Susan Kaplan reveals the trials and tribulations of turning New York City into a green city with the Battery Park City Authority.
The Battery Park City Authority is a public/private partnership.
All buildings built in Battery Park City have followed green guidelines since 1999. At first, we faced challenges from nearly everyone. The construction trades, for example, asked who would install photovoltaics (PVs) within the façade — the glazier, ironworker or electrician? (The answer turned out to be to make the PVs look and act like a window and bring in the electrician at the end).
Meanwhile, the New York City (NYC) government questioned items that were prohibited by the existing codes, such as waterless urinals and microturbines. Fortunately, we were able to convince the department of buildings to write new codes for these and other green projects.
Real estate developers wanted to know how to determine precisely what constituted a green building. To satisfy them, we created a clear set of required strategies rather than using the US Green Building Council’s LEED model, which, when we started our program in 1999, was only in pilot phase. We did this because while LEED allows more choice, it also allows less ease in quantifying costs at the beginning at the point when the developers are required to submit complete proposals to the Authority.
We also had a very specific building type — residential high-rise — which was not yet addressed sufficiently by LEED. And developers, architects, engineers and contractors alike were originally challenged by the need to rethink their design and construction practices. They were accustomed to designing and building structures in the same way that had been done in NYC since the 1940s.
So the first challenge for all these groups was overcoming inertia — they had to change their ways of working. For the Authority, the question was how do you get each of the groups to look at building with newer, ‘greener’ eyes? The answer started with bringing all these groups together, describing what we were trying to accomplish and ‘bringing them into the fold’. Most importantly, this meant explaining why the new guidelines would not only be not good for business, but good for the bottom line as well as good for the environment.
But a lot of the challenges were overcome. NYC has just approved legislation that requires its 22,000+ largest buildings to conduct energy audits, perform lighting upgrades and track energy usage. This was a big deal for the city. I believe this could not have happened without the first step — namely, having the Battery Park City Authority build a successful green building and following it up with eight more.
Now, we not only have photovoltaics on all new residential buildings, but also on one building we have PVs that track the sun, moving in concert with the sun throughout the day. This creates even more efficiency and more energy than standard PV systems.
The buildings also contain cogeneration equipment, blackwater treatment plants that clean and reuse up to 50,000 gallons a day per building and, in one commercial building, ice storage. Further, all the buildings are required to employ sophisticated computer-based building management systems. These communication/tracking systems do not exist in most NYC residential buildings. They are advantageous in keeping equipment at its most efficient. They also make it very easy to track energy usage and, it is hoped, to compare usage over time to other buildings.
The Authority worked closely with city and state government officials. While we all wanted the same goals, it took sitting down together to solidify support for the details. Also, we learnt the importance of understanding which issues can become barriers to jumping into green. For example, I once gave a presentation to a group of plumbing company owners who were livid over our ‘newfangled’ blackwater treatment plant. But once I explained that the systems actually require more piping, you could see smiles breaking out!
No one in the Battery Park City Authority knew in 1999 where all this would lead. At the time, only one building in all of NYC was considering becoming ‘green’. Today, 5 million sq ft of development is being completed in Battery Park City alone to the highest LEED standards.
NYC has begun requiring that all government buildings follow green standards and is now beginning to approach the existing private sector as well. It is clear that the train has left the station and sustainability has become the caboose that will power much future real estate development in NYC.
Susan Kaplan will be in Melbourne for Green Cities 10 from 21-24 February. For more information, visit www.greencities.org.au
