Going green doesn’t have anything to do with choosing a natural paint color for your kitchen, or  planting herbs in your community garden. But the phrase can have many different  meanings and can be done across a broad spectrum. Turning off lights in rooms  you’re not occupying is a small green move; installing a gigantic wind turbine in  your backyard is a bigger one. Different communities throughout New Jersey  place green practices and programming at different positions on their lists of  priorities—and the steps they take depend on funding, community interest, feasibility and  other factors.  

 “I believe there has been a greater interest in going green in our industry. The  Baby Boomer generation was much more sensitive to the ramifications our  lifestyle has on our environment than their parent’s generation,” says George Vallone, president of The Hoboken Brownstone Company. “I believe the Boomer’s children, the Millennials, also known as Generation Y, are even more so.”  

 While New Jersey has had a mandatory recycling law on the books since 1987,  state figures indicated that there has been an uptick in recycling efforts. In  2010, a 40 percent recycling rate for municipal solid waste was reported, which  was up from 37 percent in 2009. However, the rate is still below the state’s goal of 50 percent.  

 A Greener State of Mind

 Co-op and condominium boards are getting the message that green is not only good  for the environment, it is good for the balance sheet, which mirrors a 2010  Accenture survey of 766 chief executives worldwide. The report found that 93  percent see sustainability as important for the future of their businesses,  with 81 percent citing that they have already integrated sustainability into  their businesses practices.  

 “New Jersey has fantastic green, sustainable opportunities that can save  buildings lots of money,” says Allan Samuels, president of the North Brunswick-based engineering  consultant Energy Squared. Working with multifamily residential facilities,  developers as well as commercial and industrial property owners, the firm  provides mechanical, electrical and plumbing designs, specifications, building  performance modeling, energy simulations and renewable energy services. “The state of New Jersey has some of the best incentives,” he says adding that his company is currently working with 20 to 30 multifamily  buildings that are benefiting from tapping into sustainable initiatives.  

 Creating a New Mindset

 With a mission to promote “green homes, healthy communities and sustainable building practices through  education, outreach and collaboration,” the New Jersey Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council’s Residential Green Building Committee is a resource for associations and  developers alike. “Our goal is to drive market transformation by delivering a consistent message  about green building practices addressing environmental, economic and social  benefits while streamlining the process of making greener homes,” notes Committee Chairman and Architect Robert Emert, Jr.  

 For many associations, “going green” can mean a number of things—from switching to energy-efficient light bulbs in common areas to installing  solar panels to optimize the sun’s strength. As such, different communities place green practices and programming  at different positions on their priority list. For the most part, the steps  they take depend on funding, community interest, feasibility and other factors.  

 As Samuels’ points out, there are many opportunists that are “selling green,” but are not authorized to do so. “Since the economy experienced trouble, there have been many people who claim to  be green professionals. Some of these people worked in retail or another job  but now consider themselves to be green experts,” he says. “There are a lot of products that claim to save energy, associations and buyers  have to be careful because there a lot of gimmicks out there. When some people  say they are going green, they are simply referring to the color of money.”  

 For progressive, proactive boards, associations and managers looking into  reliable “green” initiatives, any “sustainable” company should be properly accredited. Leading the pack is Leadership in Energy  and Environmental Design (LEED), which consists of a suite of rating systems  for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings,  homes and neighborhoods.  

 It’s important to note that there are levels to LEED certification. For example, a  LEED Green Associate denotes basic knowledge and skill in practicing green  design, operations and construction. The LEED AP credential signifies in-depth  knowledge in green building practices and specialization in a particular field  such as commercial buildings and homes. In total, there are five specialties:  Building Design & Construction, Interior Design & Construction, Operations & Maintenance, Homes or Neighborhood Development.  

 “We encouraged the new owners to carry on the green mantle by providing a home  ownership guide that detailed our LEED-Platinum and Energy Star ratings and the  green aspects of the building, as well as made suggestions for environmentally  sensitive home maintenance such as using low-VOC cleaners and replacing the air  conditioning filter frequently,” says Alison Novak, vice president of The Hudson Company Inc. Founded in 1986,  the firm is a private real estate development company with a green focus and is  a leading developer of new housing in the New York metropolitan area.  

 “We also suggested the condominium residents form a green committee and  introduced the members to some neighborhood greening initiatives,” says Novak. “Finally, we spent a lot of time talking with the property management company  about the building systems, cleaning products and other aspects that help them  maintain the buildings as a green building.”  

