Stamford Businesses Go Green

Last Thursday, Kristine D’Elisa, director of the Corporate Sustainability Challenge for Sustainable Stamford, moderated a panel of commercial building owners who have participated in the Corporate Sustainability Challenge over the past year.

The panel was made up of Gerrit Blauvelt, managing director of property operations at ; Brian Heelan, senior vice president & director of Operations at Albert B. Ashforth, Inc., and Tom Lazzaro, director of facilities management at Greenwich Hospital.

“Why did we choose to do this? How could we not? 'Green' is in our name!” Lazzaro laughed.

The teams made many simple changes to their properties that added up to big savings: lights in elevators replaced with energy-efficient bulbs, annuals on the grounds replaced with drought-resistant perennials and non-smoking areas that extend to the entrance of the building or to the entire grounds.

Malkin Properties has tackled a green retrofit of the Empire State Building — now, they’re bringing these concepts to other locations.

“We were asked to replicate this in our suburban properties,” Blauvelt said. “First Stamford Place was the perfect candidate.”

First Stamford Place was not without challenges — the space has a large parking garage and need for energy outside of regular business hours, but Blauvelt was confident that making changes would show the community that even a building with challenges can be made greener.

In the course of one year, Blauvelt’s team was able to raise their Energy Star score by five points.

Albert B. Ashforth, Inc. is based in Stamford, yet has property holdings around the country, including a San Francisco office that is platinum-certified.

“We have some West Coast holdings and the West Coast is light-years ahead in being green,” Heelan said. “We were talking the talk a long time, but we weren’t walking the walk [in Stamford].”

The businesses first had to benchmark — record their past year of water and energy usage, review policies, and work with tenants to implement changes.

“Our greatest resource were our employees,” Lazzaro said. “We created an environment where everyone who wanted to contribute could — it’s been amazing how many great suggestions have been made.”

One challenge is working within a budget to make changes that will pay off in the long-term, while all three saw reductions in their energy costs over the year, changes do cost money and the results may not be readily apparent.

“Sustainability is a long-range investment,” Lazzaro said. “It takes patience.”

Next fall, Sustainable Stamford and will open up their sustainability challenge to all local business managers. Members of the panel offered some advice to others who will take steps to make their commercial properties

“Don’t be afraid of benchmarking,” Blauvelt said. “It takes time to input all of the data, but you need to know where you are in order to make improvements.”

“Your utility bills — look at them. You’re not a good property manager if you don’t look at them,” Heelan said. “I wouldn’t discourage anyone from getting involved in this project.”