win-future-making-american-businesses-more-energy

For the first time ever, the number of Houston LEED projects Certified exceeded the number of projects Registered for LEED. In 2010, the Houston region had 59 projects acheive LEED certification, a 55% increase over 2009 and a continuation of the exponential rise of Certified projects. On the other hand, only 56 projects were registered, a 50% drop from 2009 and a whopping 71% drop from the 2008 high of 144 projects registered.

Annual Certified and Registered LEED projects for Houston area.

The Houston region has a cummulative total of 122 Certified Projects and 424 Registered projects at the end of 2010.

Cumulative Certified Projects in Houston Region

New Construction registrations dropped 50% last year, while Core and Shell registrations almost went non-existent in 2009, dropping from 29 in 2008 to 3 in 2009, a 90% drop. 2010 once again had only 3 Core and Shell registrations, showing the continued weakness in the speculative commercial market.

Annual LEED Registrations by Rating System

The recession has greatly reduced the number of new buildings, so there is little surpise in that drop. But, surprisingly, LEED-Existing Building registrations dropped by 71%. Does this indicate that EB has played out? There are 110 total LEED-EB projects registered in the Houston region. This is reaching par with the number of Energy Star properties in the Houston region. That’s disturbing that both of these programs seem to have reached a plateau. With local and federal incentives, especially the City of Houston’s new Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant that targets older and smaller properties, hopefully more property owners will realize the wisdom of efficiency investments.

Cumulative Houston Region LEED Registrations by Rating System

Until 2010, we could expect registrations to outpace certifications by a 2 to 1 ratio. That would reflect the # of projects that don’t happen, give up their LEED pursuit, are delayed, change of registration types, etc.

What does the future hold?  I foresee certifications staying the same or increasing only slightly and prehaps registrations picking up slightly. Certifications have approximately doubled each year since 2006, but I don’t think that pace can be maintained until new construction increases and the practical field of Existing Building stock can be expanded.

Footnotes: These statsistics do NOT include LEED for Homes projects and they do not include confidential projects.

As a city shaped and designed by the personal vehicle, now it is Houston’s turn to welcome, promote, and shape its urban infrastructure to a new kind of vehicle – the electric vehicle (EV).  As plans are underway to expand public transportation networks and creating these networks requires much time, financing, planning, and a construction period (of which some businesses have difficulty during), the eVgo stations are 1) simple to install, 2) compliment Houston’s existing infrastructure and businesses, and 3) offer an opportunity for more Houstonians to drive electric vehicles to help reduce dependence on oil and cut emissions.

EVs, Electric Vehicles, the Character

Two benefits of electric vehicles are reducing auto pollution and allowing larger cities like Houston to meet clean air standards. Although an EV may be charged with energy from partially dirty sources, EVs are still cleaner than the average vehicle. For instance, if all of the energy is produced from coal to charge an EV, carbon dioxide emissions are still 25 percent lower than an ordinary gasoline vehicle. Jan Kreider, Founder of the University of Colorado’s Joint Center for Energy Management, studied the electric and hybrid electric vehicles lifetime of energy use – including production, transportation, disposal, and energy use. In the study, electric and hybrid vehicles created less pollution than traditional internal combustion engines in the areas of carbon dioxide, sulfur oxide, nitrogen oxide, and mercury levels. (Paragraph summary from Houston Chronicle Article, Electric Cars Run on Coal, Partly, (http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/energy/7301694.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+houstonchronicle%2Fenergy+%28HoustonChronicle.com+–+Energy%29),

 NRG Energy’s eVgo Stations, the New Set Design

Throughout town, new eVgo stations will shape the city to promote more electric vehicles. NRG Energy plans to create 150 eVgo stations in a radius extending 25 miles from downtown Houston. Charging stations will be located at local stores like Walgreens, Specs, HEB, and Best Buy and near offices, but NRG Energy anticipates 80-90% of electric vehicles will charge at home. One can choose from three different monthly eVgo plans for charging, including a home plan with installation of a charging station at home, a mobile plan with a home charger and free charging at public chargers, and a complete plan with a home station, free public station charging, and free home charging. They plan to install 50 DC stations where a full charge takes about 30 minutes, and 100 Level 2 chargers that will take 3-4 hours for a full charge. Units will be installed beginning in February and are expected to be completed by summer of 2011. Similar plans are also underway for other Texas cities, such as Dallas, Austin, and San Antonio. (Paragraph summary from City to Lead Electric Car Charge in Houston Chronicle, November 18, 2010, Vol. 110. No. 36 and NRG Energy’s eVgo page, https://www.evgonetwork.com/. )

