July 2016 — Property Management Quarterly —
Page 27
T
he Denver 2030 District has
come quite a way since
its inception as an explor-
atory organization in 2013.
The vision was to gather an
informed group of property own-
ers and managers, vendors and
nonprofit organizations to lead an
effort to drive commercial building
efficiency and sustainability on the
district scale. After more than a year
of dedication and collaboration, the
Denver 2030 District officially was
founded in 2015.
Since then, our district has added
over 50 buildings and over 20 million
square feet to its portfolio, making
us one of the largest 2030 districts
in North America. We have spread
throughout downtown Denver and
include members and properties
from a variety of different organiza-
tions, as well as numerous commu-
nity and professional stakeholders
helping our property owner and
manager members achieve increased
efficiencies.
In addition to Denver, 2030 districts
are in Seattle; Cleveland; Pittsburgh;
Los Angeles; Stamford, Connecticut;
San Francisco; Dallas; Toronto; Albu-
querque, New Mexico; San Antonio;
and Grand Rapids, Michigan. The
momentum isn’t stopping either,
with emerging districts continuing
to pop up in other cities throughout
the country.
What separates the 2030 District
from other high-performance build-
ing programs such as LEED and
Energy Star is that the program
allows for building participation on
a larger scale. While tremendously
impactful, some of these other orga-
nizations tend to
cause self-selection
of only the highest-
performing build-
ings. By approach-
ing goals on a
district scale, the
program can target
more potentially
lower-performing
buildings and
help them imple-
ment strategies to
improve their per-
formance.
The goal of all
2030 districts,
including Denver, is to reduce energy
and water consumption, as well as
transportation-related emissions, by
50 percent in existing buildings over
a 2003 baseline by 2030.
Initially, districts were established
as a grassroots effort that, through
private and public partnerships,
brought property owners and man-
agers together with local govern-
ments, businesses and community
stakeholders to provide a business
model for urban sustainability
through collaboration, leveraged
financing and shared resources.
Together they benchmark, develop
and implement creative strategies,
best practices and verification meth-
ods for measuring progress toward
common goals for existing buildings
and new construction.
Even though the organization is
young, some significant accomplish-
ments have been achieved. In the
first year, district members achieved
a 26 percent reduction in energy
use, a goal that the district was aim-
ing to accomplish before 2025; and
water use was reduced by 16 per-
cent, again ahead of schedule. Main-
taining and even surpassing these
accomplishments, however, will be
a challenge, especially since the dis-
trict is a collection of many actors,
each of which will need to take indi-
vidual actions to achieve the district
goals.
Buildings do not need to face these
challenges alone. The Denver 2030
District wants to help members,
which is why we offer a number of
benefits to all of our member build-
ings. These benefits are available
on the Denver 2030 District website,
, and range
from significant discounts on elec-
tric vehicle charging stations and
LED lighting to discounted member-
ships for car-sharing programs.
At the national level, the 2030
Districts Network, a collaboration
among all local districts, have com-
bined their numbers to increase
purchasing power. In an effort to
streamline the technology procure-
ment process and provide mem-
bers with special incentives, the
2030 Districts Marketplace recently
launched, offering significant dis-
counts and special purchase prices
on an array of cutting-edge building
technologies. The Marketplace web
platform enables all members to
easily purchase large quantities of
green, Energy Star and WaterSense
qualified products, including heat-
ing, ventilating and air-conditioning
controls, advanced metering, LED
lighting, windows and window film.
In addition, 2016 saw the launch of
Urban Land Institute Greenprint, a
reporting software that uses Energy
Star to analyze data and produce an
incredible amount of sustainability
reporting not found on other plat-
forms. Denver members can sign up
for $42 for the first year. A standard
annual membership is $15,000, so
we urge members to take advantage
of this software at an incredible
price while you can.
Finally, all district members will
be invited to attend free events and
seminars to educate members on
better building practices that reduce
energy consumption and operat-
ing expenses. Topics will vary and
will cover everything from how to
take advantage of energy rebate
programs offered in Denver to edu-
cational seminars on how to master
Energy Star and gain a better under-
standing of how to input different
types of energy data into the data-
base.
Despite the large number of partic-
ipating buildings, only 35 percent of
the market is involved, and there’s
still work to be done to reach our
goal of 100 percent participation.
If you are interested in becoming
a member, please visit the website
under the “Join the 2030 District”
section. The collective efforts of the
district members can make a signifi-
cant contribution to reducing energy
and water use and transportation
emissions, all of which can save
money and enhance Denver’s attrac-
tiveness as a place to do business.
For more information on the ben-
efits, contact Alex Silano, asilano@
zellerrealty.com, or Paul Schmiechen,
.
s
Associations
Alexander P.
Silano, LEED AP
O+M
Property manager,
Zeller Realty
Group, Denver
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Jill Harris | 303-623-1148 x103 |
