Green Bank & Momentum Bay
Our first site visit in Houston took place at one of the Green Bank offices. Green Bank is a Texas bank that focuses on investors and business committed to a cleaner, healthier and more sustainable environment. This concept is very new and is taking place with the uprise of the green movement but we were all quite surprised to hear that the bank had to transform this environmentally friendly focus since they originally named the bank "Green Bank" because green is the color of money. That being said, we were informed that the owners were very committed to sustainability and are operating in line with their environmental championing mission statement.
The bank building that we visited was also a LEED gold property that was constructed in 2008. It was constructed very well and contrary to what I would have guessed they were able to complete all of the LEED features and still save over $1 million on the project costs. This is the first LEED project I have ever heard of where the sustainable features didn't end up driving the project costs up.
The reason we were at Green Bank was to meet with Mark Alan Robinson, who owns a company called Momentum Bay. This company provides strategy, research, procurement, training & messaging related to green energy, green building & green business. The stated goal of Momentum Bay is to "help organizations & ultimately households create sustainable, long-term growth resulting in less harm, no harm & even good by going green profitably & practically." and the website shows that the firms genuine passion is "equipping chief-level executives rapidly to plan green strategies & execute specific best-in-class sustainability projects - from strategy & training to procurement to messaging". Along with helping corporations, Momentum Bay has recently focused a large amount of attention towards helping school districts achieve more sustainable buildings and operations. I think this is important to note because schools make up a large amount of real estate and sustainable school buildings are a great tool to teach kids about becoming sustainable.
I enjoyed our visit with Mark very much. He was incredibly knowledgeable on multiple fronts of sustainability and the green movement and brought up quite a few concepts and ideas about these topics that I have never considered. I have listed out some of the key points Mark made that stood out to me.
- "Green" is the # 1 patented word in 2007 and this is not a good thing because it has become mainstream and will be overused as a marketing tool by people and corporations that aren't really trying to operate in a sustainable fashion.
- There is currently very bad data or a serious lack of data on green buildings. This is bad because researches are not getting the feedback they need to adjust sustainable building features and techniques.
- In order to get corporations to buy in to sustainability you have to make issues and goals personal and mention the positive benefits. You get in to peoples heads then their hearts and finally their hands.
- Corporations like fast rewards so it is easier to implement sustainable plan if you use baby steps and quick returns.
Overall I was very impressed with our visit with Mark and feel like I left with a broader understanding of sustainability and how it is being implemented in our countries businesses.
Houston Green Building Center
Our next site visit was to the City of Houston - Green Building Resource Center. The center is located at the city permit office and any person going to pick up a building permit must pass directly by it. The center itself is registered as LEED for Commercial interiors and features information and exhibits highlighting green or sustainable building materials and techniques. It serves as an example for builders and the community of what green features they can incorporate in to their projects.
While at the GBRC we met with the director of the center, Steve Seltzer. He gave us a mini tour of the center and explained quite a few of the exhibits. He also talked to us about the other services that the GBRC provides, including plan review and green building strategy plans. I think this type of center is very important for sustainable real estate because it provides a friendly and informative resource to people interested in construction green properties. It also draws people in that might not know anything about green building and gives them a wealth of knowledge about what is possible in today's times.
2727 Kirby & West Ave
Our last site visits in Houston were to 2727 Kirby and the West Ave mixed-use development. These properties claimed to have some sustainable features but during our visits we figured out there was very little sustainable about them and that using this language was a marketing ploy. I would venture to say that there are a large percentage of properties that use this same tactic, which I am not a bid fan of.
Houston was fun but it is time to head back to Dallas now. We still have quite a few site visits to do in the DFW area so I am excited to see what is in store.
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