|
|
A printer-friendly PDF version of this article is also available.
Green Buildings: Bringing Environmentally Sensitive Design to San Francisco
By the SPUR Sustainable
Development Committee
This article
first appeared in the June,
2001 SPUR Newsletter.
INTRODUCTION
San Francisco has an opportunity
to reap tremendous economic,
environmental, and health benefits
by adopting recent advances in
“green building”—benefits that will
only increase in value over time.
Many standard building design, construction,
operation, and renovation
practices are outmoded, inefficient,
costly, and have adverse health and
economic effects. The shift to new,
environmentally sensitive practices
would maintain San Francisco’s status
as a leader in urban planning and
environmental innovation. A shift
to green buildings is also vital to
enhancing San Francisco’s livability
for its residents, workers, and visitors.
On April 18, 2001, the SPUR
Board of Directors voted to urge the
city to explore ways to encourage
green building in San Francisco.
The following paper was developed
by the SPUR Sustainable
Development Committee, as a contribution
to this discussion.
“Green building” is the widely
adopted term for strategies to
improve the environmental performance
of buildings. It includes energy
efficiency, water conservation,
indoor environmental quality, use of
recycled and renewable materials,
construction waste reduction, and
site planning.
Other cities around the United
States and around the world have
already begun adopting green building
policies to improve the performance
of their building stock. Seattle, WA,
Portland, OR and New York City
all have established programs with
explicit targets for performance
improvements in new municipal
buildings, and the state of California
adopted such requirements in the
fall of 2000.
San Francisco itself has taken
positive measures towards these
goals through parts of its General
Plan, the 1997 Sustainability Plan,
and most specifically in the 1999
Resource-Efficient City Building
Ordinance. This 1999 ordinance
began a modest pilot program,
under the joint jurisdiction of the
Department of Environment and the
Department of Public Works, to
incorporate green building features
into new city-owned facilities. This
recent law builds on earlier legislation
like the residential and commercial
energy conservation ordinances.
A more far-reaching green
building program could have
tremendous benefits for San
Francisco. The city can build on its
own and other model forays into
green building and do more to move
municipal buildings in an
ecological direction. Perhaps more
importantly, there is an urgent need
to move private sector development
in the direction of more ecologically
sensitive design.
The SPUR Sustainable
Development Committee suggests
using the city’s building code and planning code as instruments to
allow, encourage, and, in some cases,
require the use of green building
techniques in private-sector development
in San Francisco. We also suggest
support of the Department of
Public Works and Department of
Environment as they take the next
steps in the municipal green building
program.
This article is divided into five
sections:
1. The need for a green building
policy
2. Barriers to green buildings
3. Opportunities in the building
code
4. Opportunities in the planning
code
5. A green retrofit of municipal
buildings.
THE NEED FOR A
GREEN BUILDING POLICY
Building construction and occupancy
have significant impacts on natural
systems and, thus, on our health and
our economy. For example:
-
Building-related energy use
represents over 30% of the energy
consumed in the U.S., including
60% of our electricity consumption.
-
Buildings account for at least 35%
of U.S. CO2 emissions.
-
It is estimated that 30% of
buildings in the U.S. have “poor” indoor air quality.
-
The direct costs of buildingrelated
illnesses may exceed $30
billion in the U.S., while the
productivity losses and sickleave
resulting from poor building
environments approach $100 billion.
-
A 1990 study by the American
Medical Association and the
U.S. Army found that indoor
air quality problems cost U.S.
businesses 150 million workdays
and about $15 billion in productivity
losses each year. The World Health
Organization puts the losses at
more like $60 billion.
-
In some regions of the U.S., 40% of
landfill space is taken up by construction
and demolition debris, at
least half of which could have been
recycled.
ENERGY USE
Within office buildings, roughly 50% of energy is used for climate control
(heating, cooling, and ventilation) and lighting; the rest is used by other
building systems and internal equipment such as office machines. While
residential buildings typically require space heating, commercial buildings,
because of their high occupant and equipment loads and lower proportion
of surface to volume (given their multi-story design), require substantial
amounts of cooling, sometimes even in winter. Although California’s Title
24 requires substantial energy conservation measures to be taken in all
new construction or major renovations, California still faces a state-wide
power shortage and most buildings in the state use far more energy than
is necessary.
