The uncertainties of going green

How can the need to manage the planet's resources be squared with the competitive demands of the market? can certification schemes such as BREEAM and LEED guarantee investors revenue in future years? These were some of the questions addressed by the 2011 Switch to Green Conference, organised by Eurobuild

Uncertainty as to the eventual monetary value of green certification, the inadequacy of both the BREEAM and LEED certification systems, as well as the need to educate both society and tenants, were all topics that were aired at the Switch to Green conference held in Warsaw's Intercontinental hotel on September 29th. Both Dr Thomas Beyerle, the managing director of IVG Immobilien, and Paweł Warda, Jones Lang LaSalle's head of project and development services in the CEE region, pointed out how developers are being asked to take a leap of faith that in the future the extra investment they place in green buildings will pay off. At present no one really knows. Nonetheless, many developers have come to regard green development as crucial. This was followed by both Rudolf Grossmayer, board member of Poleczki Business Park, and Eelko Korteweg, commercial director of Business Garden Warsaw, stating how their respective companies were thinking long term and viewed green certification as essential to maintaining the value of their projects in the more distant future. This did not prevent many at the conference from pointing out the flaws in the current certification systems. Colin Campbell, the head of Sustainable Lab at Capita Symonds, denigrated what he called the "tick box approach" of both BREEAM and LEED. "I may be critical of the labelling," he said, "but still we do it and we're very proud of doing it." He also mentioned how one office development he knew of gained a LEED point for five green parking places reserved for hybrid vehicles, despite no-one owning such a car. Devin Saylor, the director of the Eastern European Green Building Certification Department of Colliers International, countered that such measures existed in order to encourage changes in behaviour. But Colin Campbell was not alone in finding deficiencies in the current certification regime. Rafał Schurma, president of the Polish Green Building Council, also turned out to be critical of the current certification standards. "There is no perfect system," - which is why he then said: "We promote system neutrality."
Indeed, the necessity for educating society at large was yet another major theme of the conference. Even Dirk Mölter, the sustainability and technical director for Continental Europe at Goodman, acknowledged its importance. For him, however, the need for greenness in the development of logistics centres was tenant-led. He mentioned how Goodman operated in a highly competitive market, where the location of a motorway is of far more importance than any green issues.
The final presentations were more practical in nature. Skanska Property Poland represented by green business coordinator Justyna Adamczyk and project leader M&E Kamil Niemirka, shared their experiences of applying LEED standards to their projects, followed by project manager Cezary Kopij presenting a similar case study on when Neinver Polska applied for BREEAM for its Factory Warszawa Annopol project.
At the end of the conference the final consensus was that many of the flaws and uncertainties of the current certification systems are due to the fact that BREEAM and LEED are still new on the market in Poland. Despite this, adopting green standards is the only way to "future-proof" current developments. (AH)