The Next Level
Techniques
and technologies like those listed above are both meaningful and
practical; they afford real benefits to the environment without
imposing a giant up-front economic burden on warehouse developers. Over
the long term, however, regulators and customers can be expected to
raise the bar on builders, pushing for higher environmental performance
from their facilities. In order to move forward, the industry will need
to overcome one of the largest handicaps it faces in this area today: a
dearth of hard data that quantifies the costs and benefits of
individual environmental building features.
For instance, is
putting photovoltaic cells on the roof of a distribution center a
meaningful and cost-effective way to reduce carbon emissions from the
building over the long term? Or would it be better to have on-site
shower facilities that enable people to bike to work conveniently?
Today, one would be hard-pressed to answer those questions
definitively. The industry needs to develop a standard, metrics-based
approach that enables an apples-to-apples comparison of sustainable
technologies in a scientific manner.
As an example, ProLogis
will develop a 64-acre industrial park in the midlands region of the
United Kingdom that will serve as a "test bed" for state-of-the-art
environmental technologies. The land for the park is the site of a
former coal mine that also served for years as an unlicensed tire dump.
Following a government-sponsored cleanup, construction will include
more than 600,000 square feet of space designated for both industrial
distribution and use by small and medium-sized businesses.
Plans for the site include a wide array of sustainable technologies and design features:
•
There will be improvements focused on the energy performance of the
facilities, such as exterior building fabrics that decrease air leakage
and loss of energy, and enhanced skylights that boost natural lighting
and lower consumption of electrical power.
• The project will
include renewable energy systems, such as roof-mounted solar panels,
heat-absorbent solar walls, and solar thermal hot water systems. In
addition, the feasibility of wind turbines on the site will be
investigated.
• The development plan will be designed to create an
optimal working environment for employees that integrates into the
fabric of the local community. A plan will be developed for a
comprehensive transit system that includes convenient links to mass
transportation, cycle paths, and pedestrian walkways. Shower facilities
will be included to encourage cycling to work, as will a free electric
shuttle to key nearby locations and an Internet-based carpooling
program. Landscaping onsite will be designed to offset the
development's carbon dioxide emissions, and irrigation systems will
rely on both gray water and recycled rainwater.
Third-party engineering consultants will
monitor and analyze the costs and benefits of the various features at
the park, both during construction and over the long-term life of the
project. ProLogis intends to make its findings public, so they can be
used to enhance future decision-making about sustainable development by
private builders, occupiers, and those who craft public policy.
In
the end, of course, no industrial development can be truly called
sustainable unless it remains economically viable and continues to
deliver a strong return to investors. That idea is sometimes lost in
the debates and discussions that take place about sustainability today.
But better information and a scientific approach should enable our
industry to focus on those techniques and technologies that deliver the
highest impact at the lowest cost, improving the world we live in
without undermining business performance and the bottom line.
Jack
Rizzo is managing director of global development for ProLogis, a real
estate investment trust based in Denver, Colorado. The company has more
than 400 million square feet of industrial space owned, managed or
under development in 81 markets across North America, Europe, and Asia.