Energy efficiency is particularly attractive because its costs and
economic benefits can be accurately projected and measured, and the
benefits typically outweigh the costs. Utility companies have demonstrated
that they can avoid the costs of increasing their generating capacity by
investing in energy conservation, sometimes even paying building owners to
install new appliances, insulation, and related features. Building owners can
realize rapid paybacks (typically within one to five years) through reduced
operating costs (which sometimes can be cut by more than 50%). Particularly
with recent developments in the California energy market, lowering a
building’s demand for energy represents a significant opportunity for
savings. Similarly, supplying a building’s own energy needs through renewable
energy sources (photovoltaics, wind, or bio-mass) has never been more
economically attractive. |
Conventional building design and
construction have created and continue
to create environmental damage that
compromises public health and the
earth’s living systems. Due to the
longevity of buildings (30-50+ years),
we will live with adverse (or beneficial)
effects for a very long time.
By far the most important factor
determining the environmental impact
of a building is its location. Building in a city, where people can walk and take
transit, is always better than building
in the suburbs, to which the building’s
occupants will have to drive and
where the building itself may harm
ecologically productive land. Under
this first criterion, San Francisco is
by definition a good place to build,
and locating within walking distance
of major transit lines is the right
place to build within San Francisco.
The General Plan, which governs
the location of new development
in the city, is perhaps the most important
environmental document in the
city’s administrative structure. It
already directs growth into the most
environmentally appropriate locations.
The goal of designing buildings
according to green building techniques,
therefore, directs our attention
away from planning issues per se to
site-specific issues at the scale of the
parcel. Once a site has been selected
(ideally based on principles in the
General Plan), we now ask, what kind
of building is to be constructed?
Green building guidelines for
San Francisco would include at
least four areas (each explained in
the sidebars):
1. Energy use
2. Water use
3. Resource use/solid waste
4. Indoor environment.
BARRIERS
Why doesn’t more green building take
place in San Francisco? We have identified
four reasons that are particularly
significant:
-
Tradition. Inertia in the design
and building professions means that
a lot of people will tend to do things
the way that they learned how to,
or follow the path of least resistance.
This is a typical response to change.
It points to the need for education
and training to raise awareness
about green buildings.
-
Code Barriers. In some cases, the
building code makes it hard to
pursue green building techniques.
For example, it is currently illegal
to capture rain water and do something
with it on-site; it must be sent
into the combined sewer system. It’s
difficult to build office buildings that
are entirely cooled with natural ventilation
without running afoul of the
fire code. The codes have many
such barriers.
-
Expense. The extra costs of green
building techniques vary widely.
Generally, technologically advanced
energy, heating, cooling, and lighting
systems lend themselves to clear
cost-benefit calculations. The vast
majority of these green building
techniques represent no cost or low
cost replacements or redesigns of
existing systems. Even the most radical
systems will pay for themselves
over the life of the building, even
without government subsidies.
However, given that in most cases
the developer of a building is not
the ultimate tenant or even owner,
the time horizon for cost-benefit
analysis is much shorter than the life
of the building. This points to the
need for public intervention to
watch out for building quality over a
longer time horizon. In addition,
other green building techniques do
not lend themselves to such simple
cost-benefit calculations, but they
could still be socially valuable.
-
Externalized Costs. Markets fail
when the benefits or costs of a
transaction are not fully captured by
the price. For example, think of a
factory that uses a nearby stream as
a “sink” for its pollution. Without
government regulation, the costs of
the factory’s production are externalized
onto society as a whole,
and the goods produced are underpriced
compared to their social cost.
