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tnrkitectI, like many across the nation and the world have looked on as oil continues to gush forth from the seabed over a mile below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico. My emotions went from horror, to anger, to resignation fairly quickly, as the realization set in that we should get used to occurrences like this on a regular basis.
I was going to explain how we came to be looking for oil a mile below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, however Gail Tverberg recently posted an article at TheOilDrum.com that explains it much more succinctly than I can: With so many oil resources, Why can't we just drill somewhere else?
I will not recap her points, except to say that at its root, the reason the blowout occurred is our society's insatiable demand for oil. This demand is a result of oil's incredible usefulness for increasing productivity and mobility. Combine that demand with a corporate disregard for safety, and the result is the explosion and subsequent uncontrolled leak into the ocean that may not be stemmed until August.
Now, aside from the environmental horror and disgust at the actions of BP, you may wonder why an architect is concerned about oil and energy in general (scroll to bottom of the linked page to read the posts in order). I mean, after all, architects just design buildings, right?
As an architect, my job is to design buildings and oversee their construction for my clients. Since buildings account for 39.7% of the energy used in the U.S. and the median lifetime of a commercial office building in the U.S. is between 70 and 75 years, with 1/3rd of all office buildings built today expected to last for 103 years the design decisions I make as an architect have a direct effect on the energy usage of the buildings we will be living and working in for the rest of our lifetime and that of our children.
Since energy and how it is used is such an integral part of our society, it is a moral imperative that I and my colleagues design buildings that are energy efficient to "protect the health, safety, and welfare of the public". Many of my colleagues feel that their hands are tied, as the client is the one who makes the decision. I say that is total hogwash. It is our obligation to educate them on the benefits of energy efficiency, of which the simplest benefit for them to understand is that energy efficiency saves them money in the long run.
I admit I am an advocate for "green" construction, ie. sustainable design. However, I also am pragmatic, and understand that my clients are businesses. They are not trying to save the world, they are trying to make money. Talking to them about how they should do "x", "y", or "z" because it saves the world will get me no where. But showing them how doing "x", "y", or "z" will save them money gets their attention.
If implementing those sustainable features will cost them extra up front, I have to show them how long it will take for the resultant energy savings to payback the extra expenditure. If the payback period is too long for their liking, they will not be willing to pay for it. Therefore I keep up to date on what incentives are available at the federal, state, and local levels to help subsidize the high ticket items, and stay abreast of both current and the latest technologies available, including those that reduce our dependence on oil.
Yet doing all of this does nothing to address the existing building stock. The most sustainable building is one that is re-used. Yet sadly, the majority of buildings in existence today are woefully energy inefficient, the result of speculative building practices, where the building was built as cheaply as possible to maximize the return when it is sold off a few years after being built. There is a great opportunity for retrofitting of this existing building stock, however, like always, it comes down to who is going to pay for it.
The advent of LEED rated buildings has brought sustainability into the public eye, and even with all of its shortcomings, has served to educate the public on the worth of energy efficient buildings. As a result, in the more forward thinking locales, an energy efficient building garners higher rents. Eventually, this premium for efficiency will make its way into the secondary markets (such as Tennessee and the South in general, where energy costs tend to be lower). Once that occurs, local building owners will "see the light" and be willing to pay for energy upgrades. As usual, it will be a matter of "Show me the money!"
One of the primary factors that will hasten this occurrence is rising energy costs, not only in terms of the building's energy use as explained above, but also in the terms of rising gasoline prices. Why? Ask any real estate agent what the top three criteria for a building's worth are, and it is always "Location, location, location!"
As gas price prices go up, centrally located buildings will increase in value. This is due to simple economics. If a business is located close to its customers, then they will spend less money and time getting to the business. This means less of their income is spent on transportation, leaving more available for spending. If a business is located in an energy efficient building, they are spending less money on overhead leaving more money in their profit column.
In the residential market, the rise of gasoline prices is manifesting itself by adjusting home prices for the same reason. As gasoline prices rise, housing closer to job centers increase in value, and housing requiring a long commute decreases in value. We are beginning to see people leaving the ex-burbs (the ring of growth beyond the suburbs ringing cities) for the suburbs, and leaving the suburbs for the urban neighborhoods in the city. Yet it is not as simple as everyone moving back into town. A more accurate description would be people moving closer to work.
As the demand for housing close to job centers increases, the prices increase. If a house is energy efficient, then less money is being spent on heating, cooling and lighting, and more can be spent elsewhere, including paying the premium for living closer.
