Photo Credit: US Army Corps of Engineers

A question for all you design professionals out there: When was the last time a project you designed was built exactly as shown on your drawings?

The answer, I imagine is “never.”

There’s a myth outside of the construction industry that the architectural team hands over a giant set of blueprints and specifications to the contractor and then a team of construction workers execute those plans with nary a glitch.  The misconception is that the construction team “just follows plans” when in fact there is a very entrenched but varying culture on construction sites that determines how workers behave and how projects gets built.

To improve the performance of our buildings, much higher levels of coordination is required between the construction, design and operations teams as well as among the trades working on the project.  To build green, it’s critical to get all of these individuals on the same page and change the culture of the job site to include sustainable work practices.

To help the construction industry teach the workforce about sustainability and green work practices, Urban Green Council developed GPRO, a national training program to teach the people who build, renovate and maintain buildings the principles of sustainability combined with trade-specific green construction knowledge.

We’d like to share an excerpt from Trades Going Green in  the January 2012 issue of GreenSource magazine. Bruce Buckley features GPRO prominently as he writes about the importance of training and collaboration when building sustainable buildings.

“Changing the culture is an important first step in training trade contractors to think green, says Steve Lehtonen, senior director of environmental education with the International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials (IAPMO). “The most important thing to me is the psychology of what we’re doing,” says Lehtonen, who runs IAPMO’s Green Plumbers training program. “We want them to buy into green practices.”

Green Roofs for Healthy Cities (GRHC) launched its Green Roof Professional (GRP) designation program to improve the delivery of green roofs. Jordan Richie, manager of education and accreditation at GRHC, says the program sees a mix of designers and contractors in roofing and landscaping. “We want to stress a collaborative design and installation approach to any green roof,”

Knowledge of green systems and techniques should be a skill set that all contractors have, not one reserved for accredited professionals, says Mike Callanan, executive director of the National Joint Apprenticeship Training Committee (NJATC) of the National Electrical Contractors Association and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.“

The takeaway is that properly trained construction teams who understand green work practices and concepts will build better, higher-performing buildings.  As we bring GPRO nationwide, it is our goal to make all buildings be greener as workers become trained in green practices and behavioral norms change.

A little over 10 years ago, I began a four-year stint as a legislative attorney at the New York City Council. Back in those pre-PlaNYC and pre-Green Codes Task Force days, it was no easy feat to get the Mayor’s Office to concentrate on environmental legislation and we had a big one cooking at the City Council: Local Law 86, which required all city owned and funded construction over $2 million to be built to LEED Silver.

One of the people who would attend meetings at the Mayor’s Office on this legislation was an elegant, soft-spoken woman who seemed to know everything about the building code: Deborah Taylor. Unbeknownst to me at the time, she was one of the principal advocates for this green building legislation within city government. I later discovered she was probably the first person to propose that city agencies meet to develop a broad sustainability agenda – this became the “Mayor’s Task Force on Sustainability,” the precursor to PlaNYC. Without her,  PlaNYC may never have happened. Deborah also recognized that New York City would need to adopt its own version of the state energy code, both to close state loopholes and so the city could make its own amendments. This led to the city finally starting to enforce the energy code for the first time since it was adopted in the 1970s. Another Deborah special. And so on, again and again and again.

Long before Urban Green Council or the U.S. Green Building Council New York, before PlaNYC and the Greener, Greater Buildings Plan, before the Office of Long-term Planning & Sustainability, before the Green Codes Task Force, and before Local Law 86 there was Deborah Taylor. Working behind the scenes and without public credit, she nurtured much of the green building revolution we’ve seen in city government and her imprint is on so many policy accomplishments in the last decade.

Last month, Deborah retired from city government after nine years at the Department of Buildings, and eight years at the School Construction Authority before that. A great public servant, she is one of New York City’s unsung green heroes. Let’s all celebrate her enormous achievements and hope that other champions within the Department of Buildings will continue in her footsteps.

Since the dawn of time (well, OK, since 1979 when Michigan and Princeton Professors Ross and Williams developed the idea of a “house doctor”), energy efficiency enthusiasts have been convinced that retrofitting a residential building to save energy could pay for itself in fuel savings.  It’s been a rocky road since those days, when the prime concern was our dependence on unreliable Mideast oil rather than climate change, and in the energy price valley of 1985 – 2000, it was a lot harder to make the case.

