An ongoing series of research reports from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) details information from the hundreds of thousands of buildings who use ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager to track energy usage. The latest report focuses on renewable energy and trends in energy metering and efficiency tracking. Onsite renewable energy systems The report studies data from over 260,000 properties, determining that less than 1% (2,447 properties) are currently generating onsite renewable energy. However, even with this low total, the use of onsite renewables has increased ten-fold in the last decade. Among the most common property types who do generate renewable energy are retail stores, K-12 schools and offices. Schools and worship facilities account for the largest number as a percentage of their total properties, still only representing 2.4% each. By comparison, only half a percent of multifamily housing properties have implemented renewable systems. Where are these systems most commonly found? According to the study, California leads the way by a wide margin with nearly 1,000 properties. That number represents more than the next 10 highest states combined. Because the source energy conversion factor is lower for onsite renewable energy, these properties have higher ENERGY STAR scores by a significant margin compared to all properties (74 to 59). Data also shows that 55% of these buildings meet less than a quarter of their electrical consumption from onsite renewables. Metering challenges and considerations There are three primary types of meters that customers use, determined by local utility company standards and building electrical systems. The report dives into the types of meters, what information they do or do not provide and how this impacts energy benchmarking and efficiency goals. Net meters spin forward or backward showing net consumption of power, but do not tell you what was imported or exported. Bi-directional meters tell you how much energy was imported and how much renewable energy was exported. The least common, dual meters have two devices, one to measure import and another for export. The main billing issue, as described in the study, is that only reporting net consumption makes it challenging to benchmark energy performance. To assess this accurately, you need all energy use, regardless of source. Portfolio Manager accurately incorporates onsite renewables into efficiency calculations. Developers may be willing to retrofit older meters with newer versions in order to capture renewable energy generated onsite exported back to the grid and the amount of grid energy sent to the building. The report goes into further detail about renewable energy certificates, inaccurate billing and metering practices, and thoroughly explains the flow chart connecting energy, meter and property. While the total number of buildings reporting onsite renewable energy continues to grow, it still represents a fraction of total properties. Data will become more available to customers as more meters support accurate measurement of onsite renewable energy. Until then, it’s hard to paint a detailed picture of efficiency and even harder to invest in a mix of strategies to achieve great energy use...

With the rapid development of ecological urbanism and sustainable urban design, cities are destined to become hubs of innovation and technological breakthroughs. Over the last decades, the green building movement has grown a great deal, evolving from a tiny niche in architectural design to a global trend impacting all aspects of human existence. Much attention has been given to creating socially inclusive habitats for city inhabitants, sensitive to the environment and capable of fostering healthy communities. Closely related to the principle of smart growth, vertical living has been a real solution to many of the urban challenges, including the consistent demographic growth. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the nation’s urban population increased by 12.1 percent from 2000 to 2010, outpacing the nation’s overall growth rate of 9.7 percent for the same period. As the economy straightens, innovative projects are beginning to take shape all across the U.S., with architects focused on delivering state-of-the-art high-rise structures heavy on sustainable elements. In an effort to promote and highlight the benefits of vertical living, eVolo magazine has created the Skyscraper Competition, a speculative design contest challenging architects and civil engineers around the world to bring out their visionary skills. Since 2006 when the initiative was officially launched, the publication received more than 5,000 projects exploring the future of building high. Not only are these ventures incorporating principles of smart living, technology, efficiency, aesthetics and eco-friendly practices into their design, but they also aim to challenge the way we understand vertical architecture and its relationship with the natural and built environments. For the 2013 competition, the journal received 625 projects from all continents and 83 different countries, all aspiring to positively change the face of our cities. Assessing contestants based on several criteria, including creativity, ingenuity, and understanding of dynamic and adaptive vertical communities, the jury selected 3 winners and 24 honorable mentions. The first place was awarded to Derek Pirozzi from the United States, for his revolutionary “Polar Umbrella,” (right) a cutting-edge super-structure whose primary objective is to rebuild the arctic layers and cool down the Earth’s surface by reducing heat gain in vulnerable arctic regions. Featuring desalinization and power facilities, this arctic skyscraper becomes a floating metropolis equipped with NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) research laboratories, renewable power stations, dormitory-style housing units, eco-tourist attractions, and ecological habitats for wildlife. Darius Maïkoff and Elodie Godo from France landed in second place with their “Phobia Skyscraper,” (below left) a modular suburban residential development in Paris, France designed to morph and progress over time, responding to the needs and desires of its residents. The project seeks to revive an abandoned industrial area in Paris that features excellent views of the city and an extensive transportation network. The third place was awarded to Ting Xu and Yiming Chen from China, for their project “Light Park,” a floating skyscraper reminding of a surreal realm where zeppelins rule the skies. The concept itself is amazing indeed, providing a sustainable platform for the future growth of the world’s mega-cities. The Light Park stays afloat thanks to a large, mushroom cap-like helium-filled balloon at its top, and solar-powered propellers directly below. Amidst the honorable mentions, Michael Charters’ “Big Wood” skyscraper  (below right) stands out as a masterpiece of modern engineering, combining technological advances with sustainability features and conservation, aiming to deliver an enhanced living experience. Multi-story wooden structures are nothing new to the urban picture, yet realistic aspirations for heights of 20, 30, 40 stories certainly require considerable engineering efforts. Big Wood is a prototype on mass timber construction that offers the possibility to build more responsibly while actively sequestering pollutants from our cities. The large-scale mixed-use university complex would be located in Chicago, the third most populous urbanized area in the country (8,608,208). While the construction industry accounts for 39% of man-made carbon emissions, timber emerges as a greener alternative to steel and concrete, employing less...

