Over the past 100 years, architects, engineers, and construction professionals have been making the same type of observations: “We are experiencing a time of great change.” “Our practice is about to enter a period of fundamental restructuring.” “The role of the architect or engineer is about to be revolutionized.”
Certainly there have been changes, both positive and negative, in the design and construction industry over the decades. However, nothing compares to what we all must now do. We must fundamentally change the products of our professions to meet the completely new paradigm emerging from our clients and the community as a whole, and — dare I say it — to play a pivotal role in the very viability of the human species on this planet.
The Future is Here
Sound radical? Think again. Environmental stewardship, in all its forms, is no longer a special interest. This is what average people in everyday life are increasingly coming to expect.
There are few clients, in either the public or private sector, who have not heard about LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, the rating system created by the United States Green Building Council). At the very least, these clients are considering pursuing LEED certification in their capital building programs.
For those who recall the ebb and flow of various green movements of the past, the acceleration and inertia being exhibited by the present day opinion of this issue is almost surreal. This is not a fad or a trend. It is irreversibly mainstream and becoming more so each day.
The Mainstreaming of Sustainability
This commonplace interest and the understanding of all things environmental are in abundant evidence in the popular media. Time, Newsweek, US News, and dozens of other respected and mainstream news media outlets are giving substantial repeated coverage to this issue. Fortune 500 corporations such as Ford Motor and General Electric are not only implementing environmentally responsible practices; they are spending millions of dollars advertising that they are doing so.
Think that Ford’s PR department has not thought this through? The average person considering the purchase of the Ford Taurus cares about sustainability and, by some measure, may be evaluating his or her purchase based on Ford’s environmental stewardship. That is about as mainstream as it gets.
However, as compelling as all of this popular opinion might be, it is not necessarily the prime driver leading informed building project owners to turn to environmentally responsible development. No, it is all about money.
Dollars and $ense
Finally, building owners are beginning to embrace what design and construction professionals have always known: building facilities of high quality with consideration of lifecycle costs save dollars — lots of dollars. It is quite interesting that it has taken the umbrella of sustainability to bring this fact, which is certainly linked but not interdependent, to the forefront.
One only needs to consider strategies with direct payback to make a strong economic case for building green. Furthermore, the beauty of this proposition is that it can be made successfully even to the most fiscally conservative corporate CEO or city council person.
Those individuals who are often the most vocal about spending the fewest dollars for capital construction often can be easily convinced that taking the long view really is the cheapest way to go. Design and construction professionals simply have to do the necessary homework to present this clear and compelling case in a straightforward manner.
Going a step further with regard to the public sector, I would argue that doing anything less than building for lifecycle economic benefits is a flagrant misuse of public tax dollars. Those of us in the industry have a responsibility to make this case for all public work, regardless of our involvement in any particular current project.
Even more compelling, albeit harder to demonstrate, are the softer economic benefits of responsible design and construction. Considerations such as indoor air quality, lighting and acoustical considerations, and just an overall high quality, comfortable, functional indoor environment can have dramatic effects on the inhabitants of buildings.
Again, this is something that designers have always embraced. However, the new twist is that these considerations have massive economic ramifications. In most corporations and institutions, a huge percentage of the cost of doing business is defined by personnel costs. In fact, the cost of employee salaries and benefits for a period of just a few years usually exceeds the entire cost of the building which the employees occupy. Therefore, even an incremental increase in employee productivity, health, wellbeing, and retention can have dramatic cost savings.
Emerging Market Leaders
So what does this all mean to your A/E/C practice? It means two things: You must be able to design and construct in a manner that addresses all of these client expectations, and you must be able to demonstrate to prospective clients that you can do this better than your competition.
As I mentioned earlier, clients are becoming much more knowledgeable and interested in all things relating to environmental stewardship. They are looking for partners that can bring more value over the entire gamut of sustainability.
