For many industry suppliers, partnering with commercial property owners and managers to make buildings greener and more energy efficient is a cornerstone of their success. Here, the industry’s leading vendors share their tips on everything from recycling parties and white roofs to day cleaning and smart sprinklers.
Consider a relighting system
Tips from Acuity Brands Lighting
Property managers looking to increase the energy efficiency of their lighting systems find that relighting systems are more advantageous than simply replacing lamps and ballasts. Relighting systems can be installed to retrofit the existing lighting without removing entire fixtures. This reduces the disruption within the work space, results in 30-50 percent reduction in energy use and minimizes disposal costs. More efficient lighting can eliminate the harsh ‘cave effect’ produced by many traditional lighting systems, providing tenants with a more comfortable environment. Installing a relighting system can also result in higher values for lease space.
Install a white roof
Tips from IB Roof Systems
Lighter colors repel heat better than darker colors. The same theory applies to a building’s roof. White roofs can help significantly reduce energy consumption, energy costs and help diminish the heat island effect in urban areas. It can also have a significant impact on the environment over time: According to U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, lightening roofs and roads in urban environments would offset the global warming effects of all the cars in the world for 11 years.
Throw a recycling party
Tips from Ingersoll Rand
Invite tenants and employees to bring items from home that they no longer use, but that may be useful to others. Set up a few tables, put all the items out and encourage everyone to take whatever they want. At the end of the day, take all the remaining to a donation center that supports your local area. This not only helps reduce waste in landfills, but encourages spring cleaning. As the saying goes, one person’s trash is another’s treasure.
Be green across the board
Tips from ISS Facility Services
- Institute a day cleaning program, which allows buildings to conserve energy and translates into a significant cost savings
- Install smart electronic sprinklers that automatically adjust based upon rainfall, relative humidity and air temperature, and other weather conditions
- Convert to paperless reporting systems
- Make it easy for tenants to recycle by having a recycling bin by each trash can
Know the impact of the products you use
Tips from Kimberly Clark Professional
- Do business with suppliers with stated environmental goals and a track record of continual improvement in these areas
- When selecting products, consider the environmental impact the product has throughout its entire life cycle
- Choose products whose raw materials are responsibly sourced
- Buy products with minimal packaging
- Look for full cases, pallets and trucks to minimize a product’s distribution footprint
- Purchase products and dispensing systems that help reduce usage
Institute a pest prevention program
Tips from Orkin
An integrated pest management program uses preventive measures to keep pests out and relies on targeted chemical treatments only as a last resort. Fortify a property from the outside by sealing exterior cracks and trimming shrubs that could provide harborage or access. Regularly remove trash to a waste zone away from the building, as trash is a treasured meal for rodents and cockroaches. Non-toxic pheromone monitors use pest biology to lure and trap pests on sticky boards and are especially effective when used in hot spots like break rooms and vending areas.
Reprogram your elevators
Tips from ThyssenKrupp
The largest part of an elevator’s 25-30 year lifespan is actually while the unit is not in use. To conserve energy while your elevator is idle, program your elevators’ controllers to turn lights off when it is not in use, which can eliminate approximately 60 percent of wasted energy. The controller can also be programmed to shut off the cab fan when the elevator is not in use to conserve additional energy.
Stay on top of HVAC and building systems operations
Tips from Trane
- Adjust your time-of-day lighting schedule for daylight savings time
- Program a nighttime setback on HVAC equipment
- Make sure all HVAC and refrigeration units are charged to manufacturer specifications
- Identify potential refrigerant leaks by monitoring refrigerant logs
- Ensure all water systems are operating at efficient temperature settings
- Regularly review utility bills for anomalies
- Check fans for worn or loose belts and grease appropriate parts to manufacturer specifications
- Make sure all pipe and duct insulation is intact
- Clean and repair tubes in boilers and chillers
- Maintain all valves to make sure they open and close correctly
Landscape Sustainably
Tips from ValleyCrest
- Switch from overhead irrigation to a more efficient drip system
- Analyze water usage trends and develop a water management plan to ensure irrigation systems operate efficiently, irrigation runoff is reduced and reclaimed water is used
- Practice hydrozoning, or grouping plants with similar water requirements on the same irrigation valve to reduce over-watering
- Install flowering perennial plants to provide a sustainable and cost-effective replacement for seasonal color changes
- Convert fountains to planters or implement a rotation schedule for water features so fewer operate at one time
