Planning for the Future

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Imagine a Downtown that serves as a laboratory where a number of best practices for making the area sustainable reigns. The Downtown BID, in conjunction with the Urban Land Institute (ULI), is looking into such a possibility. Both organizations hosted a Downtown Eco-District Summit recently to explore creating a highly integrated area that would aggressively implement sustainable best practices that, while not specifically stated, would clearly align with the goals of DC’s new citywide Climate Action Plan. In fact, the Downtown BID will provide leadership in helping to meet the plan’s goals.

Major property owners, federal and local officials, and utility executives convened at the Renaissance Washington, DC Hotel (999 9th Street) to participate in the half-day leadership summit. The meeting focused on developing the vision, exploring cooperative approaches, and financing energy efficiency that would make a Downtown Eco-District viable. Several participants later huddled in informal groups to dialogue further about the possibilities and next steps in the process.

  For presentation materials from the
Downtown Eco-District Summit

>>click here <<
   

Two major concerns dictate the urgency and rationale for such a district: property owners want new ways to reduce energy and operating costs and reap a greater return on their investments; and tenants want more sustainable work environments. Because of individual and other efforts, Downtown DC ranks in the top five in green roof installations, LEED certified and registered buildings, Energy Star-labeled properties, clean power purchasing, green job creation, multi-modal transportation options, and GSA investments in building retro-fits.

However, in opening remarks, Matt Klein, a Downtown BID Executive Committee member and president of Akridge (601 13th Street), the full service commercial real estate firm, stressed that “opportunities exist beyond our property line.” Uwe Brandes, ULI’s vice president of initiatives, noted that “a lot of conversations occur in the abstract, but this meeting is a beta test, which will lead to doing business in a new way with people you’re already doing business with.”

Downtown DC enjoys unique opportunities that, if well leveraged, will establish it as a global sustainability leader. Federal government investment, the local government’s progressive sustainability legislation and private-sector green building activity already make Downtown DC a leader nationally. The Clean and Affordable Energy Act of 2008, innovative and historic legislation authored by Councilmember Mary Cheh, established a sustainable energy utility to, among other things, reduce the city’s energy use and require Energy Star Portfolio Manager benchmarking and reporting of building energy performance by all existing government and large commercial properties over 50,000 SF. Coordinated information, innovative technology and focused leadership can lead to more successes. 

Creating a Downtown Eco-District will enable the Downtown BID area to focus on a full range of sustainability issues and undertake energy-related initiatives, such as district-wide public recycling, more comprehensively. Because of the Summit, the Downtown BID and its stakeholders will be able to determine the best ways to work collaboratively, take advantage of new technologies and develop new relationships to establish effective district-wide strategies for improving energy efficiency and integrating renewable energy.

PositivEnergy Practice, a Chicago-based energy services, engineering and consulting firm, conceives, designs, implements and manages energy performance, resource management and carbon reduction strategies. At the Summit, it introduced a 3-D model of a Downtown BID subarea—from the Walter E. Washington Convention Center (801 Mount Vernon Place) to Constitution Avenue—that will serve as the testing ground for a Decarbonization Pilot Area similar to the Chicago Central Area DeCarbonization Plan. The Chicago plan lays out a methodology for meeting the goals of the Chicago Climate Action Plan. PositivEnergy is working with the Downtown BID to collect data for this latest experiment.  

Last month, the DC government released its draft Climate Action Plan. The city is on target to cut its greenhouse gas emissions 20% by 2012—to below 2006 levels—and 30% by 2020. The Action Plan maps out an aggressive program to continue its energy efficiency improvements and emissions reductions. Besides protecting the climate, the measures will save money and reduce pollution. Overall, the plan identifies existing and proposed actions that residents, businesses and organizations can take as well.

During the meeting, Nina Albert, a chief in the District Department of the Environment’s (DDOE) Office of Green Economy, shed additional light on DC’s Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) program. PACE is an experiment that creates an energy finance option. It allows building owners to use long-term loans to make energy-efficient retrofits to their properties. The Downtown BID was instrumental in helping to create the new PACE program.

Several distinguished panelists participated in the Summit, held on September 30. They included Richard H. Bradley, executive director, the Downtown BID; Christophe A.G. Tulou, director, DDOE; Ronald Allard, energy sustainability branch chief, the General Services Administration’s (GSA); Roger Frechette, president, PositivEnergy Practice; Peter Garforth, principal, Garforth International, LLC; Llewelyn Wells, president, Living City Block; William Lashbrook, senior vice president of real estate finance, PNC Bank; and Greg Hale, senior financial policy specialist, Natural Resources Defense Council.

The dialog will continue. More BID-area property managers are encouraged to participate. For more information, please contact Scott Pomeroy, the Downtown BID environmental program manager, at 202. 661.7580.