Going green pays big dividends
Published Friday, May 13, 2011
Mike Mullen, Telegraph-Journal
SAINT JOHN — An uptown landmark has gone green.
The Mercantile Centre at the corner of Main and Union streets reduced its electrical usage by 20 per cent during a one-year period, saving about $75,000 and landing the building a BOMA BESt level two certification.
Mark McGraw, a project manager at Commercial Properties Ltd., the company that owns the Mercantile Centre, said a 20 per cent decrease is not typical.
“We were shocked.”
The company found out the Mercantile Centre had been awarded BOMA BESt level two certification in January.
“Every building is different so a lot of it depends on the age of the building and how efficient it was when it was built. We thought level two was a great goal for Mercantile.”
BOMA BESt, which stands for Building Owners and Management Association of Canada Building Environmental Standards, awards level one through four certification for buildings that meet certain benchmarks for environmental management and performance.
Level two certification signifies “a building is moving towards excellence in energy and environmental performance through better management,” the BOMA BESt website says.
It's the second BOMA BESt certification for Commercial Properties Ltd. Brunswick House on Chipman Hill is level three certified.
Commercial Properties Ltd. bought the Mercantile Centre three years ago and soon realized the building was consuming a lot of electricity and water, McGraw said.
“When we buy a building, we talk to all the tenants and we (ask), ‘What are your complaints? What comments do you have about it?’ ”
Consulting firm Stantec conducted an energy audit and identified several ways the building could reduce its usage. One solution Stantec recommended was to install a new building control system in the Mercantile Centre, something the company did in mid–2010.
“It's a computer system that talks to all of your different heaters,” said McGraw, who has been working with Commercial Properties Ltd. for five years.
“The big gain there was the ability to schedule and trend our heating and ventilation units based on occupancy so they shut down as soon as everyone left the office.”
Achieving BOMA BESt certification was a one-year process, which included submitting a year's worth of consumption data to the organization.
“You apply through the BOMA N.B. office. They hire an individual verifier to come in and work with you to make sure everything you're saying you're doing is actually done.”
Most of the criteria for certification has to do with management practices, but management principles, such as whether a building's senior executives monitor consumption, are also part of the application.
The certification has to be renewed after three years and every month Commercial Properties Ltd. reviews the Mercantile Centre's consumption levels to make sure it's staying on track.
McGraw has noticed tenants in the company's BOMA BESt-certified buildings tend to be more comfortable.
“The tenants are much happier in a building where we implement these green policies.”
The Mercantile Centre's green project is only the beginning for Commercial Properties Ltd. The company plans to start another green project on a building in the next month or two.
“We're just trying to include green technology into our management and buildings any way that we can,” McGraw said.
“It's the right thing to do.”