New Haven Independent

Green Brings Green

by Thomas MacMillan | October 28, 2009 7:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Making her 15-story office building by the harbor more environmentally friendly ended up also helping a developer pay the bills.

The developer is Lynn Fusco. She was talking about receiving an “Energy Star” rating — and then landing a profitable new tenant for her building.

She said the new rating will also make the difference in attracting future clients.

At an afternoon ceremony on Tuesday, Fusco Corporation’s office building at 545 Long Wharf Dr. received the Energy Star rating from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The award recognizes the energy efficiency of the building, which was built in 1984 and has been retrofitted with energy-saving technology.

After the ceremony, Fusco (at left in photo) said that the pending Energy Star award was a key factor in convincing medical supplies company Covidien to move its administrative offices into the building. Environmental certifications are a vital part of bringing in tenants these days, she said.

The award presentation began at 1 p.m. on Tuesday in the lofty three-story atrium of the Long Wharf Maritime Center’s Building One. It is now the only building in New Haven with an Energy Star rating from the EPA.

“What makes me happy are buildings that are full,” said Mayor John DeStefano, the first to speak at the podium. The market demands energy efficient buildings, he said, and New Haven has more LEED certified buildings than any New England city outside of Boston.

EPA representative Cynthia Veit (at right in photo) praised “the Elm City’s” leadership role in the area of energy efficient buildings.

With the Energy Star rating, the building joins 1,870 other building in the U.S. — including the Chrysler Building in New York City — that are helping to reduce energy consumption, she said. All the Energy Star buildings combined have a carbon footprint reduction equivalent to taking 2 million cars off the road per year, Veit said.

Steve Krawczynski (at right in top photo), president of the engineering company that oversaw the energy-saving improvements to the Maritime Center building, explained after the ceremony where the savings had come in. He said they are the result of “lighting retrofits” and improved “controllability” of the building mechanical systems, heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning.

The improvements not only make the building more environmentally friendly, they make it more tenant-friendly, said Fusco.

“This is a commodity, in a way,” she said. “It’s become extraordinarily important to be energy efficient.” It’s “tremendously helpful” in attracting tenants, she said.

It’s what made the difference for Covidien, which will be moving 300 employees into the building. “The Energy Star rating was critical to their decision-making,” Fusco said.

“All of a sudden” everybody wants to be in an energy-efficient building, she said. “It’s really in the hands of the consumer.”

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Comments

Posted by: A Green | October 28, 2009 2:36 PM

Buildings like this are a move in the right direction.
Now the City needs to support this kind of building with public transit that lets people leave their cars at home.

Every garage at the train station and every parking lot represents a failure to provide public transportation alternatives.

People want public transit. Just like universal health care, it's a popular choice that doesn't exist.

Does the City have such a plan?

Posted by: anon | October 29, 2009 12:23 PM

How can this building be considered "green" when it is virtually impossible to get to it from anywhere, safely or in a reasonable amount of time, by foot, bike or bus?

"Greenwash" is a better description. These developers are making millions of dollars in profits on public and state-financed infrastructure, like building our public schools and hospitals, yet can't contribute to improve the infrastructure so that their buildings can be accessible to the (less wealthy) people, i.e., the vast majority of New Haven residents of all ages who do not drive to work every day?

Posted by: Norton Street | October 29, 2009 8:31 PM

I did bike over to this area this summer and it was the second worst bike route after North Frontage Road.
There are no street trees to provide shade
Cars routinely speed and honk
The road is too wide, and buildings do not define outdoor space
There is no green median on East Street/Long Wharf Drive
The massive parking lots give a feeling of isolation
The buildings ruin the view of the water (as if destroying the their relationship to the street wasn't enough!)

Green, my balls!

Posted by: Fred Davis | October 31, 2009 8:29 PM

Kudos to Fusco on a job well done. It's great to see local businesses 'going green'. Hopefully their effort will inspire other businesses to make improvements that also help our envioronment.
@Anon
Designing, building and installing new equipment is all done to make a profit. 'Contribution to the infrastructure' is made by paying taxes.
@Norton Street
The building is half a mile from downtown and there are sidewalks the whole way. More could be done of course, but it is hardly inaccessable. I doubt that narrowing the roads would be an improvement.

Posted by: anon | November 1, 2009 9:08 PM

Fred - paying large amounts of taxes means that you also control the purse strings to some extent. Making a truly "green" community requires a heightened awareness on everyone's part, not just blindly paying taxes without asking any questions.

I don't see how these buildings can be considered "green", by any stretch of the imagination, without evaluating the community setting as a whole.

Green Brings Green

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