That is, the goods are artificially
cheaper than they should be because
they do not include the cost of
cleaning up the system. Building
development is full of this kind of
externalized cost. If a developer
makes a street inhospitable to pedestrians
by lining it with a parking
garage, the value is increased for the
tenants (who can park conveniently),
but the public realm is made worse
off. Conversely, if a developer
spends extra money to plant a roof landscape to capture and retain rain
and keep it out of the peak sewer
loads, the developer is not compensated
for the added costs.
water USE
The cost to expand water supply infrastructure is becoming prohibitively
high for local governments, and diverting water from other areas is politically
less popular than ever. Water could very well be the most contentious
resource issue California will face in coming years. In addition to demand
management, there are many ways to use less water, both inside and outside
of buildings. Conserving water saves building owners money on water
and sewer bills, and reduces the need for river damming and wastewater
treatment facility expansions (which depend on taxpayer dollars).
Strategies :
Install water-saving (low-flow) appliances, toilets, and plumbing fixtures.
The Public Utilities Commission (PUC) has, for some years, been providing
low flush toilets as part of an exchange program at extremely low cost— an early precedent for public policy to support green building techniques.
Use water reclamation/recycling systems for site irrigation. In reclaimed
water systems, water from sinks, bathtubs, and showers is filtered and reused
to flush toilets or irrigate on-site landscaping. Alternately, reclaimed
water can be collected, treated, and distributed through pipes; this is
the direction of the city’s Recycled Water Ordinance. Use rainwater catchment
systems that collect and store water from roofs during the rainy
season either for use on-site or, at a minimum, to slow down the discharge
into the combined sewer system to minimize the incidence of overflows.
|
Because developers are the “middle-men,” they are very unlikely
to spend extra money for green building
features voluntarily. There must be
a level playing field—a set of design
and construction standards that apply
equally to all projects.
San Francisco can do many things
to overcome these barriers. The costs
are too high to continue to develop in
ways that compromise our health and
over-consume energy, water, and other
natural resources. Moreover, the
moderate cost of most green building
techniques and given the moderate
climate of San Francisco, we are in an
ideal position to raise our expectations
about the quality of development that
takes place in our city.
The SPUR Sustainable
Development Committee believes the
right approach to this problem is to go
into the heart of the codes themselves,
and to make selective changes to the
building and planning codes. Rather
than create a new bureaucratic layer in
the development approval process
(e.g., an ecological permitting board),
which would either be ignored or, if it
were implemented, would add to the
time and risk associated with development,
we propose that changes be
made within the existing building regulatory
framework. Highly trained
building inspectors already have the
task of making sure that buildings
meet building code requirements. The
Planning Department already goes
through a design review process.
The most elegant and effective way
to encourage green building in San
Francisco is to work within the codes
that already govern the construction
of all buildings in the city.
OPPORTUNITIES IN THE
BUILDING CODE
San Francisco traditionally has taken a
broader view of the building code than
most American cities, using it
as a tool for aesthetic, economic, and
cultural goals. In addition to ensuring
that buildings are safe, the Building
Department (which enforces the code)
is the logical agency to ensure that
buildings are environmentally sustainable.
Our committee proposes the
following actions:
1. Redefine the mission of the
Department of Building Inspection
and the Building Inspection
Commission to include ensuring
the environmental sustainability
of buildings within the city.
2. Based on this expanded departmental
mission, modify the job descriptions
of the Director of the
Department and other staff, as
appropriate. Do not marginalize
environmental concerns within a
separate division; rather, work to
create cultural change within the
department so that sustainability
becomes a core part of everyone’s
work.
3. Appoint an official committee of
architects, contractors, building
inspectors, and green building
experts to revise the building code
to remove all barriers to green
building within the limits set by
health and safety standards.
4. Conduct an inventory of green
building laws that are already on
the books, but not being implemented.
If they are faulty, alter
them to be workable, or develop
implementation plans.
In particular, we recommend the
removal of the following barriers within
the building code:
-
Make it easier for buildings to
use natural ventilation instead of
air conditioning. Designing for
natural ventilation is one of the most dramatic green building strategies.
It saves significant money during
construction by not having to
put in a traditional heating, ventilation
and air-conditioning (HVAC)
systems. More importantly, it saves
large amounts of energy over the life
of the building. Natural ventilation
requires more than simply having
operable windows; it means, for
example, designing to take advantage
of the natural tendency of differences
in air pressure to equalize,
and distribute air throughout the
building. But the goal of natural
ventilation runs up against problems
in the code, especially the fire code,
which tends to limit air movements
in order to limit the ability of fires
to spread. There is no single solution
that will work for all situations.
