feature

by Isam Hasenin

Green building is the hottest building development topic these days, apparently driven by one of those mystical harmonic convergences of media-driven trends and old-fashioned, bottom-line market economics. Whether you believe this is due to former Vice President Al Gore’s Oscar Award-winning documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, or to the significant buy-in of major Wall Street businesses from Dupont to Wal-Mart, the facts demonstrate daily that “green building” and its integrated systems approach to energy efficiencies and materials intricate to the design, construction and operations of buildings in both commercial and residential sectors are real. We appear to be at one of those actual “tipping points” business gurus love to cite these days, in the midst of what was once called a “sea change” or “paradigm shift” in how we live.

Not surprisingly, San Francisco ranks among the top ten U.S. cities in its national leadership involvement in green building–at least in terms of the total number of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design-certified buildings. San Francisco currently has 9 certified green buildings, while Seattle, the national leader, has 23. We also have 60 LEED-registered buildings, accounting for more than 13 million sq. ft. of space. That number includes the new California Academy of Sciences, designed by internationally-acclaimed Pritzker Prize-winning architect Renzo Piano, which will be the first LEED Platinum building in San Francisco.

The LEED certification program was created by the U.S. Green Building Council to provide a definitive standard for what constitutes a green building. It’s now the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high-performance green buildings. Promoting an integrated approach to sustainability, LEED rates building performance in five key areas: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection and indoor environmental quality. LEED designations fall into one of four categories: Certified, Silver, Gold or Platinum. To earn LEED certification, a project must be registered with the USGBC. It then merits Certified, Silver, Gold or Platinum ratings by meeting specified prerequisites and performance “credits” within each of the five key areas. For example, to earn LEED Gold requires a project to achieve at least 40 out of a total of a possible 69 credit points, significantly higher than LEED Silver, but below LEED Platinum.

The Green Fast Track
San Francisco is stepping up its leadership activities in green building. Effective last October, the city’s Building Inspection and Planning commissions issued new fast-track directives that provide market-based economic incentives to developers planning to build major new commercial developments. These directives provide priority permit reviews from both the Planning and Building departments to all new and renovated buildings that qualify for the LEED Gold rating or equivalent–a process that shaves at least six months’ waiting off the qualified development’s total timeline. Applied to projects valued in the multiple millions of dollars, these time savings translate quickly into bottom-line, long-term investment incentives.

As San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom noted, “The priority processing directives provide incentives to encourage more developers to ‘Go for the Gold’ in LEED certification. And expedited LEED Gold certification is not simply more energy-efficient buildings for our city,” he added, “but also a way for San Francisco to attract substantial economic investments while implementing socially responsible architecture.”

The mayor also recently released recommendations from his new Green Building Task Force–comprised of 10 members of San Francisco’s building ownership, developer, financial, architectural, engineering and construction communities–whom the mayor selected for their knowledge and commitment to San Francisco’s long-term sustainability. The task force’s recommendations address new commercial and residential buildings, as well as major alterations to both. For large commercial buildings and renovations, the task force recommends a phased approach, with an immediate target of LEED Certified, increasing to LEED Gold by 2012. For smaller commercial buildings, where the payback for green design is less substantial, the task force recommends voluntary compliance to the extent practicable.

As of July 2007, the city has several downtown buildings–including 222 Second St., 535 Mission St. and 110 The Embarcadero (which has 20 apartments)–that have qualified for priority processing, and which represent more than one million square feet. These projects have been accepted in the city’s faster-track system of reviews and approvals. Of the 12 projects that have applied for the program, 7 have been accepted and assigned, 3 are pending acceptance, and 2 are awaiting the new TransBay rezoning environmental impact report and transportation analysis.

Also on the horizon is a new building project announced in mid-April by the city’s Public Utility Commission for its new headquarters. The design and construction of this project may make it more energy-efficient than any large office building in the United States. The PUC hopes to break ground next spring on the proposed 12-story building near City Hall.

In addition to the valuable time saved, there are other substantial benefits that more and more builders, and businesses, are recognizing as impressive “returns on investment,” or ROI, from LEED Gold buildings. With reduced energy and water consumption, reduced waste streams, reduced wear and tear on infrastructure, along with increased productivity and improved health for those living and working in green buildings, the LEED Gold ROI is estimated to produce savings in the $50 per sq. ft. realm, while costing less than $5 per sq. ft. to build, or a tenfold ROI.

