Green Certification Becoming The Norm

FORT WORTH, TX - It's not often that commercial developers can call on car salvage yards for construction supplies, but Cawley Wilcox, the developer of Wilcox Plaza at Green Oaks in west Fort Worth, has done just that. The three-story skeleton of Wilcox Plaza, clearly visible from Interstate 30, is constructed of steel beams made of recycled cars from a Texas auto salvage plant.

And company CEO Bill Cawley said the company didn't stop at recycled cars. The building will use bricks from the famed Green Oaks Hotel, which was demolished in February to make room for the new office building, as well as reflective glass and solar powered faucets. "We wanted to do anything and everything that made sense," Cawley said. "We wanted to focus on doing what's right while getting the LEED certification."

Though Wilcox Plaza will be the first Fort Worth building to receive the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) gold certification, Cawley said he expects his company's efforts to quickly become the norm in the office market. "I think that over time, cities will start to adopt some of the LEED standards into building codes," he said. "It will cease to become something that sets companies apart and start to become standard, I would think in the next five, maybe seven years."

The 2008 FMI U.S. Construction Overview projected $21.2 billion of new nonresidential construction use green building principles, a 58 percent increase from 2006. Nationwide, legislation also is pushing green building: In the first five months of 2007, more than 100 green building bills were introduced at the state level. More and more cities nationwide are requiring their municipal buildings to meet the standards of the LEED Rating System, the nationally accepted benchmark for high-performance green buildings. Buildings can be LEED rated at one of several levels: Certified, Silver, Gold or Platinum depending on scores achieved during inspections.

Green commercial projects also have gotten a boost on the federal level. On Oct. 3, President George W. Bush signed into law an extension of the Energy Efficient Commercial Building Tax Deduction as part of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008. The tax deduction is not a tax credit (an amount directly subtracted from the tax owed), but a deduction, an amount subtracted from gross taxable income. The provision is effective for property placed in service after December 31, 2005, and prior to December 31, 2013.

Sean Goff, managing director of CB Richard Ellis' project management group, said his company is working on two LEED certified office buildings, both in Dallas, and he has seen a rise in companies looking specifically for green spaces. "Almost every significant project has an upfront discussion on whether the projects are going to be green certified," he said.

Wilcox COO Todd Ashbrook added companies are interested in LEED projects for a growing number of reasons. "Businesses are definitely excited to have the option of operating in a LEED-certified building," Ashbrook said. "A lot of corporate clients are setting mandates to go green. And when it comes to office space, the decision to move into a LEED-certified building is not only one of concern for the environment, but also one of concern for the bottom line."

Ashbrook said his building, like any LEED-certified commercial structure, will save an average of 17 percent on utilities per year. "The No. 1 driver of where tenants go is economics," he said. "If a corporate client is looking at a LEED-certified building next to one that isn't, they know the LEED building will save them more in the long run and that's not a tough decision."

According to the U.S. Green Building Council, a poll of people showed 8 percent to 9 percent perceived a decrease in operating costs as an advantage of green building, 7.5 percent saw the advantage as an increase in building values and 6.6 percent perceived an advantage in return on investment improvement. In the same poll, 3 percent of people asked thought green building would mean a rent increase.

Ashbrook said he doesn't expect it to happen overnight, but eventually the advantages of green building will prevail. "It may be a few years yet, but what we're looking at is the future of office space," he said. "I have no doubt that in the near future a building without any LEED distinction will be obsolete."