How does this all tie in together? With energy costs on the rise, the need for retrofitting existing buildings and building new energy efficient buildings will increase. As an architect, I wish I could end this post by saying that "If you hire me to build energy efficient buildings, we can reduce our oil use!" but sadly that is not the case. Although the savings in energy used by buildings will be huge, it will only reduce our oil consumption indirectly through reduced transportation costs, as the amount of oil used by buildings is small.
This is because buildings and the items within only account for a small percentage of the total liquid fuels consumption (thin includes oil and natural gas). Transportation accounts for 74% of all liquid fuel consumption. Although reducing the use of oil based products in building helps, the most significant way to reduce the amount of oil we use is to reduce our transportation costs. This can be done by increasing automotive and truck fuel economy, switching from single occupant vehicles to more efficient modes of transportation such as buses, trams, and trains, and switching away from mono-use zoning to mixed-use neighborhoods thus reducing the need to travel.
All of these will be fought tooth and nail by the industries and people affected, whether it be the auto industry saying that proposed fuel efficiency standards are too high, or people who feel that public transportation is a waste of money, or by people who don't like the thought of change, however failure to do so will result in oil related disasters becoming commonplace, as we drill deeper and cut corners to feed our appetite for black gold.
So how do you deal with this?
Building with energy efficiency in mind will save you money, thus freeing up your money to deal with higher energy prices. Knowing where to build or to renovate is also key. If you are in the right location, renovating or expanding your existing space for efficiency may be your best option, but how do you know?
That is where an architect can help.
We can help with your long range plans, helping to ensure you and your business are positioned correctly for the future in regards to high energy and subsequent costs, and help you evaluate what changes can be made to help reduce their effects on your business.
If the above evaluation points to addressing your building needs, we can help there too. Whether you wish to renovate your current building, build new, or move to a new location, we can help you evaluate for location, potential energy upgrades, renovation options, and expansion potential to include estimates on cost and payback periods. we can also help you identify and prioritize the work to be done, if you don't wish to do it all at once.
Once the scope of the project is set, we can design the space to meet, or in the case of a renovation, better meet your needs. We can help navigate the codes approval process and can help you select a contractor who will get the project built correctly. We can oversee the construction process ensuring that what is designed is actually built.
In short, I and other architects can use our knowledge to help you and your business save money by positioning you for the future, ensuring that your building needs are met in the most efficient means possible within your budget, reducing your energy needs, and thereby increasing profits.
Or, you can continue business as usual, and in a small way, be responsible for future disasters such as what is now occurring in the gulf, as we search in more difficult and dangerous places for our energy needs.
The choice is yours.
I was going to explain how we came to be looking for oil a mile below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, however Gail Tverberg recently posted an article at TheOilDrum.com that explains it much more succinctly than I can: With so many oil resources, Why can't we just drill somewhere else?
I will not recap her points, except to say that at its root, the reason the blowout occurred is our society's insatiable demand for oil. This demand is a result of oil's incredible usefulness for increasing productivity and mobility. Combine that demand with a corporate disregard for safety, and the result is the explosion and subsequent uncontrolled leak into the ocean that may not be stemmed until August.
Now, aside from the environmental horror and disgust at the actions of BP, you may wonder why an architect is concerned about oil and energy in general (scroll to bottom of the linked page to read the posts in order). I mean, after all, architects just design buildings, right?
As an architect, my job is to design buildings and oversee their construction for my clients. Since buildings account for 39.7% of the energy used in the U.S. and the median lifetime of a commercial office building in the U.S. is between 70 and 75 years, with 1/3rd of all office buildings built today expected to last for 103 years the design decisions I make as an architect have a direct effect on the energy usage of the buildings we will be living and working in for the rest of our lifetime and that of our children.
Since energy and how it is used is such an integral part of our society, it is a moral imperative that I and my colleagues design buildings that are energy efficient to "protect the health, safety, and welfare of the public". Many of my colleagues feel that their hands are tied, as the client is the one who makes the decision. I say that is total hogwash. It is our obligation to educate them on the benefits of energy efficiency, of which the simplest benefit for them to understand is that energy efficiency saves them money in the long run.
I admit I am an advocate for "green" construction, ie. sustainable design. However, I also am pragmatic, and understand that my clients are businesses. They are not trying to save the world, they are trying to make money. Talking to them about how they should do "x", "y", or "z" because it saves the world will get me no where. But showing them how doing "x", "y", or "z" will save them money gets their attention.
If implementing those sustainable features will cost them extra up front, I have to show them how long it will take for the resultant energy savings to payback the extra expenditure. If the payback period is too long for their liking, they will not be willing to pay for it. Therefore I keep up to date on what incentives are available at the federal, state, and local levels to help subsidize the high ticket items, and stay abreast of both current and the latest technologies available, including those that reduce our dependence on oil.