With the cost of operating commercial buildings growing ever harder to control, owners and managers will likely start taking a new look at contracts this year for the first time in quite awhile. While trends in operating costs will probably continue to vary widely by both location and property type, they nonetheless will see an uptick in many markets beyond that recorded during the past several years. From 2010 to 2011, median operating costs for downtown office buildings ranged from a 4.5 percent increase in the Central, Rocky Mountain and Northwest regions to an 11.2 percent decline on the West Coast. Suburban office properties have showed a similar variation, as operating expenses dropped 3.3 percent in the Southeast and rose 9.6 percent on the West Coast. Nationwide, the changes for suburban office properties added up to a 1 percent year-over-year increase from 2010 to 2011. That was comparable to the 1 percent nationwide increase for shopping centers. In the past few years, property owners and managers have already taken steps to reduce or control costs. For instance, they have largely reduced their energy outlays or at least made sure that costs increased more slowly than utility rates. For privately owned buildings, median utilities costs dropped from $2.38 per square foot to $2.32 per square foot between 2011 and 2010—a 2.5 percent decline, according to BOMA/Kingsley Associates research. The pattern of decreases or modest increases in utility costs is widely credited to the success of owners and managers with cost-cutting strategies that have become standard in recent years: low-usage lighting fixtures, sophisticated control panels that fine-tune power distribution and so forth. In order to keep a lid on costs—or to reach the next level of cost reductions—owners may face a choice of investing in expensive retrofits or accepting cost increases. According to the most recent IREM research, for instance, energy costs for downtown office buildings increased about 1.4 percent from 2010 to 2011 nationwide. But while that suggests overall stability, the figure masks regional variations. During the past several years, downtown office buildings in the Central, Rocky Mountain and Northwest regions have demonstrated significant increases, including a 9.9 percent jump from 2010 to 2011, according to the Institute for Real Estate Management. Meanwhile, West Coast properties trimmed those costs 15.7 percent. The suburbs told a different story: Except for the West Coast, properties all recorded a decline in energy costs during the same period. And in the retail sector, which has a somewhat different allocation of costs, property managers have likewise succeeded in keeping energy costs and other prices relatively stable. IREM’s most recent report shows that utilities represented 8.7 percent of operating costs, a percentage that has remained largely unchanged in recent years. Costs are inching up in other categories of operations, as well. Owners and managers are watching tenant improvements, for instance. Between 2010 and 2011, costs for building out office space in privately owned properties edged up 10 percent, to $2.30 per square foot, according to the annual BOMA/Kingsley survey. New tenant leases and a desire by existing tenants to improve their space may be driving the increases, BOMA speculates. On the plus side, taxes continue to offer fruitful ground for cost savings. According to IREM’s most recent research, the tax bill on suburban office properties declined 2.7 percent from 2010 to 2011, to an average of $2.14 per rentable square foot. That followed a 4.3 percent drop the previous year. Taxes on downtown office properties also slipped, declining 2.2 percent to $2.62 per square foot during the same period. This trend may in fact be the result of successful appeals of tax assessments—and thus it remains to be seen whether it will continue in the new year. Paul Rosta is senior editor for Commercial Property Executive. For more on property management cost trends, including charts detailing how the dollars are being allocated, see “Holding the Line”...