Using Buildings to Green Your Triple Bottom Line

By Eileen McMorrow
Published July 25, 2007

Executives are lining up for the opportunity to prove their commitment to the triple bottom line. However, few are well-enough versed in the language of sustainability and green design to incorporate it into their real estate decisions such as renovating existing facilities, taking on a defunct company's brownfield site or building a new corporate facility.

The concept of sustainability says there are actually three bottoms lines to consider. First, the Economic: the financial impact on an individual's income or spending, or on a company's profits and losses; Environmental: the impact on the air, water, land and global climate; and Social: the impact on an individual's happiness, health and productivity, or the impact on the community's welfare.

According to the Alliance for Sustainable Built Environments, for businesses and other organizations, this is a business approach that creates long-term value by embracing opportunities and managing risks deriving from economic, environmental and social developments or changes. That means integrating sustainability into their decision-making processes and paying attention to how their actions affect the environment and society around them, in addition to how they affect the organization financially.

An example, from the Alliance: A company replaces the lighting fixtures in its corporate headquarters building with brighter, more energy-efficient ones. Because the new fixtures use less energy, the company saves money. But the benefits don't stop there. As a result of the company's actions, the local electric utility company generates less electricity and therefore emits less air pollution -- that's the environmental impact. And the brighter lighting fixtures create better working conditions for employees -- that's the social impact. It's the triple bottom line at work.

"While sustainability traditionally has been linked to doing what is good for the natural environment, it's also at the core of profitable business strategies," said Craig Zurawski, executive administrator of the Alliance for Sustainable Built Environments, which has the allegiance of companies such as Johnson Controls, Philips, Owens Corning, USG, Kohler, and Milliken, among others. "High performance green buildings should be a part of every organization's long-term business plans."

"Studies have shown that high performance buildings not only positively impact the environment and the building occupants, but deliver substantial financial benefits, including cost savings, increased productivity and a positive return on investment," said Zurawski. "The Cal/EPA building in Sacramento, for example, is a LEED Platinum building and is currently saving $1.48 per square foot annually when compared to other building operations in the city."

Architects, who are hopeful that clients will embrace the sustainable design process, are getting an assist from the cities and mid-size municipalities that are mandating the standards known as LEED -- Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. The U.S. Green Building Council, a non-profit that started in 1993, launched LEED for New Construction in 1998, as its Green Building Rating System. It's a group that consists of architects, government planners and suppliers of green products and services. LEED is also becoming an industry standard for new construction (LEED-NC) and existing buildings (LEED-EB).

Using Buildings to Green Your Triple Bottom Line

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