Archive for the ‘Green Building’ Category

Think Green Building Risks Are Overstated? Check Out San Juan’s Green Roof Project

On April 27, 2011 Author By Scott Wolfe Jr

San Juan, TX set out to install a beautiful green roof on a city building, but after some engineering work was performed, the roof had to be decreased substantially in size because it would not be able to support the additional weight. The story was reported by a local publication, The Monitor.

It seems the green roof weight issue came as a surprise to the local planners, who already received a grant for the installation. It shouldn’t come as a complete surprise to readers of our blog. We proposed this exact thing as a potential problem with green roofs in an October 2010 blog post: Examples of Things That Can Go Wrong With Green Building Projects. I’ve mentioned it a number number of times in various presentations I’ve given on Green Building.

The good news is that San Juan discovered this problem before the roof’s installation, reminding us that engineering reports and review of green jobs on the front end can pay dividends in the long run. This weight problem could have easily gone the other way, with the problem discovered during or after the installation.

Posted in:     Green Building  /  Tags: , ,   /   1 Comment

Is Obama’s “Better Buildings” Initiative Real or Rhetoric?

On February 11, 2011 Author By Scott Wolfe Jr

Earlier this month President Obama unveiled an initiative to make buildings more energy efficient in America. The Wall Street Journal simply summarized the President’s goals and rationale with the following:

[The program will provide] tax breaks and other proposal aimed at getting commerical-building owners to retrofit their structures to be more energy efficient, an initiate [the President] hopes to fund with higher taxes on oil and gas companies.

President Obama introduced the program with this statement:

[O]ur homes and businesses consume 40 percent of the energy we use…So the good news is we can change all that. Making our buildings more energy-efficient is one of the fastest, easiset and cheapest ways to save money, combat pollution and create jobs right herein the United States of America.

The plan for Better Buildings is outlined in a White House “Fact Sheet,” which you can view online here.  There is a lot of fluff in this fact sheet on the initiative’s ideas, and even more fluff on the White House’s Energy and Environment blog. I count 5 blog posts from February 3rd (the day the program was announced) touting this “Better Buildings” program. Administration officials, however, have yet to identify a cost for the program, or any specifics as to how anyone can utilize the program.

Obama says that all this information is forthcoming…can it be an important benefit to the green building industry?  We’ll soon see.  Here is a clip from the speech at Penn State when Obama announced the program:

Posted in:     Green Building, Law Changes & Updates  /  Tags: ,   /   Leave a comment

Solar Panels Now Allowed in New Orleans Historic French Quarter?

On January 24, 2011 Author By Scott Wolfe Jr

Last week, the New Orleans City Council voted to approve the installation of solar panels on a home in the city’s historic French Quarter. This would seem to be  no-brainer for the city, which is one of America’s 20 Solar Cities and has pushed solar energy with tax credits and other programs, but it was only allowed after some controversy. (See Solar Energy tag).

The vote of the city council was on appeal from the homeowner, after his request to install the solar panels was denied by the Vieux Carre Commission. The commission complained that the solar panels are outside the “soul and character” of the French Quarter.

Green building technologies and the industry has a whole certainly has its challenges, and we’ve discussed them in the past on this blog. This situation, however, presents an interesting issue confronting those in the green building industry that we really haven’t previously discussed: Successfully getting through homeowner associations and municipal control with energy efficiency equipment that just isn’t very pretty.

As far as popular support goes, it seems to be in the corner of progress and incorporation of this technology. Nola.com ran a poll asking readers whether the solar panels should have been allowed, and as of this writing, 76.88% of people said yes (372 votes, poll here).

It will be interesting to see more of these situations pop-up across the country, and not just involving municipalities, but also involving homeowner and condominium associations. When a municipality or homeowners association denies a request for incorporation of these technologies, will the property owner have a remedy in law to force acceptance?

Insofar as this decision, it appears to only concern the one property petitioned. As such, there is no blanket rule allowing solar panels in the French Quarter, and the next resident will first have to go to the Vieux Carre Commission and their obvious disposition to deny the request. But, this is a welcoming precedent for those in the New Orleans solar market, and french quarter property owners.