But over the last ten years, subsidized programs all over the country have carried out hundreds, perhaps thousands, of retrofits.  Many were aimed at affordable housing, including the federally funded Weatherization programs, and state efforts like NYSERDA’s Assisted Multifamily Program (AMP, in which I was active) and the current Multifamily Performance Program (MPP). Others focused on coaxing the owners of unsubsidized multifamily buildings, including coops, condos, and market-rate rentals, to upgrade their building systems in the interest of greater efficiency, but always with the carrot of long-term savings. Similar efforts went on in many of the more progressive states.

All these programs were successful in installing efficiency upgrades:  insulate the roofs, add caulking and weather-stripping, switch to fluorescent lights, replace that failing boiler, and add better heating controls.  And because we had used careful analysis and detailed computer models, we were confident the savings were there.  But the fact is, we couldn’t present fuel and electric usage data from any of the early projects to prove that our analysis was accurate. As late as 2008, we had a grand total of 20 buildings from AMP for which we had verified savings, largely of satisfactory magnitude.

Of course this is a problem from a technical perspective – we would like to know we are telling the truth when we claim that savings will be forthcoming.  But there is another, much larger problem:  all the retrofits done under Weatherization or NYSERDA programs are subsidized, one way or another, so the owner could expect a much more substantial return on their own partial investment than they would receive in pure market circumstances. And still it was hard to get them to undertake the projects.  Further, what we need now is a truly massive campaign of energy retrofits, far larger than can ever be subsidized by either NYSERDA or the federal government. And owners rarely have the cash reserves to undertake energy retrofits on their own.  The only way to bring retrofit activities “to scale” is to make them an investment opportunity for lenders, by which I mean banks.

But you know bankers – dour, untrusting, “show me your cash flow” types who want proof that you will have the money to meet your monthly obligations. (We will omit discussion of the unfortunate events of the last few years except to note that now no one will lend any money without ironclad guarantees of credit-worthiness.) If we want bankers to lend money for retrofits based on the use of energy savings to repay the loan, we need tools to convince them that the savings will be forthcoming.  Until now, those tools were not in evidence.

Today, we stand a chance.  Deutsche Bank Americas Foundation and Living Cities commissioned Steven Winter Associates and HR&A Advisors to undertake a massive study of energy retrofit activities in New York City, and to formulate an underwriting approach based on their findings. The just-released report provides both a powerful case that the savings will be realized in enough instances to justify significant investment activity, and an analytic framework that will make investments even more secure.

On the technical side, they examined 231 buildings for which pre- and post-construction data was available, and developed a strong set of useful conclusions. Just a few examples: expect more substantial and reliable savings from fuel use reduction than from measures aimed at electric usage; the more fuel your building uses, the greater the potential for savings. (Before you say “duh”, this was quantified in way that that will be very useful for underwriting, as we will see.) And because buildings are complex systems, they found that while observed savings tracked projected savings in a statistical sense, there would still be cases where the savings fell short.  How can this risk be minimized, making energy efficiency retrofits an attractive investment for our dour banker?

Here is where the team developed an exceedingly clever analytic approach.  The engineers designing the retrofit will use their models to predict savings.  But from an analysis of the 231 buildings, the team already knew that on average, they could expect savings roughly equal to half of the pre-retrofit fuel use minus a substantial constant. (See the paper for the math!)  The clever approach then is to trust the engineer’s model unless it predicts savings greater than the average found for their data set, adjusted for energy use in the building being modeled. If the model predicts savings greater than the data set average, use the data set average. If the model predicts savings less than the data set average, use the model results. Then go talk to your banker. When this approach was applied to the buildings in the data set, they found that the actual energy savings substantially exceeded these adjusted predictions, a situation that should leave underwriters satisfied.

Can this work?  Will we see a dramatic increase in capital available for energy efficiency retrofits? Only time will tell, but we have made a substantial step forward.  All the buildings in New York City over 50,000 square feet will undergo energy audits, as required by Local Law 87 of 2009, and the proposed measures and their estimated savings will be there for all to see. Now, a robust way to justify financing the measures is also available.

Green codes continue to fly off the City Council’s legislative shelf like bagels on a NYC morning. We can’t even keep track and we helped draft them!

Last Wednesday, the City Council gave New York a New Year’s present by prohibiting the sale, offer for sale, or installation of carpets and carpet cushions that contain volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in excess of the Green Label Plus standards from the Carpet & Rug Institute. Implementing the Task Force proposal Health & Toxicity 1: Limit Harmful Emissions From Carpets, we believe this law is another first in the nation for a municipality. While many jurisdictions have standards on paints and coatings, carpets haven’t received the same attention.