The Building Department, the Fire
Department, and the American
Institute of Architects (AIA), among
others, need to work together to
develop guidelines to provide natural
ventilation in ways that take into
account fire-safety concerns.
-
Allow rainwater to be captured
and put to use on site. Right now,
the code requires all runoff to drain
directly into the combined sewer
system. This means that when it
rains, and the sewers are flooded by
peak volumes of runoff, the combination
of sewage and rainwater
overwhelms the sewer system and
flows into the bay. In order to
reduce the incidence of combined
sewer overflows, the city need to
find ways to trap, store, and use
more of the rainwater. Storing rainwater
in cisterns, for non-potable
uses like flushing toilets or watering
plants, is currently not allowed. It
should be legalized, so long as the
intent of the code is respected—which is that water from someone’s
property can’t drain onto someone
else’s property or onto the public
right of way. (This idea would be
strengthened if San Francisco followed
the lead of other cities such as
Seattle by reducing people’s sewer
bills if they reduce the amount of
impermeable surface area on their
property by installing “sod roofs” or
rainwater catchment systems.)
In a smaller number of cases, it
also makes sense to go beyond simply
allowing green design, to the point of
actually requiring it. This was the
approach of California’s Title 24
Energy Act. Sooner or later, as a
society, we are going to have to take
environmental sustainability seriously
enough to view it as something more
than a voluntary “extra.”
We suggest that the Building
Department explore ways to require
green building design in the following
areas:
-
Ensure that office workers have
natural light in their work spaces.
Design strategies that bring light to
all (or most) occupants can have a
profound effect on the energy consumption
and habitability of buildings.
The building code already
requires that every residential space
used for eating, sleeping, or living
must have a window, but there is no
such requirement for office space.
Older office buildings were often
designed with courtyards or slender
towers to bring light to the inhabitants,
but the modern tendency for
people to “cocoon” in artificially
heated, cooled and lighted spaces
has allowed building footprints to
grow ever larger, thus removing
large portions of interior space from
daylight. While the “finger” designs
of some European green buildings
may not be appropriate for the
urban style of San Francisco, there
are many ways to design for daylight
that are compatible with high densities,
tall buildings, and good urban
design.
-
Require energy-efficiency retrofits
when commercial buildings
are sold or upgraded. The city has
a Residential Energy Conservation
Ordinance and a Residential Water
Conservation Ordinance in the
housing code. These provisions
require that money be spent on a
defined set of energy and water conserving
measures at the time of sale
(low-flow faucets and toilets, ceiling
insulation, weather stripping, etc.).
The laws spell out the requirements
clearly and ensure compliance by
requiring inspections in order to
complete a transfer of title to the
property. In 1988, the city adopted
analogous ordinances for commercial
buildings. The Commercial
Energy Conservation Ordinance
(CECO) was particularly far-reaching,
requiring optimization of
HVAC, lighting, hot water, and
motor-driven systems. (This optimizing
process was a combination of
building “commissioning” to make
sure the systems work as originally
intended and “retrofitting,” which
actually upgraded the performance of the systems.) Unfortunately,
CECO was removed from the building
code in 1995, by action of the
Board of Supervisors and Building
Inspection Commission. (The
Commercial Water Conservation
Ordinance still stands.) By many
accounts, CECO was hard to
enforce. It should be revisited, finetuned,
and reinstated in some form.
-
Require non-toxic materials for
indoor air quality. The Building
Department already determines
what materials are allowed in all
aspects of the construction process.
The finishing of indoor spaces, however,
is behind the times. Indoor air
quality can be dramatically
improved by the use of non-toxic
materials. This provision, like many
green building strategies, would
directly improve the health and
comfort of buildings for their inhabitants.
