The US General Services Administration (GSA), the largest property owner in the U.S., promotes government-wide efforts to create green, sustainable buildings.  To support this work, the General Services Administration has issued two Realty Services Letters, one on the topic of Green Lease Policies and Procedures for Lease Acquisition and the other on Energy Star Requirement for Lease Acquisition, and a final Sustainability Update.  These policies incorporate modified and additional green language in all federal leases, they also require buildings to earn the Energy Star label.

When structured properly, green leasing can be mutually beneficial for the tenant and the landlord, however there are a few barriers to making green leasing ubiquitous in the private sector.  One of the biggest barriers to green leasing is feedback and measuring the return on investment.  A tenant occupying a small portion of a large commercial building might make certain efficiency upgrades, but if the building is not submetered, there is no way to show their accomplishments or measure their savings.  Also, some sustainability strategies are impossible to pursue depending on who is in control of which areas.  For instance, a tenant might want to insulate the roof to provide for more energy savings, but might not have that kind of control.

While green leasing adoption still lags behind conventional leasing, it is clear that green leases are becoming an established strategy for enabling more environmentally and financially efficient operations in all types of buildings.

A green lease aligns the incentives of both the landlord and the tenant toward conservation of resources and efficient operation while helping maintain a healthy, productive interior environment. 

In a traditional commercial lease, the tenant is typically responsible for paying its rent, plus additional pass through costs, such as its proportionate share of the property taxes, building insurance, and maintenance costs.  This type of lease may discourage an owner's investment in green building upgrades because they may not provide a sufficient return. The landlord pays, but most of the benefits go to the tenant in the form of lower maintenance and operations costs.  If the landlord undertakes green construction, he or she may not realize a share of the resulting savings. For more efficient buildings, landlords will likely be able to charge a higher rent, but that increase may not generate a return sufficient to justify the investment.

If, instead, a gross lease is used, where the landlord pays some of the costs usually passed to the tenant, incentives align better for green design.  In this set-up, the landlord can recoup its investment through reduced operating costs and continued high efficiency.  In order to affirm tenants have a stake in the building’s green character, some costs need to be passed through to the tenants to provide the proper incentives.  For instance, landlords could require tenants to achieve LEED for Commercial Interiors certification, participate in recycling programs, specify green improvements and disposal of waste, use of energy efficient light bulbs, motion sensing light timers, low-flow toilets, or Energy Star rated appliances in their leases. 

Building information modeling, or BIM, is a powerful type of computer software that promises to enhance the functional, technical, and economic performance of all construction, no matter how complex.  BIM is a design tool showing how different building systems will function and interact under different conditions or variations.  Buildings designed using BIM may consume less energy, emit less carbon, be more comfortable thermally and acoustically, utilize less water, and be more cost-effective than buildings that do not use BIM.

BIM allows building designers to visualize and modify digital models of possible construction designs while showing any or all of a building’s many components and systems.  For instance, if a designer tweaks the roof slope, the software immediately adjusts and displays the entire digital model to reflect the change in all other systems.

The BIM tool can compare multiple design options and optimize a design based on selected parameters.  So, for instance, if a client wants to optimize a building's design to enhance daylighting or energy use, BIM can help designers accomplish those goals.  BIM can also help designers predict how a building will perform into the future and keep architects in the planning stages for heating, cooling, ventilation, plumbing, electricity, and other system needs rather than handing off those responsibilities.  BIM is very conducive to collaborative design and integrated project delivery.

In general, electricity cannot be easily stored on a large scale for commercial and residential use.  Because of this storage and distribution problem, supply and demand for energy must be kept at equilibrium, as much as possible, in real time.  In the past, utilities have attempted to increase power generation to meet peak demands.  Peak electricity usage varies by location and season, but generally, demand is highest during business hours and early evenings.  However, on hot days in the summer when air conditioning loads are significant, energy demands can exceed what utilities are able to provide. 

Demand response is an incentive strategy that utilities use to entice their customers to lower demand for electric power generation during severe (peak) times when demand may outstrip capacity. Customers are paid for reducing their electricity consumption for a short period during a critical "peak load" time. Demand response works for consumers and business owners alike (demand side) because commercial and residential property owners can be paid for their energy curtailment, as well as for utilities (supply side) because a successful demand response program may obviate the need to build a new power plant, or expand the capacity of an existing one.