But they should. For those who aren’t familiar with VOCs, they are a class of carcinogenic chemicals behind “new car smell” that cause a host of health problems ranging from respiratory ailments to major organ damage. While paints and coatings off-gas VOCs very quickly, it takes longer for carpets to release their VOCs thus increasing the likelihood that end users will be impacted. Interestingly, the vast majority of U.S. carpet manufacturers meet the Green Label Plus standards — the problem is with imported carpets. So, in one package we have a new law that improves the health of New Yorkers and also increases the competitiveness of American carpet manufacturers.

For ongoing updates on the status of the GCTF proposals, check out our Codes Status Report.

I’ve been ruining family gatherings with this point for years.  But that doesn’t make it any less true.  There are easy jobs to be found with a little nudge from the government.  What’s the holdup?

Back in 2007, in the world of high rise construction, Franco was the kingpin of New York City concrete.  His price to supply concrete to big construction projects reliably beat his competitors and he seemed to be getting rich doing it.  You didn’t want to ask too many questions.

At the time, I was working for one of NYC’s leading construction management companies and circulating within the concrete industry to build support for better concrete washout water management.  The rinsing of concrete trucks and equipment at construction sites generates highly corrosive water that flows down the street and into the sewer.  During rain events, these sewers empty into the East and Hudson Rivers as combined sewer overflow (CSO) events.  Other cities and states had more stringent rules about discharging concrete washout water in areas where it could harm people and enter waterways, but in New York City, the Department of Environmental Protection just required the water to be filtered through filter fabric or hay bales, in an attempt to reduce the amount of concrete hardening in the sewer and clogging drains.  Filtering was only partially effective at that and did nothing to address the public danger and environmental impact of the water’s chemical makeup and alkalinity, which is comparable to Draino®.  Draino is a product that used to be used to unclog waste pipes until it was found to corrode right through the pipe.

All the concrete trade organizations and manufacturers my colleagues and I met with agreed the practice was polluting, and even the manufacturers seemed surprised the DEP was allowing it.  When asked why the practice persisted, the manufacturers explained, “so long as the city isn’t making the waste water our problem, it’s not in our financial best interest to claim it.”  The most cost effective and environmentally preferable means of handling the washout water generated by rinsing the chute of a mixer truck, which is the primary source at most construction sites, is to capture it off the bottom of the chute with a pail, and return it with the truck to the concrete manufacturer’s own plant for treatment.  All concrete batch plants have wastewater treatment systems, and as the Cement League commented, “It make sense – a construction manager buys the concrete, not the concrete truck and equipment.  Therefore, any waste generated in maintaining this equipment should be the supplier’s.”  Franco, however, added one more kernel of insight: “I have beautiful trucks.  I’m not going to hook or attach anything to them unless some code requires me to.”

Technically, New York City already had a law on the books prohibiting corrosive water from being discharged down the sewer.  But because the manufacturers resisted claiming the waste water as their problem, construction sites were limited to two options: letting the water evaporate onsite in bins or sending a wastewater pump truck around to the site daily to suck it out of a dumpster and take it to a special waste water treatment plant.  The first was only possible at World Trade Center-sized sites and the latter was a logistics hassle, expensive and generated additional vehicle miles (environmental impact), so no one did it.  To get Franco and his kin to play ball in managing the wastewater in the most cost-effective and environmentally preferable way for a project, a better code would be required.

Which is exactly what the City Council passed today. Effective July 1, 2012, NYC will have a new building code prohibiting concrete washout water from entering sewers and catch basins.  Most importantly, the code offers special dispensations to mixer trucks so that the water from rinsing their chute is returned to the originating concrete plant with the truck. Read Urban Green’s detailed summaries of the laws here.

Let’s just hope Franco doesn’t chip the paint on any of his trucks when he installs the tank racks.

* Editor’s note: This name is a pseudonym.  We were concerned “Franco” might knock on our door looking for Charlotte.

Photo credit: Daniel X. O’Neil

Today brings another burst of Green Codes activity with the enactment of three new laws by the City Council. Urban Green played a critical behind-the-scenes role, working with the City Council, Mayor’s Office, and real estate industry for months to build support for these latest initiatives.

Thanks to today’s laws, there will be less soot in buildings due to better filters on large new ventilation equipment (Int. 592); grey, caustic streams of concrete wastewater from construction sites will no longer be filling the streets (Int. 576) [Read more about this one on Charlotte Matthew's post here]; and most new roads, driveways, and parking lots will contain 30% recycled asphalt (Int. 578). You can read our detailed summaries of the laws here.