 Houston, a Prime Stage for Electric Cars

Houston’s urban, infrastructure, and cultural characteristics present a condition for NRG Energy to create the largest electric vehicle charging station network in the U.S.  A Houston Chronicle Editorial Charge! Why Houston – Houston! – is Great for Electric Cars (http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/7308925.html) is highlighted and commented on/categorized below:

1. Social: As a city known for sprawl and rise of the suburbs, approximately 90% of Houston commuters use a personal vehicle.  Houston’s many drivers create a huge opportunity for marketing electric cars.
2. Regional/Technological: Houston’s hot climate allows an electric car to hold the charges longer, as hot days are preferable to cold days for an electric car’s battery.
3. Economic/Political: Economically, Texas’s electricity market is deregulated and Houston has privatized power generation, so this allows an economic/political climate where NRG Energy can invest (NRG plans to invest $10 million in Houston for electric car charging stations) without waiting for government approval and sees Houston as a profitable city for electric cars.
4. Infrastructure: Having a garage is common in Houston, and this is ideal for setting up an individual charging station.
5. Technological: During the night, electricity demand is low, however, wind turbines and nuclear plants keep producing electricity, so electric car consumers can charge their cars at night using wind turbine and nuclear energy.
6. Technological: If an electric car drives 10,000 miles/year, it uses 2.500 kilowatt hours.

The City of Houston is also promoting electric cars by 1) issuing a permit in 24 hours for homeowners to install and electric car charging station in their house and 2) planning on allowing electric vehicles on HOV lanes and giving them a reduced toll fare.  The City of Houston also plans on adding more hybrid vehicles and adding 100 Nissan Leafs to its line-up of city owned cars for employees.  (Summarized from City to help put electric cars on road to success from the Houston Chronicle, http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/energy/7301637.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+houstonchronicle%2Fenergy+%28HoustonChronicle.com+–+Energy%29 )

Houston has no doubt taken measures to help at the national scale with President Obama’s 2015 initiative to have 1 million electric cars on the road and seeks to set the stage to give its own citizens confidence and serve as a role model for the rest of the U.S. to inspire electric cars on the road. (Summarized from Houston Charged Up to Lead the Nation in Electric Car Power, http://culturemap.com/newsdetail/11-19-10-houston-charged-up-to-lead-the-nation-in-electric-car-power/)

Ripple effects of the electric vehicle initiatives could be felt by the building community. Will more buildings seek to place preferred parking for alternative vehicles? Will parking requirements eventually be reworked for electric vehicles? Although LEED-ND mainly focuses on sustainable sites through walking, biking, and public transit measures, could the electric vehicle infrastructure potentially be an innovation and design credit for LEED-ND?

Nonetheless, it is exciting to see evolving technology- the EV- being embraced by individuals, households, neighborhoods/communities, and the city to help transform transportation in Houston. Whether you are an individual, business developer, government official, or part of a firm or organization, everyone plays an important role in fostering awareness, discussion, research, and action about transportation in Houston and the role of EVs.

The new LEED version has finally been unveiled! This entry will give you some introductory information and a huge encouragement to review the ratings systems and make comments. LEED’s primary focus continues to be Market Transformation with continuous improvements and rating system development.

As background, I am the substitute for the USGBC Chapter Steering Committee’s liaison to the USGBC LEED Steering Committee, which is like being the 2^nd string quarterback. You rarely get to play and no one knows your name, but you have to be at all the games and know what is going on. And this is not a just-show-up-for-the-calls committee. This is the hardest working committee with the support of the hardest working staff in all of USGBC!

So this is a huge milestone for the USGBC whenever new rating systems are unveiled. And yes, it is systems. Every rating system is getting an overhaul and most are fairly major. LEED-ND is the least impacted since it is relatively new. You may find the drafts somewhat elementary and you’ll also notice there are no point values assigned to credits yet! The primary reason is that this public comment period is different than those of the past. This is one is starting much earlier in the overall process with the goal to get feedback and input early.

First the name of the new rating systems. Will it be LEEDv. 4, LEED-2012, LEED- 2013? I’m going to call it LEED-20XX because the XX will change. There is a deadline goal, but the intent is to have open, transparent dialog and if it takes a little longer, then so be it.  LEED is going to aggressively push building systems while listening to the market. The new LEED is going to be difficult, but the entire industry is become more challenging. Last week, IECC became 30% more stringent and intends to increase another 30% by 2012.

