Big building with a small carbon footprint

Downtown Spokane’s 20-story Bank of America Financial Center has a gray-and-glass exterior, but in recent years, it has become quite green on the inside. Unico Properties LLC, a real estate investment company based in Seattle, bought downtown Spokane’s tallest building in early 2007, and during the past four years, the company has taken a number of steps—some groundbreaking in the Spokane market—to make the building more energy efficient and environmentally sustainable. Two of the Unico’s executives, sustainability manager Brett Phillips and Spokane property manager Liz Fitzgerald, will speak about their work at Sustainable Local Investment Partners’ Green Business Networking Luncheon, which will be Monday, Nov. 15, in the Cutter Dining Room at the Spokane Club, at 1002 W. Riverside. Networking starts at 11:30 a.m., and lunch is served at noon. Susanne Croft, SLIP’s executive director, said the organization asked Unico’s executives to tell their story for a couple of reasons. First, SLIP surveyed some of its supporters earlier this year to determine what topics were of interest to them. Energy efficiency and sustainable workspace were among the most desired topics. Also, SLIP works with businesses to help them become more sustainable. Croft said many of the business owners she works with lease the space their businesses occupy and don’t feel like they have the power to make sustainable changes to their work space. Croft said she likes to show them that there are green options available in the Spokane market, and the Bank of America Financial Center, at 601 W. Riverside, is one of the primary examples. “It’s a really good showcase at a scale that’s large enough for us to see,” she said. In the past four years, Unico has made a number of upgrades to the building intended to make it more energy efficient. As a result, the company has applied for and received Energy Star certification for the 30-year-old structure. The company also is seeking a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) existing-building standard. In addition to upgrades that make the building more energy efficient, Unico developed the first whole-building recycling program in the city’s core. Croft said recycling in a large commercial space—especially in the city’s core—is challenging. “The recycling truck doesn’t stop at the curb of downtown buildings like it does at your house,” she said. However, the effort has had one significant benefit for Unico. Tenants are recycling waste they simply would have throw into the garbage previously. Consequently, the building has less waste and a small utility bill. Some building owners, however, have made improvements to boost energy efficiency and sustainability, then didn’t see their utility bills decrease as expected. Wanting to ensure they would see the expected returns on investment—lower energy bills would help to justify the upgrade costs—some building owners, Unico among them, have begun using green-lease addendums. Such addendums are intended to ensure that tenants will be energy efficient and operate in compliance with the building owners green standards. “It’s really interesting to hear how they are watching tenant behavior and tracking all of thedata,” Croft said. The Nov. 15 Green Business Networking Luncheon is the last one in the 2010 series. While this year’s lunches all have been at the Spokane Club, next year’s events will be held at the Spokane Convention Center, which has received a silver LEED certification.