Compared to major legislation we’ve helped develop, like the Greener Greater Buildings Plan, these bills are relative small fry. But bit by bit the codes are being improved, and collectively the Green Codes Task Force is having a major impact. With our advocacy, the Council has now passed 19 Task Force proposals, with 10 others enacted by other levels of government or in progress.

We can’t talk out of school, but I strongly encourage you to watch our newsletter and emails in the coming weeks for more good news on the codes front.

And if you value the critical work we’re doing on codes, I hope you will consider making a year-end tax-deductible contribution to our Advocacy Fund.

We are proud to announce that Urban Green Council has issued its 1,000^th GPRO Certificate!

In the 11 months since we launched our first public class, we have trained or are in the process of training over 1,700 candidates in five different construction modules.  We wanted you to hear from our Certificate Holders directly, so we invited a student from each GPRO module to tell us how GPRO has impacted the way they work.

Loretta Tapia, GPRO: FUND

NYC Cool Roofs Site Supervisor, Community Environmental Center, New York, NY

I look at buildings differently.  I better understand the relationships between building systems and their effect on the environment. My job involves painting cool roofs and concentrates on the urban heat island effect, reducing carbon emissions and air pollution while increasing energy efficiency within the building.  We are still learning the effects of cooling roofs and how they prolong the life of vents and machinery on the roof.  I often have in depth conversations with building supers, while inspecting their roofs, which include benchmarking, lighting efficiency, weatherizing, and updating boilers and air conditioners. GPRO has given me a good foundation to build upon in understanding how important it is to do this work and continue to learn and educate others about sustainability.

Ty Stranger-Thorson, GPRO: CM

Area Manager, The Garland Company, Magnolia, TX

The actual way I work has not changed much, but the hard hat stickers and my GPRO credential listed on my LinkedIn page have both raised some questions from colleagues and clients alike regarding my GPRO certificate. This has started dialogue regarding green construction and practice, from the designers to the installers.

The more we are able to spread the word about these types of programs the easier it will be to have our buildings constructed by workers that understand and implement green building practices.

Isaiah Matos, GPRO: O&M

Assistant Resident Manager, Douglas Elliman, New York, NY

The GPRO courses changed various aspects of my life, both professionally and personally. GPRO illuminated a new way of thinking when performing at work on a daily basis. Simple things from the types of products that I purchase for the buildings to the way I manage construction and renovations have all changed. GPRO introduced me to integrated design and thinking, so making simple decisions like changing lamps may have inverse cost effects on the HVAC system, which is something I never considered before. Water conservation can reduce energy use by simply not having to heat and transport as much water as before the reduction. The integrated systems approach has changed the way I make every decision.

GPRO also introduced me to the USGBC and the LEED rating system. The influence of some of the lecturers inspired me to move further into the green building industry and pursue LEED accreditation. As of now I am a LEED Green Associate and I am studying for my LEED AP in Building Operations & Maintenance, which I hope to have before new year 2012.

Bob Hattier, GPRO: EL

NABCEP Certified PV Installer, IBEW Local 134 Chicago, Chicago, IL

GPRO addresses the disconnect that has long plagued green building.  Now with trade level certification there can be a true integrated design and construction process.  In my work I have a new understanding of the other trades’ approaches and strategies used in efficient building, and it fosters communication between us. I look forward to the day when many more are trained and green building is the norm.

Carl Gambino, GPRO: PL

Journeyman Plumber & Instructor, U.A. Local 1 NYC Plumbers Union

The day after the Fundamentals class, when I went back to my job at Tower 1 at the World Trade Center (the project is working towards LEED Gold certification), I looked around and was able to understand so much more about what was being built and why I was being asked to change the way we worked. I also noticed how other trades were contributing to the green building design.

Interested in taking a GPRO course? Our delivery partners in Upstate NY and LaGuardia Community College are both holding public sessions this winter.

On November 14th, 2011, the NYC Department of Buildings launched phase two of the Sustainable Contractor Designation Program to include NYC licensed plumbers and electricians, in addition to General Contractors for 1-, 2- and 3-family homes.  This initiative identifies trade licensees who demonstrate knowledge in sustainable practices through third-party certifications and agree to promote the use of green technologies to their customers. Those licensees that the Department identifies as sustainable will have an icon in the shape of a green leaf displayed next to their names in the Department’s Buildings Information  System (BISWeb). Learn more about this program here.