These are the kinds of numbers that are being noticed, and acted upon, especially when considering the increasingly better-understood environmental impact of commercial and residential buildings upon our economic well-being. According to figures gathered by the USGBC, commercial and residential buildings account for more than 65% of total U.S. electricity consumption, as well as 46% of total greenhouse gas emissions–a significant part of our so-called “carbon footprint.”
According to U.S. Department of Energy statistics, the construction and operation of conventional, or nongreen, buildings use 35% of all the energy our nation currently consumes. These buildings are also responsible for 35% of the materials now going into landfills; the figures also show conventional buildings use 30% of wood and other raw materials, and contribute to 35% of the carbon dioxide produced nationwide.

Based upon current projections from the City’s Department of Environment, which plays a leading role in promoting and monitoring the progress under way with the transition to more green buildings, the Building and Planning departments are expecting the newly enacted permit priority processing to yield at least six green buildings per year, assuming that 20% of LEED-registered buildings attempt Gold certification. And given the numbers of calls coming in daily for more information about green building, aided no doubt by increasing national and international media coverage, as well as by rapidly growing consumer demands for greener developments, this estimate may grow much faster.

San Francisco is a nexus of intellectual capital and technological savvy when it comes to green building, and already has approximately 1,000 LEED-accredited professionals who are working in nearly 300 companies. Dozens of city building inspectors and planners have taken LEED training courses and are on track to obtain professional certifications in an effort to keep pace with growing market demands. In 2004, the city also adopted as law LEED Silver requirements for all municipal buildings over 5,000 square feet of new construction/major  renovation. And discussions are well under way in what may emerge as a model public-private partnership to accelerate green and sustainable building practices, which will take San Francisco to a significantly higher national leadership level in the emerging world of green building.

DBI Goes Green
In conjunction with this trend toward more green buildings, the Department of Building Inspection is also taking additional steps toward greater sustainability in building projects. Using both incentives and code requirements, DBI is responding to building-industry and consumer demand, state code changes, and policy decisions and directions provided by the Mayor’s Office, city boards and commissions. In addition to fast-track priority processing for qualified LEED Gold buildings, DBI is also a leader in providing expedited solar energy permits–a step that has resulted in a dramatic increase in the numbers of permits issued, from just over 100 in 2004 to more than 400 through 2006.

In the energy realm, Title 24 of the recently adopted 2005 California energy code requires highly energy-efficient buildings. It contains an expanded scope that requires increased energy efficiencies even in existing buildings when renovations are made. DBI has focused its mechanical plan review staff on careful enforcement of these state-mandated requirements, and now requires project certification by a licensed design professional or contractor on completion of a project. And thanks to code changes in storm-water discharges, where the city’s Building and Plumbing codes have been updated to permit the discharge of rainwater from roofs to yard areas with appropriate engineering, we expect these changes to increase substantially groundwater recharge and to reduce storm-water volume and related wastewater treatment needs.

As DBI’s new director, I’m impressed by the public-private partnership well under way here in San Francisco on behalf of green building, and the growing market forces increasingly supporting what promises to become a whole new way of building, living and working. Having played a leadership role in the City of San Diego-UC San Diego Environment and Sustainability Initiative–an executive level group formed to facilitate deeper collaboration among key stakeholders, and aimed at nurturing a “Clean Tech” cluster in San Diego in biotechnology fields–I’m looking forward to working with colleagues at the Planning and Environment departments, and with all the other stakeholders, to manage the city’s green building opportunities.

In addition, as Vice Chair of the California Building Standards Commission, I am happy to announce that a number of statewide green building initiatives are under way: the establishment of a green building advisory body, implementation by the state’s Department of General Services of policies and recommendations that will apply to the maintenance and use of existing state buildings, and construction standards for new buildings.

For more information on the steps San Francisco is taking to provide more energy-efficient and sustainable green building, visit sites for www.sfgov.org/environment; the Department of City Planning, www.sfgov.org/planning; and the Department of Building Inspection, www.sfgov.org/dbi.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the viewpoint of SFAA or SF Apartment Magazine. Isam Hasenin is the new director of the Department of Building Inspection, which oversees the effective, efficient, fair and safe enforcement of San Francisco’s Building, Housing, Plumbing, Electrical, Mechanical and Disability Access Codes. Copyright © 2007 by SF Apartment Magazine. All rights reserved.