Page 217 - The Green Building Bottom Line The Real Cost of Sustainable Building

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■ Discipline. Stick to the plan you made as part of your acquisition. Set and meet dead-
lines. Evaluate how you’re doing. Much easier to say than do, however. Our ability to
execute a disciplined approach is challenged by the rapid advancement of technology,
new government standards (building codes), and evolving incentives for innovations.
You may plan to install a new chiller in three years, but you cannot predict where the
technologies may be at that point in time.
■ Building age. It’s probably helpful to consider potential acquisitions that are more than
ten years old. At that point, roofing materials are beginning to break down, HVAC sys-
tems are ripe for improvements, parking surfaces are calling for more than just a simple
cosmetic slurry coat, and common areas will be showing their age.
■ Location: Site orientation. This is not something you have much control over, obvi-
ously, nor should it be a make-or-break criterion if a building that you find to be a com-
pelling purchase is unfortunately oriented north to south. Still, all things being equal, as
with a LEED for New Construction project, it pays to consider how well a building is
situated to take advantage of daylighting while being insulated from heat gain.
■ Location: Access to wind and solar power. As a company, you may wish to consider
focusing acquisition work in areas where either or both of these energy-generation alter-
natives are in abundant supply.
■ Location: Support for sustainable strategies. Acquisitions in areas where there is
strong support for sustainable strategies, either in the form of incentives (e.g., for alter-
native energy) or in the form of progressive regulations (e.g., ordinances that support
graywater treatment systems).
■ Leveraging weak points. Some buildings simply perform poorly in terms of their
energy efficiency. That can be a good thing from an acquisition standpoint. Look for
current areas of under-performance that, with a deft sustainable touch, can be opportu-
nities for value-add. Chances are these areas are getting a look during due diligence, but
not with a sustainable eye.
■ Tenant mix. Requirements for financing vary for each asset type. In an office building,
for example, there should be diversity among the tenants that is consistent with the area.
Beyond the risks of a dependence on one market segment (as recently exemplified by
the sub-prime lending sector) there is a social element to the tenant mix. Sustainable
development must consider the community where the asset is located.
■ Building size. As our culture generally and the real estate industry particularly begin to
focus greater attention on decentralized (i.e., localized) forms of energy delivery, hav-
ing a certain critical mass to justify on-site generation of energy is likely to be an impor-
tant criterion of acquisition work in the not-too-distant future.
■ Building skin. This issue may be already covered as part of an energy audit on the
building, but you would certainly want to consider how much glass is part of the exte-
rior envelope, the degree to which there are operable windows, how thermally efficient
the shell is, how much daylight is provided, etc.

A green acquisition checklist should also include a list of things to be on the look-
out for, in terms of the outside of the building, such as: