Page 126 - The Green Building Bottom Line The Real Cost of Sustainable Building

GREEN FROM THE INSIDE OUT 105

ing internal company programs. In the case of Melaver, Inc., such programs have
included making our various offices LEED certified under the Commercial Interiors
program, retrofitting our lighting, installing low-flow aerators on sinks, partnering
with the Savannah Tree Foundation on a carbon sequestration tree-planting program,
and partnering with various community organizations to replace incandescent lighting
with compact fluorescents.

AND THE BENEFITS?
There are certainly savings in energy and water consumption that occur as part of this
overall program. For the sake of this analysis, though, we are assuming that the sav-
ings, while a benefit, are negligible: annual savings of about $1,000 in electricity
annually from our LEED Commercial Interiors offices, water savings of $500, and
savings from our alternative approach to soda provisioning of about $1,800 annually.
Cost savings through ease of attracting and retaining talented staff might also be fac-
tored into our analysis, but we have already considered those line items in Chapters 1
and 2. Finally, there are intangible benefits relating to brand and reputation enhance-
ment, benefits that we will consider at the end of Chapter 4.
All in all, we estimate total costs of our internal green program over ten years to
amount to $356,000, with total benefits of approximately $33,000. Discounted back
to Year 0, total investment in our green program amounts to nearly $204,000 (see
Figure 3.5) or approximately $22,000 per year.

10 TOTOTALSALS
4 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
1,000
1,000
1,000
1,000
1,000
1,000 1,000 1,000 1,000 1,000 1,000 1,000 10,000
1,000
1,000
10,000
500
500
500
500 500 500 500 500 500 500 5,000
500
500
500
500
5,000
1,800
1,800
1,800
18,000
1,800 1,800 1,800 1,800 1,800 1,800 1,800 18,000
1,800
1,800
1,800
1,800
3,300
3,300
3,300
3,300
3,300
33,000
3,300
3,300 3,300 3,300 3,300 3,300 3,300 3,300 33,000
3,300
(1,600)
(1,600) (1,600) (1,600) (1,600) (1,600) (1,600) (1,600) (16,000)
(1,600)
(1,600)
(1,600)
(1,600)
(16,000)
(1,600)
(1,600)
(4,000)
(4,000)
(4,000) (4,000) (4,000) (4,000) (4,000) (4,000) (4,000) (40,000)
(4,000)
(40,000)
(4,000)
(4,000)
(4,000)
(4,000)
(5,000)
(5,000)
(49,000)
(5,000)
(5,000)
(5,000)
(5,000)
(5,000)
(5,000) (5,000) (5,000) (5,000) (5,000) (5,000) (5,000) (49,000)
(1,500)
(1,500)
(15)
(15)
(39,000)
(39,000)
(20,000)
(20,000)
(24,938)
(14,258)
(18,856)
(32,980)
(14,258) (16,397) (18,856) (21,685) (24,938) (28,678) (32,980) (190,347)
(28,678)
(190,347)
(16,397)
(21,685)
(355,862)
(35,538)
(26,997)
(29,456)
(43,580)
(39,278)
(24,858) (26,997) (29,456) (32,285) (35,538) (39,278) (43,580) (355,862)
(32,285)
(24,858)
(23,697)
(26,156)
(21,558) (23,697) (26,156) (28,985) (32,238) (35,978) (40,280)
(21,558)
(35,978)
(40,280)
(28,985)
(32,238)
0.513
0.683 0.621 0.564 0.513 0.467 0.424 0.386 0
0.683
0.621
0.564
0.424
0.386
0.467
(14,714)
(14,725)
(14,725) (14,714) (14,765) (14,874) (15,039) (15,258) (15,530) 0
(15,258)
(15,530)
(15,039)
(14,765)
(14,874)