In response to this demand, design firms are rushing to get their staff members LEED accredited and position themselves as leaders in the subject. They are developing marketing materials highlighting completed “green” projects. If this is where your firm stands currently, you are behind the curve!
Prospective clients are looking for partners that share their convictions and commitment to environmental stewardship well beyond the basic technical expertise required to make it happen.
Project owners who have made sustainability a corporate or institutional focus want to work with partners who have done the same. Sustainability as a “special service” of your firm will not get you very far with these prospective clients. They want to know that your corporate culture and leadership embraces the core tenants of the subject. Think of this as being similar to the advice given in preparation for a project interview: “Don’t tell the client you want the project, show them that you want the project.”
In other words, don’t overly emphasize the number of LEED accredited professionals you have or how many green projects you have completed. Demonstrate that sustainability is integral to your practice and your corporate beliefs; that it permeates all that you do. If this is not the case, make it the case before you fall behind in the marketplace.
Don’t misunderstand — your firm still needs significant and comprehensive expertise in the subject. This is particularly critical because prospective clients are quickly becoming experts in their own right.
To be relevant to theses clients, you must know more than they do, plain and simple. In addition, you must be nimble and ready to embrace new approaches and technologies as they develop. Your firm must be in step with your clients in understanding the economic, philosophic, and cultural drivers that have led them down this path. Sustainability is a belief, much like the belief that thoughtful, beautiful architecture is inherently beneficial and uplifting to the human psyche.
Therefore, if green design and construction — along with the LEED rating system — have become conventional among clients, what is next? What are the special interest clients looking for?
Sustainability Practice Evolves
The corporations and institutions that truly are progressive are assessing how to best meet the various emphatic calls for drastic reductions in building energy usage and hence, the carbon emissions resulting from the production of that power. They are doing this for two reasons: both the economic advantages that they clearly understand and the responsibility they feel for helping reduce and reverse the inarguable effects of global warming.
Energy use reduction truly is the next frontier facing the design and construction industry, and it is here today. The industry recognizes this fact as demonstrated by The American Institute of Architect’s recent call to its members for immediate implementation of a 50 percent reduction in fossil fuel consumption for all new and renovated buildings they are designing. The public sector concurs with this move as evidenced by the US Conference of Mayors’ call for a 50 percent reduction in fossil fuel usage for all building in all cities. Your prospective clients understand this issue and are moving quickly in this direction. Their public and private sector constituencies and customers are beginning to understand and expect progressive energy use reductions. Design and construction professionals must lead — not follow — the implementation of these initiatives.
Beyond this is the concept of restorative architecture, buildings that improve rather then degrade the natural environment through their operation and very existence. This concept goes beyond simply reducing energy consumption to completely eliminating fossil fuel use or even to producing extra renewable energy through wind or solar power production that is a part of the building’s design. This extra power then can be redistributed through the electrical grid to provide clean power to other users.
A restorative architecture approach also calls for strategies such as natural site and habitat enhancement, wastewater elimination, aggressive storm water strategies and many others.
It is difficult to claim that restorative architecture is the current focus of the majority of design and construction industry clients today. However, the explosion of understanding and demand for aggressive environmental stewardship in the last few years, as evidenced by widespread usage of the LEED rating program and other initiatives, suggests that it is not too far in the future.
Therefore, we in the A/E/C community are facing a true fundamental change in how we design and construct our buildings. For the first time, we have a significant number of our prospective clients demanding something different — even revolutionary — from us.
We now have the opportunity to be true leaders and must accept the challenge. We are called to show that we can do this and follow through. The state of our collective professions and perhaps of our very existence may depend on it.
INFO: Johnson County (www.jocogov.org)
Reprinted with permission from Environmental Sustainability: Collaboration & Marketing Best Practices in the Building Industry, published by The Sustainable Design Forum and Marketplace Books. The complete e-book is complimentary and may be downloaded at www.sustainabledesignforum.com.