-
Require new buildings to be built
with dual plumbing so that recycled
water can be used for nonpotable
purposes. One of the
biggest open secrets of green building
in San Francisco is that the city
already has a Reclaimed Water Use
Ordinance. Passed in 1991, during
the last drought, this law actually
directed the Public Utilities
Commission (PUC) to construct an
entire reclaimed water “grid” that
would make recycled water available
throughout the city. This recycled
water system would treat the water
to a standard that makes it usable for
urban uses, but not drinking. The
largest users would be parks. The
law also requires that all buildings
and subdivisions covering an area of
more than 40,000 square feet be
built with dual plumbing so that
they can separate sewage from
reclaimed water. The Department of
Public Works and the PUC issued a
Recycled Water Master Plan in
1995, which presented plans for the
water lines, pump stations, reservoirs,
and treatment plants.
Implementation of the ordinance
has stalled, but this idea could prove
to one of the most far-sighted
experiments in ecological urban
design to be undertaken anywhere.
The city may need to set up a
Citizen Advisory Committee to keep
this ambitious project on track,
establish a logical phasing for the
new infrastructure, and figure out
how to pay for it.
resource use / solid waste
The 3 R’s of waste management—reduce, reuse, recycle—can all be applied to
building construction. If building material use is reduced and building materials
are reused or recycled, owners and/or contractors can enjoy substantial savings
in procuring materials and avoiding steep disposal fees (which are increasing as
landfills fill up). Most construction waste is wood, drywall, metal, concrete, dirt,
and cardboard, all of which can be reused or recycled when prepared properly.
Strategies :
? The first principle of recycling is to design products for a long life span
rather than disposability, which in this case means designing buildings
that will be capable of adaptive reuse over many generations.
? Minimize the amount of building materials used (“optimum value
engineering”).
? Design buildings for disassembly and reuse of their components. The
value of building materials is often lost when a building is being
demolished because dissimilar materials, for example plywood glued to
sawn lumber, can not be economically separated for resale or recycling,
but this can often be avoided by careful planning of reconstruction of
construction assemblies.
? Schedule time for recycling or reuse of construction and demolition
debris. This has the potential for revenue generation, as well.
? Make disposal of debris the responsibility of the general contractor;
likewise allow the general contractor to reap the profits of the salvaging/
reuse of materials.
? Incorporate recycling systems into the building design for occupant use
(e.g., sorting or storage space, convenient chutes for multi-story buildings).
? Specify recycled-content, recyclable, low-maintenance, durable materials
such as boards made out of waste products and asphalt made out of
glass. |
OPPORTUNITIES IN THE
PLANNING CODE
The planning code, as a reflection of
the General Plan, is already oriented
towards sustainability in the deepest
sense of the word because it conveys a
vision of a city that is oriented towards
pedestrians, transit, and urbanity.
Nevertheless, there are some parts of
the code, governing the design of individual
buildings, which currently act as
barriers to green building. In particular,
we suggest the following changes:
1. Encourage productive use of
rooftops. One of the fundamental
concepts of ecological urbanism is
the need to make use of vertical
space. In a dense city with high lot
coverage, rooftops make up a high
percentage of the total area. Every
rooftop presents an opportunity to
contribute something ecologically
productive: solar panels, windmills,
gardens, plantings which will capture
rainwater, or—if nothing else—
roofs which are colored white to
decrease the cooling load and “heat
island” effect. The planning code
should encourage or require that
something ecologically productive
2. Reduce parking requirements.
Cars account for a great deal of
water and air pollution in San
Francisco and a truly green building
would not include parking. Electric
cars create pollution at the source
where electricity is generated, and
especially in today’s climate of energy
shortages, are no solution to the
pollution problem posed by cars.
Cars also consume a huge amount
of space in a city, occupying land
that might be better used. In cities
especially, cars are a poor choice for
transportation. Reducing car traffic
in our cities is one of the most
important goals of a healthy city, as
it helps not only the natural ecology
but also the human ecology. San
Francisco should take the modest
step, not of banning new parking
spaces, but of allowing developers of
office space and housing to build
projects with no parking, especially
in the most transit accessible locations.
3. Clarify the light and air goals of
the Downtown Plan. Both the
public realm (the streets) and the
private realm (offices) in downtown
need access to the sky. This implies
buildings that are taller with space
in between them, rather than squat
buildings, right next to one another.