Yet doing all of this does nothing to address the existing building stock. The most sustainable building is one that is re-used. Yet sadly, the majority of buildings in existence today are woefully energy inefficient, the result of speculative building practices, where the building was built as cheaply as possible to maximize the return when it is sold off a few years after being built. There is a great opportunity for retrofitting of this existing building stock, however, like always, it comes down to who is going to pay for it.
The advent of LEED rated buildings has brought sustainability into the public eye, and even with all of its shortcomings, has served to educate the public on the worth of energy efficient buildings. As a result, in the more forward thinking locales, an energy efficient building garners higher rents. Eventually, this premium for efficiency will make its way into the secondary markets (such as Tennessee and the South in general, where energy costs tend to be lower). Once that occurs, local building owners will "see the light" and be willing to pay for energy upgrades. As usual, it will be a matter of "Show me the money!"
One of the primary factors that will hasten this occurrence is rising energy costs, not only in terms of the building's energy use as explained above, but also in the terms of rising gasoline prices. Why? Ask any real estate agent what the top three criteria for a building's worth are, and it is always "Location, location, location!"
As gas price prices go up, centrally located buildings will increase in value. This is due to simple economics. If a business is located close to its customers, then they will spend less money and time getting to the business. This means less of their income is spent on transportation, leaving more available for spending. If a business is located in an energy efficient building, they are spending less money on overhead leaving more money in their profit column.
In the residential market, the rise of gasoline prices is manifesting itself by adjusting home prices for the same reason. As gasoline prices rise, housing closer to job centers increase in value, and housing requiring a long commute decreases in value. We are beginning to see people leaving the ex-burbs (the ring of growth beyond the suburbs ringing cities) for the suburbs, and leaving the suburbs for the urban neighborhoods in the city. Yet it is not as simple as everyone moving back into town. A more accurate description would be people moving closer to work.
As the demand for housing close to job centers increases, the prices increase. If a house is energy efficient, then less money is being spent on heating, cooling and lighting, and more can be spent elsewhere, including paying the premium for living closer.
How does this all tie in together? With energy costs on the rise, the need for retrofitting existing buildings and building new energy efficient buildings will increase. As an architect, I wish I could end this post by saying that "If you hire me to build energy efficient buildings, we can reduce our oil use!" but sadly that is not the case. Although the savings in energy used by buildings will be huge, it will only reduce our oil consumption indirectly through reduced transportation costs, as the amount of oil used by buildings is small.
This is because buildings and the items within only account for a small percentage of the total liquid fuels consumption (thin includes oil and natural gas). Transportation accounts for 74% of all liquid fuel consumption. Although reducing the use of oil based products in building helps, the most significant way to reduce the amount of oil we use is to reduce our transportation costs. This can be done by increasing automotive and truck fuel economy, switching from single occupant vehicles to more efficient modes of transportation such as buses, trams, and trains, and switching away from mono-use zoning to mixed-use neighborhoods thus reducing the need to travel.
All of these will be fought tooth and nail by the industries and people affected, whether it be the auto industry saying that proposed fuel efficiency standards are too high, or people who feel that public transportation is a waste of money, or by people who don't like the thought of change, however failure to do so will result in oil related disasters becoming commonplace, as we drill deeper and cut corners to feed our appetite for black gold.
So how do you deal with this?
Building with energy efficiency in mind will save you money, thus freeing up your money to deal with higher energy prices. Knowing where to build or to renovate is also key. If you are in the right location, renovating or expanding your existing space for efficiency may be your best option, but how do you know?
That is where an architect can help.
We can help with your long range plans, helping to ensure you and your business are positioned correctly for the future in regards to high energy and subsequent costs, and help you evaluate what changes can be made to help reduce their effects on your business.
If the above evaluation points to addressing your building needs, we can help there too. Whether you wish to renovate your current building, build new, or move to a new location, we can help you evaluate for location, potential energy upgrades, renovation options, and expansion potential to include estimates on cost and payback periods. we can also help you identify and prioritize the work to be done, if you don't wish to do it all at once.
Once the scope of the project is set, we can design the space to meet, or in the case of a renovation, better meet your needs. We can help navigate the codes approval process and can help you select a contractor who will get the project built correctly. We can oversee the construction process ensuring that what is designed is actually built.
In short, I and other architects can use our knowledge to help you and your business save money by positioning you for the future, ensuring that your building needs are met in the most efficient means possible within your budget, reducing your energy needs, and thereby increasing profits.
Or, you can continue business as usual, and in a small way, be responsible for future disasters such as what is now occurring in the gulf, as we search in more difficult and dangerous places for our energy needs.
The choice is yours.
