When it comes to greening real estate, Portland is ahead of the curve. The city has the most Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certified buildings of any municipality in the country: 36 and counting. It is the home of Gerding/Edlen, the nation’s largest sustainable builder, and last year, the city was the first to make a home’s environmental features part of its real estate multiple listing service (MLS).
The common denominator is the “high level of collaboration” among Portland practitioners, said Jay Coalson, president of Green Building Services, a local consulting firm. “It drives people to do more instead of settling in,” Coalson said.
As New York City and other cities step up efforts to build green, the Portland model provides a useful case study. A review of environmental building initiatives undertaken over the years shows that market incentives, close collaboration throughout the building process, and a design culture that places a premium on innovation are vital ingredients in incubating sustainable building.
In many cities, cost concerns deter developers from implementing energy- and water-saving construction techniques.
“In Portland, there is an enormous amount of design talent that knows how to build green without breaking the bank,” said Jerry Yudelson, an industry consultant in Tucson, Ariz., and the author of “The Green Building Revolution.”
A case in point is the $145 million Oregon Health and Science University Center for Health and Healing, a LEED Platinum building that opened this year in the emerging South Waterfront neighborhood. The building, by Gerding/Edlen, features sunshades that double as solar power generators; the first large-scale on-site microturbine plant to generate electricity; a rainwater harvesting system; and the first use in the United States of chilled beams as a substitute for air conditioning.
The Oregon Business Energy Tax Credit is another important part of the Portland toolkit, said Dennis Wilde, a senior project manager at Gerding/Edlen. The credit, which covers 35 percent of the eligible project costs, is awarded to developers who invest in energy conservation, recycling, renewable energy resources and less-polluting transportation fuels. It also covers the cost of LEED certification. In January, the credit for renewable energy systems will increase to 50 percent.
On the consumer side, Portland’s green MLS system helps sellers market their homes, and buyers save money on energy costs, said Kria Lacher, a Portland broker. Houses with double-paned windows and other energy-saving features should not be valued the same as conventionally built residences, Lacher said.
The city also sponsors an annual “Build It Green” home tour, a green building hotline and a $2.5 million Green Investment Fund grant program to finance innovative projects. One of the 2007 grant recipients is the Kenton Living Building, a residential development that uses rainwater for all plumbing and will be powered by on-site renewable energy sources.
Nationwide, the number of green-certified projects increased by 64 percent in 2007, and attendance at the annual meeting of the United States Green Building Council doubled this year to 30,000 people, according to Yudelson. In this increasingly crowded marketplace, Portland leaders aim to maintain their competitive edge. “If we sit on our laurels, we’ll get surpassed,” Wilde said.
So what’s the next step? Portland plans to make environmentally friendly construction “the key to the city’s economic development,” said Brendan Finn, chief of staff for Portland Commissioner Dan Saltzman, who oversees the Office of Sustainable Development.
In early 2008, the City Council will vote on the policy that requires developers to not only meet the efficiency building standards of the Oregon building code, but to go above and beyond them. New commercial and residential buildings that do not exceed energy efficiency standards by at least 35 percent will be taxed. The policy would also provide a rebate to developers whose projects go beyond the building code’s energy efficiency standards by 45 percent.
“To date, most cities have focused on requiring green building in public, not private, developments,” said Wilde. “If we can pull this off, it will turn a lot of heads.”
In October, the city released a report titled “Economic Opportunities for the Green Building Industry,” identifying additional strategies such as streamlining the permitting process for green projects and linking Oregon’s traditional forest products industry with the growing demand for sustainable lumber and modular construction.
So far, the greening is attracting industry. “Portland is very aggressive in addressing areas others aren’t, like green manufacturing and green technology,” said John Sedgwick, vice president of sales and manufacturing for Solaicx, a California-based solar manufacturer that opened a new facility in Portland in November.