The pattern of new office development
in SOMA is not entirely
encouraging on this front. The
requirements of the Downtown Plan
may need to be revisited to ensure
that skyscrapers in the urban core
have space between them. A subtle
but related point is to strengthen
the Urban Design Plan’s call for
buildings that are light in color: the
reflected sunlight from such buildings
has a big impact on the ability
of surrounding spaces to rely on
natural light.
Indoor environment
Most people spend about 90% of their time indoors. Our
indoor environments have a significant impact on our
health and well-being, affecting our productivity and
performance. Since salaries are the largest expense for
most businesses—vastly more than construction or utility
costs—even small investments in worker health and
productivity can have enormous pay-offs through
reduced absenteeism, lower health care costs, more
efficient performance, and a reduced liability risk. Poor
indoor air quality can lead to "sick building syndrome"
and a lack of exposure to natural light has been shown to
adversely effect workers’ mental health and productivity.
Studies have shown a sustained 3% to 15% percent
increase in productivity from indoor environment
improvements. The Reno Nevada Post Office documented
a sustained 6% rise in productivity among workers at
the Reno, Nevada post office after an energy-efficient
daylighting retrofit; the Verifone Corporation’s daylighting,
air filtration, and low-toxicity materials specification
contributed to a 45% decrease in absenteeism at their
Costa Mesa plant. Indoor environment improvements
in schools have also been shown to improve student
performance. Abatement of building toxins, such as lead,
can increase children’s educational capacity.
Strategies :
Capital costs can be reduced in a number of ways.
These include designing smaller, more efficient
mechanical systems for climate control, or designing
to increase the amount of natural light, which reduces
the need for artificial lighting.
Design with a "passive solar" orientation to absorb
sunlight striking the building for direct space heating.
This approach can provide up to 100% of a home’s
heating requirements, when planned with proper
insulation of building walls, roofs, windows, doors,
and floors. San Francisco’s moderate, Mediterranean
climate is particularly appropriate for this approach.
Design buildings for disassembly and reuse of their components. The value of building materials is often lost when a building is being demolished because dissimilar materials, for example plywood glued to sawn lumber, can not be economically separated for resale or recycling, but this can often be avoided by careful planning of reconstruction of construction assemblies.
Cool commercial spaces with "passive cooling" techniques
such as night-air cooling, evaporative cooling,
or increased ventilation. In San Francisco, it is possible
to design buildings for most uses that provide occupant
comfort without mechanical air-conditioning.
Downsize mechanical heating systems through higher-
efficiency systems and more localized heating
devices that warm up specific rooms rather than large
spaces.
Use ground-coupled heat pumps (or water-coupled
heat pumps) instead of conventional air conditioners.
Heat pumps exploit the constant ambient temperature
of the ground (~55° F) or a large body of water
for pre-cooling or pre-heating the outside air before
bringing it inside the building.
Use heat recovery systems that take advantage of
the difference in temperature between ventilation
exhaust and the outside air; again, as with heat pumps,
these systems pre-heat or pre-cool the incoming air
before it passes into the mechanical systems, lowering
the demands placed upon them.
Install solar panels for domestic water heating.
Use high-efficiency glazing, high-efficiency lighting
with usage linked to daylight sensors, and highefficiency
appliances.
Generate energy from renewable sources on site to
the degree possible—for example, with photovoltaic
panels or wind-generators on well-situated roofs.
- Ensure that all or most building occupants have
access to natural light through smaller footprints,
courtyards, "finger designs" or other floor plan
configurations.
- Provide adequate ventilation. (More ventilation is
needed in areas with fumes from copiers and printers
and other out-gassing equipment.) Inadequate ventilation
has been shown to make occupants less alert
than they might be otherwise.
- Select non-toxic materials (upholstery, carpeting, adhesives
that do not out-gas VOCs/formaldehyde, etc.)
- Test for and protect against lead, asbestos, and radon
exposure.
- Use full-spectrum artificial lighting, to simulate
natural light.
- Design for daylighting (see energy section) through
building orientation, light shelves, clerestories,
skylights, and lightwells.
