On the road with REP
|
By Bernd Struben, Senior editor, REP (Real Estate Publishers)
|
At the ICSC CentreBuild Conference,
London, June 20, 2008 |
 The challenge of sustainability The first ICSC European CentreBuild Conference took place at the historic and luxurious Landmark Hotel in London, attracting 80 investors, developers, architects, engineers, and one of REP’s own senior editors, me. ICSC has been organizing this event with great success in the United States for 25 years. As part of the organization’s continuing commitment to sustainability, this conference focused on the planning, development, design, construction, and operation of sustainable shopping centers and retail stores in the 21st Century.
|
| Speakers ICSC managed to line up a fantastic group of speakers to launch the first European CentreBuild Conference. The speakers were: - Derek Barker, Member of the ICSC European Board, Managing Director, Haskoll Architects & Designers- Jerry Yudelson, Research Scholar, ICSC, Yudelson Associates- Sarah Lee, Associate Director, Interel Cabinet Stewart European Affairs- Graham Parker, Editor, Shopping Centre- Paul Cornes, Head of Sustainability, PRUPIM- Neil Lewis, Regional Director, Waterman Building Services- Henryk Liszka, Chief Executive Officer, Hochtief Polska- Jerry Percy, Head of Sustainability, Gleeds- Derk Welling, Manager Sustainability, Energy & Environment, Redevco Europe- Elsa Monteiro, Head of Institutional Relations, Environment and Communication, Sonae Sierra- Filipa Fernandes, Head of Corporate Center Marketing and Research, < SES Spar European Shopping Centers - David Telford, Director of Sustainability, Hurleypalmerflatt- Gordon Greeby, President, The Greeby Companies- Jorge Beroiz, Director, RTKL Associates- Roger Wilson, Director, Chapman Taylor  The Music Room at the Landmark Hotel  Jerry Yudelson addresses the business case for sustainable shopping centers. |
What is a green building? Everyone seems to have their own idea about what constitutes a truly green building, and no it has nothing to do with the color of the paint. To qualify as a green building a project must:
- Be certified by a third party.
- Use an accepted rating system.
- Meet higher performance targets. (Or ideally actually generate energy.)
- Represent best practices across the full range of environmental aspects.
- Be close to public transport links. (As fuel costs go up, people are unwilling to drive as far, and each center’s catchment area actually shrinks.)
With 25% of the world’s carbon emissions coming from buildings, the retail sector has a major roll to play in bringing these levels down. Half of all US Fortune 500 companies now issue sustainability reports, and governments are taking the issue seriously. In 2006, 50% of all projects in the US were considered green, a number which rocketed to 75% by 2007 and may well hit 100% in 2008. The EU is equally ramping up its efforts, with Brussels taking an ever more important leading role in unifying what to date has been a rather piecemeal approach across the 27 member states. With buildings accounting for 40% of energy use in the EU, the 2002 Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (to be revamped in the autumn of 2008), seeks to address standardization issues and greatly decrease CO2 emissions.
|
| Why go green? General incentives for going green include: - High global energy prices that are unlikely to come down.
- Increasing political pressure.
- City regulations.
- Design and construction teams are learning the ropes and costs are coming down.
- A growing action by investment funds to require LEEDs, BREEAM or equivalent certifications.
Retail specific incentives include: - The ability to charge higher rents.
- The likelihood of a higher resale value.
- Increasing opportunities for tax benefits.
- Reduced operating costs.
It has also been shown that it’s harder to hire and keep good talent on the floor without implementing sustainable practices. The crucially important under 40 crowd prefer to work where there are shared values and this age group overwhelming supports green initiatives. Various incentives to get the shoppers thinking green include offering discounts to shoppers arriving by public transport or bike, and providing free public transport tickets to those who shop in your center. It’s important to position your center at the forefront of new sustainable development, but not too far ahead of the curve as the costs ahead of the curve tend to run too high.  Policy frameworks for sustainable centers.  The panel discusses how to make centers more sustainable. |
Existing centers No one in Europe or the Americas is likely to build non-green shopping centers in the coming years. But what to do about existing centers, many of which were built more than 20 years ago? Opportunities for rebranding and gaining fresh press attention go hand in hand with upgrading existing centers to make them more sustainable. From lighting, to water use and waste disposal, to creating new links with public transport, there are numerous means to increase the environmental friendliness of existing centers. With upgrades and extensions, it’s important that the entire revamped center looks like it was made in one cast, like the Europark expansion in Salzburg, Austria.
Many older centers are covered centers. In the future we’ll likely see more open design centers, but climate issues in certain regions will mandate that many new malls will still be covered.
|
 Elsa Monteiro looks at environmental management systems. BREEAM ICSC recognizes the need for a single means of measuring shopping center performance across Europe. In Europe BREEAM, the BRE Environmental Assessment Method has been chosen because it offers cheaper assessment and certification fees than LEEDs, it has European roots, it’s adaptable to local the context, and it is tried, tested, and trusted. To date there are still not any retail centers in Europe that have received a BREEAM excellent rating.
It’s a good idea to stay ahead of the legislation, so as time progresses and the codes get stricter, your shopping center will still pass the ratings test.
Despite the need and desire for a common measuring stick, this is not always as easy as it sounds. In December a center in Sweden, for example, needs lots of heat and light for the cold short days, making it hard to compare directly to a similar center in Portugal at the same time of year. Also if you look at Norway, the nation gets 80% of its electricity from hydropower, whereas a country like Turkey depends mostly on coal, so carbon emissions from a similar Turkish shopping center will obviously run much higher.
|
| Centers of the future Four key aspects will affect shopping centers of the future. - Architecture, with a growing trend of retailer led design. We’ll see new formulas and new building types to match those formulas, like sports related retail or children’s oriented shopping centers.
- Function, to include ever more mixed use (culture, leisure, business, interactive, education), and a focus on customer service and convenience.
- Location, where we’ll rediscover city centers and shopping will be close to public transport.
- Sustainability, of the environment at large, as well as social and economic.
 David Telford and greening existing stock.  Panel discussion on future shopping centers. |
A quote to remember “Something is sustainable if you can carry on doing it indefinitely, if you can’t it isn’t.”
Jonathon Porritt |
|
|
|
| | |
))
))
))
))
 ))
))
))