The Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) International has been in existence for over a century- as chief elected officer Richard D. Purtell points out, back when skyscrapers were a newfangled concept. Today, BOMA's 16,500-plus members own or manage more than nine billion square feet of commercial properties in North America; its affiliate member organizations span thirteen other countries.
BOMA has always focused on actively and responsibly representing and promoting the interests of the commercial real estate industry through effective leadership and advocacy, through the collection, analysis and dissemination of information, and through professional development. MGB spoke with Purtell about the greening of commercial real estate and BOMA International’s role.
How did BOMA get started, and what is its role in the world of commercial real estate?
BOMA was founded as the National Association of Building Owners and Managers in 1907, just as skyscrapers were emerging as a new building type. We’re now an international federation of more than 100 local associations and affiliated organizations, and our more than 18,000 members own or manage more than 9 billion square feet of commercial properties in North America and abroad. Our mission is to enhance the commercial real estate industry through advocacy, education, research, standards and information.
Today we are the leading voice of commercial real estate. Energy management and sustainability is an area of priority. We provide our members with the latest education and strategies they need to continuously improve their building’s performance. One of our most important green initiatives, the BOMA Energy Efficiency Program (BEEP), teaches important no- and low-cost operating strategies for optimizing equipment, people and practices. That combined with several other initiatives has earned BOMA the ENERGY STAR® Partner of the Year for the past three years.
We’ve also played a critical role representing the interests of our industry to policy-makers throughout the financial crisis. I’ve testified before Congress twice in the last year to emphasize how important commercial real estate is to a thriving economy. We work continuously with a group of twelve other real estate organizations to ensure that Washington weighs policy outcomes on our $4.6 billion dollar industry.
How important is sustainability in today's market?
Sustainability is vital for success in today’s market and one of our top priorities is making sure we provide our members with the best green resources and education. In addition to BEEP, we’ve developed several other initiatives to help building owners and managers go green. In 2007, BOMA International launched the 7-Point Challenge, which calls upon members to work in coordination with building management, ownership and tenants to achieve seven critical goals, which include decreasing energy consumption by 30 percent across portfolios by 2012 as measured against an “average building” measuring a 50 on the ENERGY STAR® benchmarking tool; benchmarking energy performance and water usage; and providing education to key building personnel. The Challenge has elicited widespread acceptance across the industry. To date, more than 100 commercial real estate companies and BOMA local associations, representing more than two billion square feet of office space, have endorsed the Challenge. The cities of Albuquerque, Phoenix and Orlando have also signed on in support.
We’ve also developed a Green Lease Guide, which helps property professionals maintain a green building through operations and management practices. The lease also educates brokers and prospective tenants about what it means to occupy a high performance green building and communicates the responsibilities of all parties in the ongoing efforts to keep a building green.
BOMA also partnered with the Clinton Climate Initiative to develop the BOMA Energy Performance Contract (BEPC), a pioneering model contract and supporting documents that allow building owners and operators to execute sophisticated energy efficiency retrofits to existing buildings. These are just some of the exciting initiatives we’re undertaking to help property professionals green their buildings and gain a competitive edge in today’s marketplace.
BOMA International has just launched the BOMA 360 performance program to "validate and recognize commercial properties that demonstrate best practices in building operations and management." What are some of the best practices you're looking for?
The BOMA 360 Performance Program is unlike any other program in the marketplace because it evaluates buildings holistically, on a comprehensive rubric that takes all aspects of building maintenance and operations into account. The program benchmarks buildings against best practices in emergency and disaster planning and recovery, energy management, financial management, equipment maintenance and education and training.
There are programs in the marketplace today that address energy or sustainability, which have done great things for the industry. Sustainability and energy management weigh heavily in the 360 Program, as buildings get points for energy audits, green cleaning, building commissioning and other green management practices.
But we’re also looking at buildings and their management teams and asking how prepared they are for emergencies, how safely they operate their equipment and building systems, how they work with tenants, and whether they have the latest education and training. When a building has earned the BOMA 360 designation, it signifies to the property management team, tenants, owners, investors and the community that the building is among the best of the best.
Are regulatory agencies and permitting bodies keeping up with best practices for sustainable building? Are the public and private sectors working together especially well in some ways, and what needs improving?
Policy surrounding sustainability, energy efficiency and global warming is something that is really heating up right now. So far, we’ve been ahead of the curve. But it is our job moving forward to ensure that legislators and regulatory agencies understand what is feasible for our industry and the overall economy, and what isn’t. We’re working closely with those entities to emphasize that incentives, not mandates, are the most effective way to manage energy and reduce consumption, and we are proving voluntary market transformation is working through the success of the 7-Point Challenge.
The Department of Energy’s Commercial Real Estate Energy Alliance (CREEA), which we helped launch in April, is a great example of how public and private partnerships are creating innovation in the green arena. CREEA brings together portfolio owners and operators to promote research, technology and best practices that will improve the energy efficiency of commercial real estate buildings. It brings those commercial real estate members into contact with DOE and their national laboratories to advance efficient building technologies, promote the construction of high-performance buildings, and reduce the energy consumption and carbon footprint of the commercial real estate market. CREEA is a really a forum for identifying and removing barriers energy-efficiency in the commercial real estate sector. It is really a remarkable example of how public-private partnership can work.
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