Systems
The City of Denver has placed multiple different systems in place when it comes to taking an initiative to help office buildings become more sustainable. Their systems help make buildings more energy efficient, create less water waste, and make operating expenses less expensive in the future. The City of Denver has led by example by redeveloping their current office buildings to become more sustainable. As of 2017, nine City of Denver facilities adopted the use of energy star efficiency products. They have laid down the benchmark for building owners. For example, starting with switching out their current light bulbs with LED, to installing daylight sensors and upgrading the HVAC systems and putting in more sustainable water fixtures. The city has put out the science on not only why this helps the environment but why it helps the tenants and the owners of the buildings. When a tenant works in a more sustainable building, studies have proven that employees are healthier, and more productive.. While creating higher valued buildings for the owners due to lower operating cost.
To help landlords and property managers promote their sustainable redevelopment plan, they have created the Smart Leasing Program. This program lets landlords and property managers promote the energy efficiencies of their property to the market. It allows for more transparency between the tenant and the landlord as well as to keep improving energy efficiency.
Currently, Denver Water has implemented a program to help chose products that use less water without sacrificing quality or product performance. This program is called WaterSense. Denver Water has partnered with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to create this program. The goal of this program is to label water products such as sink faucets, high-efficiency toilets and urinals, high-efficiency shower heads, and may more water related products.
City of Denver has basic construction codes for wastewater engineering. During the construction process the owner or developer must provide storm and sanitary sewer services to the development site. On all new developments in the city and redevelopments, approval of the wastewater engineering is required. The city will review storm lines, sanitary sewer lines, drainage channels, and water quality faculties. Prior to construction on commercial buildings, the owner or developer must obtain a sewer use and drainage permit (SUPD). The permit fails to detail any measures that will cause less harm. Nothing is stated on an grey water or rainwater collection systems during the construction process.
Water is used throughout the construction process. It is one of the most important elements in construction materials. And the quality of the water is key. Water is required for the preparation of mortar, mixing of cement concrete and for curing the work. Water can be easily wasted in all of these procedures. We see that dust suppression tools use up the majority of water resources on construction sites. Current systems to help elevate the issue is the use of energy efficient hoses, closed-loop watering recycling and other dust suppression methods can lower the water usage.
stakeholders
When it comes to sustainable redevelopment there are many different stakeholders involved in the movement. All of the different stakeholders shape the way we live and act within the built environment. These stakeholders that affect sustainable redevelopment fall on both sides of the private and public sectors. To begin with, we have our local and federal governments. Which operate within the public sector. In the private sector we start with investors and go all the way to developers, designers and non-governmental organizations. Each plays a strong role in the sustainable redevelopment of commercial real estate. The public sector begins with setting the guidelines and the investors begin the process with the financing. While developers implement the change, NGOs help be the middle person between the public and private sector while also collecting data.
Government:
The city of Denver specifically has gotten more and more progressive within setting a benchmark and targets for sustainable redevelopment projects. In Denver, 57% of all emissions comes from commercial and multi-family units. This statistic was taking over several years of collecting information on buildings in Denver. The City of Denver worked with Energy Star to obtain this number. Denver has already begun to run the numbers on how being energy efficiency can be a huge win for the economy. It would take around $340 million dollars investment, but it would save $1.3 billion in energy savings. Local governments play a major role in the beginning process of sustainable redevelopment. They help collect the data and run the numbers to set a benchmark for investors and developers. On the national level when it comes to conserving water in commercial buildings, the EPA (Environment Protection Agency) have made it a priority to of water conservation within premise plumbing. Stated in one of the research grants, the agency believes that the shortage of water and the competition for water increases the need to use water more efficiently. The grant focuses on the design, renovation, or managed plumbing within buildings.
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Investors/Developers/Managers:
It begins with the investor after the government has decided to set benchmarks and goals for more sustainable features in office buildings. And for developers to have the ability to redevelop, investors must offer financial products to start the process. It is also on the developers to implement these strong ideas to help current office buildings become more sustainable. The tenants of the building cannot make such drastic physical changes that the developers and investors have the power to do. Some ideas that this group can do it to create a low flow plumbing system. Having products that use less water. Simply changing the water faucets and toilets'. Using grey water from showers and sinks to water the outside landscape. In most states you can collect rainwater. In Colorado you can at the residential level. It achieve this goal this group of people is important. They need to buy in to the culture of reducing water because they are the ones who are at the level to actually implement within the private sector.
People:
Once an office building has been sustainably redeveloped it takes the buying in of the people who work in the buildings to achieve the ultimate goal. Education is key to the details. Learning the basics between the differences between trash, recycling, and composting to simply turning off your computer when you leave the office. The people in office buildings have to accept sustainability like it is a cult. Within the office building individuals can help by reducing their own waste. Using compost bins to reusable water bottle. A lot of waste ends up in rivers and water across the country. Plastic being a large contributor. Plastic water bottles are dangerous. Encouraging individuals to avoid is important key to education.
Construction Managers:
Millions of gallons of water is wasted during the construction process of office buildings. Dust suppression tools use the majority of water during the process. By switching over to alterative products such as water efficient hoses, water recycling, and other dust suppression tools the industry to lower the amount of fresh water used quickly. By simply doing this, the cost of the construction process can go down. Saving the developers money and conserving the fresh water supply.