- Allow for thermal comfort control by incorporating
operable windows and zoned heating and thermostats
into the design.
|
A GREEN RETROFIT OF
MUNICIPAL BUILDINGS
California’s current energy crisis is
only one indication of the pressure on
the state’s resources, and hence the
city of San Francisco’s resources, that
will grow with projected population
increases. Responsible governments
and institutions recognize that conservation
strategies are less expensive,
more reliable, and more ecologically
sensitive than developing new
resource-intensive infrastructure.
Given the large role played by buildings
in resource use, and energy use in
particular, a “green building” policy for San Francisco’s city government is
a basic good-government initiative t
hat should find ready support among
a broad range of interests and the
general public.
In 1999, the city passed a landmark
Municipal Resource Efficient
Building Ordinance. It mandated that
city buildings do the easy things, like
installing efficient appliances and fixtures
during building renovations. It
also initiated a pilot program within
the Department of Public Works to
design new buildings according to
green building principles. SPUR’s
Sustainable Development Committee
believes the city is now ready to take
the next steps, and build on this past
ordinance with two measures:
-
Prepare a General Obligation
Bond measure to pay for a retrofit
of the city’s current capital
stock of buildings to make more
efficient use of energy, water,
and other natural resources, and
provide a better working environment
for city employees. Due to
the cost savings associated with
reduced energy, water and materials,
usage, and productivity gains anticipated
by improved air quality, the
city stands to save money in reduced
overhead and operating expenses.
The benefit should, in time, pay for
the bond. Once paid, all the remaining
benefits accrue to the city itself.
Public bond financing for such an
initiative is an almost textbook application
of the bond measure process,
an idea quite similar to retrofitting
city buildings for seismic safety. A
bond expenditure plan should be
prepared, which looks at the full
range of possible green building
solutions for city property, estimates
costs, and prioritizes the projects in
terms of cost/benefits ratios.
-
Reform the city’s guidelines for
contract specification, procurement,
and capital planning to
incorporate strong green building
requirements. These should be
translated into the requests for qualifications
for project teams and put
into the contract specifications. To
the degree that the city’s Purchasing
Department influences capital
expenditures, they are also in a
strong position to promote resource
efficiency by incorporating it into
their procurement requirements.
Both of these proposals would result in
a healthier work environment and
would also benefit the public that uses
city services. Additionally, improved
environmental performance and
healthier natural systems around the
city would benefit the public in many
intangible ways.
CONCLUSION
It’s time for San Francisco to upgrade
the quality of its buildings. We can
direct new construction to make a
more positive contribution to the energy
needs and ecological balance of our
city. At the same time, we can improve
the livability of the city for everyone.
We can do all of this in ways that will
not hinder the development process or
distort the real estate market. By
changing the building and planning
codes, we can bring green building to
the private sector in San Francisco.
The public sector can experience a
similar transformation by enacting a
bond measure to pay for the retrofit
of city buildings. We’ve done it for
seismic safety. It’s time to do it for
ecological performance.
The architecture of San Francisco
can combine the virtues of high-density
urbanism with the benefits of ecologically
sensitive design. We can make
green building the norm for urban
construction in the 21st century.
The paper was produced by the Green
Building Task Force of SPUR’s
Sustainable Development Committee.
Task Force participants include: Jonathan
Budner, Wolfe Mason Associates; Rod
Freebairn-Smith, Freebairn-Smith and
Crane; Rosey Jencks, SPUR; Miriam
Landman, Global Green USA; Beryl
Magilavy, Sustainable City; Gabriel
Metcalf, SPUR; Raphael Sperry, Green
Resource Center; Scott Ward, SMWM;
and Howard Wong, Department of Public
Works. In addition, the Charrette on the
Codes was attended by Bruce Bonacker,
AIA, Bonacker Associates; Cal Broomhead,
Resource Efficiency Program Manager,
San Francisco Department of the
Environment; Christopher Gutsche, AIA,
Van der Ryn Architects; Laurence
Kornfield, Chief Building Inspector;
David Lehrer, AIA, Gensler; Marsha
Maytum, AIA, Leddy Maytum Stacy;
and Lynn Simon, AIA, Simon and
Associates.
|
|