Like many large cities, New York has an old water infrastructure system that combines stormwater and wastewater.  During heavy storms, the system can reach capacity, requiring excess water to be discharged into the New York Harbor. 

San Francisco, Chicago, and Portland, Oregon, along with other major cities, all suffer from this same infrastructure problem.  This is a very damaging environmental problem, causing issues like eutrophication and algal blooms. However, it is also a potentially expensive problem to fix, as it involves replacing all of the underground pipes in large concrete laden metropolitan areas.  To help reduce the quantity and improve the quality of stormwater in New York City, Mayor Michael Bloomberg revealed a Green and Blue Roof plan for the city.

A Brownfield site is land previously used for industrial or commercial uses that may be contaminated by low concentrations of hazardous waste or pollution and has the potential to be cleaned up and reused.  In 1995, the US Environmental Protection Agency’s Brownfields Program began empowering states, communities, and other stakeholders to work together in a timely manner to prevent, assess, safely clean up, and sustainably reuse Brownfields.

With about 40% of all landfill waste in the United States coming from construction and demolition waste, there is a lot of room for error when it comes to the correct disposal of construction and demolition waste.  A lot of construction and demolition waste like concrete, wood, and carpet, have the potential for safe reuse.  On the other hand, waste materials latent with asbestos and hazardous wastewater must be carefully disposed of as to protect public health and the environment.  We trust waste management companies to comply with environmental laws, however, there are some instances where these companies have put us at danger.

The benefits of LEED Neighborhood Development extend far beyond energy and water saving benefits.  Studies by Cornell University’s environmental and developmental psychologist, Gary Evans, show that the way neighborhoods are designed can have a large impact on children’s development.  Evans found that noise level, overcrowding, and housing and neighborhood quality all have as significant an impact on a child’s development as relationships with parents and peers.  Noise and housing/neighborhood quality are the two variables that can be controlled by LEED Neighborhood Development. 

Simple miscommunication and human error in the LEED documentation process can cause your team more than just a headache; it could cost your team a LEED certification or certification level.  These case studies should serve as a warning to those planning to gain LEED certification to be meticulous when going through the documentation process.

Recently representatives from small and medium sized cities convened in Portland, Oregon for the first-ever Urban Sustainability Accelerator. 

The program has been designed by Portland State University to assist smaller cities and neighborhoods with their sustainability policy ideas, as well as recommendations and strategies for implementation.

Portland is well-known as a leading sustainable city and the Accelerator will offer mentorship and advice from Portland’s sustainability experts. Portland has led in a variety of sustainability efforts. Portland was the first American city to adopt a Global Warming Action Plan in 1993, and it is consistently ranked one of the most sustainable cities (if not the most sustainable).  Mother Nature Network ranked it #1 in 2012, and Popular Science also called it the greenest city in the U.S. in 2008.  In 2012, the city recycled 63% of its waste and held the highest number of LEED certified buildings in the country.  The city cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 12.5% per capita between 1993 and 2009, while the rest of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions increased.

Passive houses are not only designed to operate with minimal (if any) active heating and cooling, but also, thanks to a bright student design team, they could also become affordable for almost anyone.

Designing a passive house that maintains a constant level of thermal comfort with minimal active heating and cooling is accomplished by focusing on 1) optimal window orientation for maximal use of the sun's rays, 2) a highly insulated building envelope that is virtually air-tight and 3) thoughtful HVAC design (mechanical, passive or hybrid) that keeps the home at a relatively steady, comfortable indoor climate.

A passive home's solar orientation lets heat from the sun warm the interior during the winter, while integrated shading structures provide cooling and keep unwanted incremental heat out during the summer.

The Passive House Institute, which certifies passive homes, claims that the design cuts energy costs by 65-90%, however some experts, such as Martin Holladay, dispute this, and claim that passive houses not only are less efficient, but also will always need an integrated mechanical system to achieve near-constant thermal comfort.

Empowerhouse in Dearwood, Washington D.C., which won the affordability contest at the Solar Decathlon in 2012 is one excellent example of passive house design that not only reduces energy costs by 90%, but also uses a thoughtful "light-mechanical" HVAC  design incorporating renewable energy to achieve net zero performance.