Green Building, Sustainability

Second day of class, we discussed sustainability, green(LEED certified)building, and retail property trend in near future.

We started discussion from musing three issues related to sustainable development.

1. How do we become more efficient, effective and equitable.

2. What are the challenges that we face, and how do we overcome.

3. What are the rewards if we succeed?

Sustainability has become an important concept that should be applied to every man made development, traditionally, sustainability is defined as policies and strategies that meet society’s present needs without compromising the ability of future generation to meet their own needs.
What is specially noteworthy on this definition is sustainability provide long term solution rather than short term solution that only be satisfied present demands. Sustainability also include the notion of efficiency and of effectiveness that efficiency refer to conserve energy use as well as minimize environmental impact, in the same context, the definition of effectiveness is distinguished by doing the right thing to do rather than doing things right.
As far as I’ve research on history of sustainable development, the concept of sustainable development was described in a 1981 White House Council on Environmental Quality report: “The key concept here is sustainable development. If economic development is to be successful over the long term, it must proceed in a way that protects the natural resource base of developing countries.”
In reality, one of biggest obstacle that majority of owners or developers who are concerning “going green” is initial cost, owners and developers generally believe cost savings resulting from green building are achievable however they are still not convinced that initial costs are competitive, the third article says 75% of CEO believe green construction costs are 13% to 18% higher than conventional buildings, moreover appraisals and lending process are still in a early stage, which increase uncertainties on “going green”.Despite construction cost for going green has constantly decreased as construction technique has developed, I’m still wondering whether green premium is negotiable with occupants and in lending process because, in case of triple net lease, owner or developers can’t receive direct benefit from energy savings as long as tenants are more focusing on lowest lease rate rather than lowest operating cost and financial benefit, such as better interest rate and long term amortization period, from lending process.

Consumer spending has shifted by recent economy meltdown, specially, reduced consumer spending largely impact on retail property. What has changed on consumer spending is not only quantity of spending but also consuming habit influenced in consumer’s preparation.
I think, consumer’s preparation on retail shape where they prefer to purchase is highly depending on the accessibility of shopping mall, ironically, long term trend of moving into outskirt and demand on living in comfortable suburban increased arterial congestion, inconvenience of commutability and unpleasant living environment. It seems to me that people more and more admire urban life and try to go back to the past life.
To me, this trends may represent the phenomenon that consumer constantly spend money on town center or inline street retailer rather than regional mall also known as “big box”.