Posted in:     Green Building  /  Tags: , , ,   /   3 Comments

Things To Keep In Mind When Entering a Green Building Contract

On October 28, 2010 Author By Scott Wolfe Jr

Last week, we published an article identifying some Things That Can Go Wrong On A Green Building Project.    To prepare for these potential problems (and others), here is a list of things you should keep in mind when contracting for a green building project:

1)    Define Things: Terms like ‘sustainability,’ ‘green certification’ and ‘high performance building’ do not have any universal meanings.   Clearly define the goals of the building and project.   Consider adopting a rating system, and specify the system and the version.

2)    Designate a responsible party for certification:  A green/LEED coordinator can go a long way, designating someone who will be responsible for coordinating all parties, analyzing the work to ensure compatibility with the rating system, and put together all the paperwork required on the project.

3)    Responsibility Matrix: Create a “matrix” of who will be responsible for what.   This will at least mitigate the finger-pointing if or when something goes arwy.

4)    Payment Issues.   An especially important consideration for contractors:  Be cautious about tying certification with substantial or final completion.   Certification may never come, but in all cases, it could take between 6-18 months after substantial completion to get certified.   That’s a long time to have money withheld – and this will create payment problems with subs and suppliers.   If nothing else, make sure your contracts up and down the chain have the same payment timeframes and expectations.

5)    Know Vendors and Products.   These technologies are new and can be complex.   Don’t subscribe to a technology without investigating.   Get to know the products and manage the expectations of the owner.   For a discussion of how these new green technologies can present problems, see Paul Beers’ guest post on Chris Hill’s Construction Law Musings.

6)    Consequential or Specific Damage Waivers (LDs).   Damages for failure to certify or for failure to meet certain benchmarks may be murky.   Consider waiving consequential damages, and call out these specific expectations and considering waiving those damages or presenting LDs for them.  For a discussion about whether a consequential damage waiver is effective for green building damages, see this blog post: Is Failure To Achieve LEED Certification Consequential Damages?

7)    Flow Down.  Make sure your obligations up the chain, go down the chain.

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ConsensusDOCS v. AIA – Form Contract Wars

On October 27, 2010 Author By Seth Smiley

While attending the Associated Owners & Developers 14th Annual Construction Industry Conference, entitled How Owners and Contractors Can Control Project Risk, here in New Orleans today, I sat in on a informative session regarding ConsensusDOCS. The session was moderated by John Orrison. David Hendrick, Daniel Lund, Jeff Paris and William Steinhardt were the featured panelists.

The panel was discussing the pros and the cons of the newest version of the ConsensusDOCS series recently released. AIA (American Institute of Architects) form documents have dominated the construction industry for many years. Due to the AIA dominance, others in the industry sought out an alternative and the ConsensusDOCS were born in 2007.

Many experts believe that the AIA standard form contracts are drafted to protect the Architect. Owners and Contractors feel like there is not much protection for their interests in AIA forms. AIA documents are formed on the premise that an owner will seek out a qualified architect to begin a project, thus placing more liability and responsibility on that architect. The contract documents should be drafted to protect this individual.

ConsensusDOCS came about from a different premise. ConsensusDOCS are more Contractor friendly and look after his interest along with the owner. According to ConsensusDOCS, they have formed a “Coalition of 28 Leading Industry Associations.” This coalition is made up of contractor, subcontractor, owners, estimators and surety bond producers among others.

From the expert panel there was much discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of each type of form document. Both sets of form documents are alike in the following ways: both have many overlapping provisions, both advise the purchaser of the documents to seek legal counsel and both have limited uses.

ConsensusDOCS claims to have an industry first with its form 310 “Green Building Addendum.” This is the first of its kind and something that is needed with the rise of green projects and interest. More on this form at Christopher Hill’s blog.

Overall it is smart to seek out legal counsel during the contract formation phase of any project. Whether it be AIA or ConsensusDOCS, the documents that these organizations provide are simply a starting place. Contracts need to be tailored to fit the type of project perfectly. Otherwise, avoiding a visit to an attorney early on could result in seeing him an awful lot when a dispute arises. An analogous saying form the medical world fits perfect here, “an ounce of prevention, is worth a pound of cure.”

There is no concrete answer as to which documents are better, but I’m sure Architects will stick with AIA and Contractors will favor ConsensusDOCS.

Posted in:     Construction Contracts, Construction News, Green Building  /  Tags: , , , , ,   /   2 Comments
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