This is great news for GPRO! In addition to GPRO: Construction Management, now GPRO: Plumbing and GPRO: Electrical Systems have been named as one of the acceptable credentials for the Sustainable Contractor Designation Program.

GPRO: Green Professional Building Skills Training is a series of courses and certificate exams that teach the people who build, renovate, and maintain buildings the principles of sustainability combined with trade-specific green construction knowledge.

Related posts on GPRO

Ellen is the Director of Construction Education at Urban Green Council, and runs GPRO: Green Professional Building Skills Training. GPRO is a series of courses and certificate exams that teach the people who build, renovate, and maintain buildings the principles of sustainability combined with trade-specific green construction knowledge.

Here at Urban Green Council we LOVE data!  At Greenbuild last month Harvey Bernstein, VP of Industry Insights and Alliances at McGraw-Hill Construction, released a new study on the Workforce and Green Jobs.

The upshot is that in construction, green jobs are growing at a faster rate than non-green jobs. Green training is considered valuable to contractors, trades and A/E professionals and is becoming more widespread throughout the industry.

How big is this industry anyway? Globally, construction in 2011 is projected to be a $7.2 trillion industry, representing 11% of global GDP. In 2020 this is expected to rise to $12 trillion (13.2% global GDP), mostly in emerging countries.  Projections for the next 9 years are for growth in single family homes and commercial construction but flat for institutional projects.  As we all know too well, construction and design jobs in the U.S. have been generally declining since 2008, but the good news is that green construction has been rising as a segment of the market.  This year, green jobs make up more than 1/3 of jobs in the A/E and contractor communities.

Is there a shortage of green-qualified construction workers? 69% of AEC firms expect work force shortages of qualified construction workers during the next decade.  The MH survey tried to determine the reasons why.  Major reasons cited are:

• Lack of interest in the construction industry among high school students because its perceived as not being high-tech enough
• Retirement of senior staff
• People leaving the workforce during the downturn and concern that they won’t return
• Licensed trades (MEPS) expect the worst shortages.  Contractors expect shortages in carpentry, millwork, electricians, concrete/cement workers, HVAC workers and boilermakers

What does green really mean?: The survey asked what “green” meant to each individual.  Top responses included: energy use reduction, reduction of use of natural resources, and installation of renewable energy (this response was higher for trades).

Is specialty knowledge valued? Formal training is prized by the trades and by decision makers.  80% of trades surveyed said that unions and associations were highly valued sources of training for trades.  Happily we seem to be moving towards higher levels of teamwork in the industry – the survey reported that General Contractors are looking to improve their collaboration skills and value employees who are proficient with technology and have good people management skills.  From the perspective of A/E firms, GC’s and subcontractors, certified employees help them win projects and increase competitiveness across the board.

What are the benefits of green training as seen by those in the industry?

• More job opportunities: Training is key to getting and maintaining better jobs. 30% of green job workers said they needed major training when they started, and most reported that formal education and training programs will continue to be needed. 71% of hiring decision-makers believe that having green skills increases an individual’s competitiveness

• Higher compensation:
  • 58% of the entire survey estimated a 4% higher salary for green skilled workers;
  • 38% of trade contractors said they valued green skills at 7% or higher salary;
  • 14% of AE firms said they valued green skills at a 10% or higher salary

• More job security and opportunities for advancement. Trades (carpenters, HVAC/boilermakers, electricians, concrete/cement masons and plumbers) are expected to see the greatest growth in green jobs. The survey found 15% of trade jobs today are considered green jobs, and this is expected to increase to 25% in three years.

• Outside sources of training are surpassing on-the-job training for green skills.  The number of people who responded that they can get training on the job was lower as compared to those who stated a need for outside sources of training as more specialization and technology takes effect – this response rate was similar for trades and AE professionals.

How many green jobs are out there? One oddity of this survey is how it defined “green jobs”:  Green construction or installation job in building construction involving installation of a uniquely green system or requiring different skills to meet green goals.  This definition does NOT include administrative or non-construction professions such as manufacturing or producing green products.   Hmm…and I thought I had a green job.

• Of the design professionals surveyed:  there was a steep increase in those that stated that more than 50% of their projects are green.  The rate of increase is less steep for GC’s but still climbing.
• Of the responses from the unemployed (mostly architects): 17% are seeking an exclusively green job, 60% are seeking a green job and 31% said they were not as interested in non-green jobs.

Photo credit: Linh Do