Best Practice Guide

Commercial Office Buildings

Adobe Systems Incorporated and Cushman & Wakefield

Arden Realty and next>edge

Cypress Semiconductor

Equity Office Properties

Glenborough Realty Trust

Natural Resources Defense Council

Qualcomm

Swinerton, Inc.

Transwestern Commercial Services


Introduction

Planning an Energy Program

Funding and Approval

Lighting

Building Envelope

Central HVAC System

Distributed Generation

Demand Response

Commissioning

Procurement Policy

Water Use

Education

Energy Efficiency in Telecommuting

Resources and Appendices

Lessons Learned


View the Glossary

Case Study

Arden Realty and next>edge

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Property Name: 5200 W Century Boulevard
Type: class-A office building
Location: Los Angeles, California
Size: 311,317 sq. ft. Office Building
Year Built: 1982

Website: Arden Realty www.ardenrealty.com and next>edge www.next-edge.com

Electricity End-Use Consumption in Commercial Office Buildings by ActivityView Details.

Arden Realty, Inc., a real estate investment trust, is the largest landlord of office buildings in Southern California. Arden's portfolio includes 120 properties consisting of 193 buildings and approximately 18.2 million net rentable square feet.

In 1996, Arden acquired a number of new properties. At the same time, Arden realized that changes in California's energy markets were driving costs up. In response, Arden convened a "swat" team of its best and brightest managers and engineers to develop best practices for operations at its buildings and a comprehensive energy strategy for the entire portfolio. The team also developed a proprietary methodology to assess each building. The results were so tremendous, Arden decided to formalize the role of this team, creating the wholly owned subsidiary next>edge, a turnkey provider of fully integrated energy efficiency and power generation solutions for commercial facilities.

By the time the energy crisis hit California in 2000, all of Arden's properties had been through the next>edge assessment. This greatly minimized the impact of price spikes, to the benefit of Arden's tenants. Arden's commercial tenants have since become increasingly savvy about energy costs. Because investment in energy efficiency was done in advance of the crisis, Arden was able to firmly establish itself as a first-class property manager and owner.

Illustration of the increase in fuel-use efficiency by using combined heat and power (CHP) to eliminate a boiler. Courtesy of California Energy Commission.View Details.

Arden quickly became recognized as a leader in energy efficiency, winning the EPA's prestigious Commercial Real Estate Partner of the Year for three consecutive years. Today, Arden properties represent anout 50 percent of all ENERGY STAR labeled buildings in California. The net benefit of Arden's energy program equals the effect of removing 6,130 cars from California's roads each year, planting 8,397 acres of trees annually, or powering 4,086 homes for a year.

Programs Implemented by next>edge:

  • 116 lighting retrofits covering over 12 million sq. ft.
  • 67 installations of Energy Management Systems (EMS).
  • Over $15 million in HVAC retrofits, including 12 chiller replacements.
  • Design and construction of 10 cogeneration facilities, totaling 9 MW.
  • Design and installation of 309 kW of solar photovoltaic systems.
  • Worked with property owners to earn more than 300 ENERGY STAR labels.

Greywater system at NRDC's Santa Monica offices. Photo by Grey Crawford, courtesy of NRDC.View Details.

One example of a next>edge energy project occurred at an Arden property in Los Angeles. Air conditioning capacity at 5200 W Century could no longer meet the building's cooling loads. The building, designed and constructed in 1982, suffered from undersized main supply airshafts as well as undersized chillers. It was impractical to enlarge the main airshafts, so tenant equipment was curtailed and the air conditioning system was operated for extended hours to "catch up."

As tenant requirements for office equipment rose, the HVAC system reached a critical point. Prospective high tech tenants could not even consider leasing space because of severe constraints on equipment densities. Existing tenants were disturbed by discomfort due to the inadequate cooling, and many were considering departure.

next>edge addressed the problem through a three-pronged approach: a full lighting retrofit, mechanical upgrades to HVAC equipment, and commissioning of automated building systems. Optimization of the chiller and air handling equipment resulted in enhanced capacity that met cooling loads while improving system efficiencies to less than 0.75 kW/ton-about half that of a typical HVAC system. The commissioning, on the other hand, accounted for more than 50 percent of the energy savings for the entire project. Because of these upgrades, 5200 W Century earned an ENERGY STAR label, scoring 97 out of a possible 100 points.