However, LEED is offering new opportunities for access to allow for more buildings to use LEED to improve their performance. The best example is in EBOM.  EA Preq 1 has added a Case 3: Demonstrate Energy Efficiency Improvement. This allows buildings that cannot achieve the minimum Energy Star rating to fulfill this prerequisite by showing a 20% improvement in a 12 month period. This allows entry into EBOM for a whole new group of buildings by encouraging improvement in those projects that need it the most! Its been an impressive balancing act.

So, dive in!  Access the new rating systems at:  http://www.usgbc.org/DisplayPage.aspx?CMSPageID=2360

EBN got a sneak peek at LEED-20XX and they have an in-depth credit by credit review at: http://www.buildinggreen.com/auth/article.cfm/2010/11/8/Your-Guide-to-the-New-Draft-of-LEED-2012-public-comment-USGBC/

First thing you may notice is new categories. There are 3 new ones.

Integrated Process:  The intent of these credits are to fully engage the design team in thinking environmentally-preferably from the very beginning. Points will be earned for LEED charettes at the project’s onset and after SD.

Location and Transportation:  Many of these credits will look familiar as most were taken from the Sustainable Site Category. SS is still there, but this new category allowed for credits that had an impact beyond the site. A couple of new credits were taken right from LEED-ND, such as Walkable Streets.

Performance: Measure, measure and measure again. These credits will create buildings that speak to us and tell us what ails them and what makes them and us happy. My favorite: Reconcile Design and Actual Energy Performance.

So, what about the lack of point values being assigned to the credits yet? It’s being worked on right now. There is a new Impact Category System being created now and then credits will be analyzed based on that system and points assigned to credits accordingly. More on that in a separate blog. This is a direct result of getting the system drafts out early for feedback!

One other thing – If you really get into looking at these rating systems, you’ll start to see patterns because they are finally, truly aligned! Big hats off to staff for their effort on this. There are 13 rating systems under the BD+C alignment. This is a realization of the “bookshelf” concept that was talked about so much during the LEED 2009 release. The only one that does not work well is LEED-Neighborhood Development. But I suspect we’ll see more LEED-ND credits finding their way into the other BD+C systems.

So start reviewing and making your comments!  The LEED Steering Committee really does look at every comment. Let me know what questions you might have! I’ll also post some more in-depth topics over the next few days.

Mayor Parker announcing the Green Office Challenge

I attended the official launch of the City of Houston’s Green Office Challenge today at City Hall. There has been a tremendous amount of press about this, so I won’t add much. Here is the Chronicle’s story: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/energy/7203038.html

Green Office Challenge Launch in front of City Hall

I will encourage you to join. Whether you are a building owner or a tenant, the Challenge has much to offer! 

 The mayor did mention that Houston was ranked number 8 in the number of LEED buildings. I wondered where she got those numbers as I felt that had us ranked too low. But I looked at the USGBC data I had organized a while back and realized that I had us ranked 8^th as well. We fare much better when you measure in terms of square footage certified – there we are 3rd. I’ll post those numbers (which are 3 months old!) in a separate post. And I’ll explain the problems and difficulties with comparisons / rankings like this. Plus, I’ll update the numbers and see if we’ve gained any ground. I know we’ve hung a lot of plaques locally in the last 3 months. Did we move up?

The Economist magazine. It is not a fun read. It’s a roller-coaster of global perspectives, stripped of the blowhard political rhetoric that’s rampant in this country. They have run several stories on global warming that present the facts and rebut the drama. Some of these I will post eventually because they will give me an excuse to also share one or two of the fascinating nuggets sprinkled throughout The Economist. 

This story is not about global warming (directly), but rather about our faulty perceptions of energy conservation. Think residential scale here. The study shows that, on average, we underestimate both energy use and energy savings by a factor of almost 3.  We understand the concept of the 100-watt bulb, but fail to realize the exponentially higher amount of power used by certain appliances. This chart shows the discrepancy: 

from The Economist magazine

The study concludes that information increases the awareness of the impact and that metering devices on appliances could really drive the point home. Honestly, I have no idea how many watts my A/C uses. I know its SEER and its tonnage, but not the watts. When we moved into our house, the “as-is” settings were giving us huge electric bills. So, we kept raising our A/C temp until we reached the point that we were not comfortable and just dialed it back one degree.

There are several good lists on the Internet that rank appliances in terms of energy use. Find one and start with the biggest energy hogs in your house. Modify your behavior first and replace equipment only when needed.

Here’s a link to the full article: http://www.economist.com/node/16843797

On August 20, the City of Houston conducted tours of its LEED-Silver Certified Clayton Library Center for Genealogical Research at 5300 Caroline Street. This was a wonderful opportunity to see one of the smaller LEED projects in town as well one earned from a major renovation.