Discussion and Critique of Current Approaches
As stated before, buildings and the construction of buildings accounts for 36% of global energy use, 40% of energy use, consume 12% of the world's drinkable water, and 39% of energy related carbon dioxide. In the United States, commercial and residential builds account for 40% of energy consumption. In the UK, energy used in the construction and use of our homes and other buildings accounts for around half of the total carbon dioxide emissions. Currently, the environmental impact of buildings is mostly dominated by the use phase, i.e. the energy demand for operation. Another current major issue with buildings is material use as companies will use cheap materials resulting in a worse impact on the environment. The choice of constructional material influences the operational energy demand of buildings. This is due to the differences in physical properties, such as thermal inertia or resistance. Many governments and states have put in laws and acts that force builders to create environmentally safe buildings (as you can read about below). While this is helping new buildings to become safer, the issue still remains of older buildings that still have major energy inefficiencies. Not to mention building in itself is incredibly destructive to the environment.
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Worldwide, companies and people are trying to make commercial buildings more sustainable and environmentally safe. Some current approaches include:
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US has LEED certified buildings (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design)
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LEED is an internationally recognized green building certification system, providing third-party verification that a building or community was designed and built using strategies aimed at improving sustainability.
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Canada has its own LEED certification system, and many countries in Europe, including France and the United Kingdom, have similar systems.
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Hanging Gardens are becoming more popular.
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They are installed on the outside of buildings and hang/grow around the building.
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Can help insulate the building and reduce heating/cooling costs​
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Living Walls/Biowalls - reflect solar radiation, improve air quality by absorbing carbon dioxide, absorb rainwater
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Many buildings now use solar panels on top of the building
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Requires more money and effort​
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Photovoltaics - Newest and best form of solar panels
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More cost efficient​
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Replaces traditional structures (walls, roofs)
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Creates a closed grid - a building that can generate and use its own electricity
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Dual Plumbing Systems
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Conserves water by seperating the water into two types: Potable and reclaimed. Potable is drinkable water while reclaimed is from waste or sewage (not drinkable)​
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Problem with this is it is more expensive for building owners
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Chiller Boiler Systems (more efficient in smaller buildings)
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HVAC (air conditioning & heat) uses​ more energy than anything else in a commercial building. AC lets off a ton of carbon dioxide hurting the environment.
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Chiller Boiler Systems are different than HVAC systems in that it uses water - so heating water to create steam, creates heat. Vice versa, cooling the water to create cold air.
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This system uses more of the buildings water, however, it reduces gas emissions greatly.
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While there is not a simple solution to this problem, we can still take small steps to create a safer living environment for ourselves. A solution to the problem could be to build “smart buildings.” Buildings designed with “intelligence” to optimize occupant productivity—via improved air quality, optimal lighting, and greater comfort—at the lowest cost and environmental impact. However, this is not very realistic as building uses the most energy thus having a bad impact on the environment, and also a majority of buildings are already built. It would be impossible to knock down old buildings and build new. So, the solution remains in making old buildings environmentally safer. This is a task that would take a long time and cost a lot of money, but there has to be a way to efficiently achieve this goal. A solution could be if countries put in laws, over time, stating that building owners need to make changes to their buildings to make them safer to the environment. Example, law comes out that in 5 years, every building needs to have some source of renewable energy. I.e, adding solar panels to their buildings, having better ventilation systems, adding a composting program.
Every 5 years, these buildings need to add or change something that will make their building safer. We understand the process could be very expensive, but this way it will give owners a solid amount of time to add just one greener action at a time, some that are relatively cheap, but over the long run will have a very positive impact on the environment. Technology is also going to play a major role in this drive for change as we now have a vast increase of data collection on buildings and cities energy use around the world, so we can begin to address these problems with focused solutions for a spectrum of inefficiencies. A large part of this data collection is to find a solution to help people and their behavior. We have to find ways to make people more aware of the seriousness of this problem so everybody can work together (in a way). With smarter resources at our disposal, we can work to make existing buildings more efficient so that humans can live better.
Possible solutions
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Suggested steps for Denver
In the city of Denver, buildings and homes are responsible for 63% of greenhouse gas emissions. These places are where we spend a majority of the day working and living are the key to having a successfully sustainable environment, and city. The city of Denver is looking to reduce greenhouse gas emissions completely by 2030. Making redevelopment a priority will reduce the levels of emissions throughout the city, especially in an urban city.
To begin this process, the City of Denver needs to expand on their pre-existing programs that are in place to incentivize building owners to redevelop their buildings to meet new standards. The Green Buildings Ordinance Energy Program is a great initiative that requires buildings over 25,000 square feet to install a cool roof when they replace their existing roof. The program includes sustainable redevelopment tools, efficiency standards, and improvement projects that aid building owners in starting a redevelopment project.
For the City of Denver to move forward even further and faster, there needs to be a set of rules to push building owners to move towards sustainable redevelopment. Tax exemptions for redeveloped projects, new zoning for commercial space, and an expedited process of receiving a building permit are crucial to helping Denver’s commercial properties move in the right direction.
There are a number of organizations that assist and evaluate the redevelopment process for commercial space such as LEED. Their rating system is based off of the sustainability within the building to support the environment while remaining a successful business operation. LEED has the ability to partner with the city of Denver to promote new projects, as well as incentivize old buildings to reshape their existing foundation into a new and improved sustainable foundation to reduce emissions.