 For many builders and green enthusiasts, a common drawback to the movement is  the cost of building energy efficient new construction. “The most important metric we use is the life cycle analysis (LCA) which is the  payback on the investment over the life of the technology in the building. We  believe that energy savings being produced in our computer models indicate  payback in less than five years for the technology investment,” says Vallone. “Additionally, the recognition of the value of green buildings is only just  beginning to be standardized.”  

 The leader in establishing an objective underwriting standard for green building  is the Capital Market Partnership (CMP) which developed the SMaRT scoring  system for green building and products. “It is expected in the near future that this will become the industry favored  underwriting standard for green building and green product valuation,” says Vallone.  

 However, not until green building valuation has an accepted standardized  underwriting system like CMP’s SMaRT system will underwriters of lenders and investors be able to measure  green ROI. “They will then begin supplying cheaper cost of capital recognizing the lower  risk of green buildings and supporting green buildings trading at lower cap  rate values then buildings that are built conventionally,” says Vallone. “Green buildings that have higher values and lower costs will be recognized as  the way to build in the future.”  

 Forging New Paths

 Over its 32 year career as an urban redeveloper, The Hoboken Brownstone Company  has continually looked for ways to differentiate itself in the marketplace,  explains Vallone. When New Jersey released its Draft Energy Master Plan in  2009, a light bulb (energy efficient, of course) went off in Vallone’s head. “Its stated goal was to make all new buildings 20 percent more energy efficient  by the year 2020, he says. “It offered grants to developers who were willing to sponsor demonstration  projects that would pilot innovative technologies that could be replicated by  others to help meet that goal. We have always tried to be better by being  different. To us that meant building energy-efficient, well designed, fully  amenitized and just plain cool places to live.”  

 Vallone and his team applied for and received one of the largest residential  grants under this program. The energy efficiency demonstration grant program  was sponsored by the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU) and was  partnered with Public Service Electric and Gas. “Our research led to a design for an innovative energy demand reduction  technology which we believe will be the foundation of all future  high-performance building science. That technology we refer to as the Tripod of  High Performance Building Design Science.” While the company is in the process of building its first demonstration project  using the Tripod theory, Jersey City has been paying attention to its  progressive use of technology by awarding Vallone and his team its 2011 Green  Project Award.  

 When new green buildings are built and occupied, there can be issues. “Any time you are using new building systems, you have to learn about the  idiosyncrasies of that system. In the case of green buildings, there is  constantly improving technology, so always something is new to learn,” says Novak. “One challenge we’ve experienced is in regard to fluorescent lights on occupancy sensors. For some  reason at one of our buildings, the CFLs on occupancy sensors burn out quickly.  At another of our buildings, this is not the case. The fixtures themselves are  slightly different but we don’t know yet what difference is causing this issue.”  

 Older buildings are not out of the running, explains Samuels. He says his firm  in continually providing energy audits that result in significant savings.  Recently, Energy Squared was hired to perform 79 energy audits on residential  buildings across New Jersey for a national real estate investment, development  and management company. The buildings ranged from garden style to mid- and  high-rise residential complexes.  

 An energy audit, he explains, is a five step process. First, an initial “walkthrough” of each property is performed to gauge potential energy saving upgrades and  evaluate those opportunities to determine which will have the greatest return  on investment. The second step is a full blown energy audit, which is a  detailed analysis that evaluates all mechanical, electrical and plumbing  systems including boilers, chillers, HVAC, lighting, controls and major water  consuming devices.  

 “After the energy audits are complete, Energy Squared will provide design  specifications and contract administration for the energy saving measures  chosen to be implemented,” says Samuels. “The last step is to perform final inspections and assist in the acquisition of  local, state and federal rebates/incentives.” As they say the proof is in the pudding, which was the case for two high-rise  residential buildings in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Each realized a 50 percent  reduction in energy usage after the audit was completed in 2011. This amounted  to a savings of approximately $250,000.  

 For boards and associations seeking information on how to receive audits or ways  in which they can “go green,” a number of organizations are available to assist including the New Jersey  Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council. “There are resources available to those interested,” says Samuels. “With the proper information, an association can determine what will be the best  green bang for their buck.”   

 W.B. King is a freelance writer and a frequent contributor to The New Jersey  Cooperator.