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GREEN DEVELOPMENT: INTEGRATING ECOLOGY AND REAL ESTATEWhole-Systems Thinking  The following is excerpted from the book Green Development: Integrating Ecology & Real Estate. This and other publications can be purchased from the Bookstore.
Whole-systems thinking is a process through which the interconnections between systems are actively considered, and solutions are sought that address multiple problems at the same time. Some refer to this process as the search for "solution multipliers." Developer Michael Corbett is a master of whole-systems thinking. His 240-unit Village Homes subdivision in Davis, California, completed in 1981, was one of the first modern-era development projects to successfully create an environmentally sensitive, human-scale residential community. Designing narrower streets reduced stormwater run-off and enabled simple infiltration swales and on-site detention basins to handle stormwater. As a result, conventional storm sewers were not required, and the savings—nearly $200,000 (1980 dollars)—enabled him to put in public parks, walkways, gardens, and other project amenities. The narrower streets also left more room for trees, which keep ambient air temperatures down and reduce the need for air conditioning. Pedestrian paths and traffic-calming street designs have helped foster a strong sense of community with extremely low crime rates and higher property values. "You know you are on the right track when your solution for one problem accidentally solves several others," observes Corbett. "You decide to minimize automobile use to conserve fossil fuels, for example, and realize that this will reduce noise, conserve land by minimizing streets and parking, multiply opportunities for social contact, beautify the neighborhood and make it safer for children." Whole-systems thinking has also been put to use effectively by the MERITT Signature Development Alliance in Chicago. The MERITT Alliance is a consortium of major building product manufacturers, developers, energy experts, and others that was founded by Kevork and Rolanda Derderian (Kevork is president of Continental Offices, Ltd.), to renovate older, distressed commercial properties in environmentally sensitive and profitable ways. One of their first projects was Continental Office Plaza in the Chicago area. The HVAC equipment in this early 1970s, 130,000 square foot office building needed to be replaced. Simply replacing the mechanicals with new, high-efficiency systems would have had an unacceptable 111-year payback. Combining the HVAC upgrade with a major lighting system overhaul, however, made possible significant downsizing of the mechanicals and dropped the payback to slightly over seven years. Adding a sophisticated energy management system cut the payback to about four years. Finally, by "financing" the energy savings to commercial tenants—essentially selling the energy savings to outside investors—the building owner ended up with a 1.7-year payback. The retrofit was so successful because MERITT addressed the whole system, not just one aspect of the building.
Benefits of whole-systems thinking can extend beyond buildings themselves. By using native landscaping in place of standard turf grass, the need for mowing, irrigating, and chemical treatments can be eliminated, while enhancing groundwater recharge and wildlife habitat. Daylighting designs in office buildings can reduce the need for artificial lighting during the daytime, while improving worker comfort and productivity. Providing convenient access to public transportation and bicycling (including bicycle storage and convenient shower facilities) can reduce the space devoted to parking. Unfortunately, as the various design and engineering professions have become highly specialized in recent decades, conventional development has moved further and further from a whole-systems approach. Architects think about building design, mechanical engineers about HVAC systems, lighting designers about electric lighting, and interior designers about how to utilize and beautify the resulting spaces. This separation of design functions and professions has largely prevented whole-systems thinking from occurring. Failure to practice whole-systems thinking is also seen in some supposedly "green" projects. Simple add-on packages of green features with little or no bearing on the integration of design features are examples of this failure. Some have called this the "Fifty Stupid Things" approach to green development. As an illustration, a well-intentioned New Zealand developer offers buyers of his townhouse development "green specification" options, including double-glazed windows, heat-recovery ventilation, various energy conservation features, water-conserving plumbing fixtures, and solar hot water. Buyers who opt for the entire package pay about $10,000 (New Zealand dollars) on top of the $220,000 standard townhouse price tag. The problem is that the green features are not able to achieve their full potential. The development fails to capture the cost-saving opportunities that would have been identified through an integrated, whole-systems design approach. If cost-saving opportunities made possible by these options were captured, the units could cost even less than their standard counterparts, because mechanical systems could be downsized or eliminated. Tom Hoyt, president of McStain Enterprises, the production home building firm that is developing the environmentally responsible 170-unit project Greenlee Park near Denver, believes that offering green features as an option doesn't work. "You have to decide what works, build it into the project, and make a commitment to it," he insists. Hoyt integrated green features into the house designs so that cost savings could be realized and passed on to the buyers. The problems of not thinking about development holistically can be seen in the troubled Antelope Valley suburb of Palmdale, California, two hours outside of Los Angeles. The area was dubbed "the next San Fernando Valley" in the late 1980s, and young working-class families flocked to Palmdale, a town in the Valley. Many people camped out and entered lotteries for the chance to buy a home in one of the many subdivisions going up. In 1996, however, nearly one in ten homes stood vacant; foreclosure rates had skyrocketed; and the social structure was in turmoil. The problem, according to the Los Angeles Times, was a failure to foresee the destructive impact of long commutes. Some homeowners spend as much as five hours a day commuting into Los Angeles—36 percent spend more than two hours per day in their cars. Many children are in daycare as long as 12 hours a day. Child abuse is higher than anywhere else in the state, marriages are unraveling, and teenage gang activity is mushrooming. The lesson is that developers and planners failed to consider the big picture—they sold a vision of contented home ownership without addressing the true impact of living in the Antelope Valley while being dependent on employment in Los Angeles. A side-by-side comparison in which whole-systems thinking was employed in one building but not in an identical building next door can be seen in a western Canadian project. Among the eight office towers in the Bentall Crestwood Corporate Centre, in Richmond, British Columbia, stand twin buildings constructed and operated by Bentall Development Inc. Building No. 8, at 84,000 square feet, looks just like Building No. 7, built earlier. But they are very different. Building No. 8 benefits from the whole-systems approach the architect used to improve building performance through increased energy efficiency and healthier indoor air quality. The biggest difference was the use of more expensive high-performance windows, which had excellent insulating value while maintaining good visible light transmittance. These windows allowed the team to glaze nearly 60 percent of the envelope and still achieve twice the energy performance of neighboring buildings. The team also spent more money on extra insulation, while designing for 50 percent more fresh air than is standard to enhance indoor air quality. When the owner questioned the higher cost of the windows and insulation, architect Teresa Coady of Bunting Coady Architects explained the whole-systems approach and justified the additional expense to the owner's satisfaction. Upgrading the building envelope allowed them to downsize the chiller from 200 tons—the size of Building No. 7's chiller—to 50 tons, saving tens of thousands of dollars and bringing the total building cost slightly below that of its twin.
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