Aligning Tenant/Landlord Sustainability and Energy Goals

• ABC TMA
• Sustainability Showcase
• City of Boston Climate Action Plan
• Challenge for Sustainability

Fifty sustainability professionals, property managers, lawyers and other interested parties attended “Aligning Tenant/Landlord Sustainability and Energy Goals”, a breakfast forum hosted by A Better City, on October 20th.  The forum highlighted the incentives of working with your tenant or property manager to realize sustainability goals.

Overall Takeaways

• A wide variety of sustainability initiatives are being successfully implemented by tenants, property managers and landlords.
• These efforts are driven by demand by clients, customers, tenants, current employees, prospective employees.  They are also driven by the desire to reduce or contain energy costs.

• Key factors in making these efforts successful are:
  • Early and regular engagement between landlords, tenants, architects, and attorneys (e.g., lease negotiations, design and build out, energy utilities)
  • Early and regular communication between tenants and landlords around:
  • Goals, issues, needs, opportunities, and obstacles
  • Baseline data and results so that tenants get feedback on their efforts for energy reduction
  • Sustainability efforts that make tenants happy increase the value of an asset. 
• LEED certification has benefits.
• “You can’t not offer the product.”
• “There’s always fruit even when it’s not low-hanging fruit.”

Panelists

Tenant & Landlord

Julia Arsenault, Property Manager, Boston Properties noted that:

• While technology is replacing some of the issues associated with human behavior (e.g., automatic shut off of lights), there are still many issues that require changes in behavior (e.g., recycling) and tenant participation. 
• Buy-in to sustainability is a win-win-win solution, providing financial benefits as well as being popular
• Even if landlords have good intentions, they need the tenants to change the culture in the building to more sustainable practices

Karen Pritchard, Director of Real Estate, Wellington Management noted that:

• Their decisions to enter into a lease were predicated on goals that included sustainability and the type of landlord.
• Lease discussions included a commitment by Boston Properties to attain LEED silver as a minimum and a commitment by Wellington to attain LEED Gold.
• Early design and build decisions were made to increase energy efficiency and conservation.

Jim Green, VP Engineering, Hines noted that:

• The value of property assets are enhanced by good tenant/landlord relations.
• They view the tenant as a customer.
• Most of energy use is influenced by tenant behavior.
• Communication with tenants is critical: they quantify the results from participating in demand response and provide this feedback to the tenants so they know the energy reductions their efforts created.

Questions from the audience touched on (1) the variety of ways to set goals (e.g., water, waste and energy normalized per occupied square foot/degree day); obstacles to LEED certification; the availability of tax credits for recertification; and the view that more and more employees want LEED and other indicators of sustainability; and the role of sub-metering.

Stakeholders

Blake Jackson, Sustainability Practice Leader, Tsoi/Kobus Architects challenged everyone to go through the effort to get LEED certification, drawing a parallel with the Wizard of Oz.  He also indicated that it came down to an additional 5¢/square foot.  He stressed early engagement and communication with tenants, landlords and architects.
Carolyn Kaplan, Chief Sustainability Officer, Nixon Peabody noted that going through A Better City’s Sustainability Challenge helped them to look at “fruit” that might not be low-hanging.  She emphasized the importance of planning and having an energy management plan for an organization.  She noted that lawyers can help clients identify goals; educate clients and other attorneys about opportunities to incorporate sustainability, including “green lease” provisions.
Tracey Beckstrom, Lead Program Manager, NSTAR spoke about the opportunities for new tenants while making improvements.  She spoke about resources from NSTAR and other energy providers: energy assessments, rebates for energy efficient equipment, and technical assistance.  She emphasized early engagement with energy providers.

Resources

• Green Office Kit (aka, the non-legal Green Lease)
• Challenge for Sustainability Toolkit for Property Manager or Tenant
• NSTAR Small or Midsize (Tenant) Direct Install Program
• NSTAR Whole Building Assessment Program