Page 209 - The Green Building Bottom Line The Real Cost of Sustainable Building

EXISTING BUILDINGS 187

basis (five days a week), what gets done periodically, and specifies that all cleaning
agents supplied by the contractor must be Green Seal approved. Green cleaning
greatly contributes to good indoor air quality in the building and means we use fewer
products. Our cleaning contractor, for example, uses one glass cleaner and one surface
cleaner when cleaning the bathrooms. We meet with our cleaning contractor every two
weeks to ensure that things are running smoothly and check the cleaning supplies
closet regularly to insure compliance with our policies.

COMMUNITY BUILDING IN AN OFFICE BUILDING
Our building amenities—the conference rooms, the break room, and the fitness area—
have helped us attract tenants and retain them. Having community areas in a build-
ing are a trade-off—they make the building more appealing to tenants and can foster
community, but they reduce the overall amount of space available for rent. (About 18
percent of the square footage of the Crestwood Building is in the common areas; we
use a 15 percent common area allocation when calculating the rent per square foot.
The BOMA [Building Owners and Managers Association International] standard is
12 percent.)
The three conference rooms are available to tenants free for eight hours per month
on a first-come, first-served basis. Tenants who have only an occasional need for a
large meeting space appreciate having these spaces available.
An attractive, comfortable break room that’s always accessible provides space for
socializing during the workday, and has tables and chairs where tenants can eat lunch
(many brown bag) without having to drive to a restaurant, saving them time, energy,
and money. The break room also provides tenants space for informal meetings and the
opportunity to get away from their desks without having to leave the building. An out-
side vendor provides vending machines, keeps the machines stocked with drinks and
snacks, and services the machines as needed.
The fitness area was added to the building as part of the improvements made shortly
after acquisition of the building. More recently, the lighting fixtures were changed to
ones that accommodate high-efficiency fluorescent tubes. Equipped with treadmills,
stationary bikes, a rowing machine, stair-climbing machine, elliptical trainer, free
weights, and weight machines, the fitness area is available to all tenants 24/7 via pass
key access. Changing rooms with showers are provided. The fitness area is cleaned by
the cleaning crew, and repairs to the equipment are handled on an as-needed basis
through an on-call maintenance contract with an outside vendor.
A touch screen monitor in the lobby serves as an interactive directory and provides
information to tenants and visitors about networking opportunities, working in a sus-
tainable building, and area amenities. We also communicate with tenants via an elec-
tronic newsletter (see Figure 6.3) that informs them about upcoming events in the
building (like the chocolate fountain we bring in on Valentine’s Day), and welcomes
and introduces new tenants.
We also use the newsletter to disseminate information about transportation options,
such as Georgia’s Clean Air Campaign, a not-for-profit organization that educates