MCAA: helping you make the business case for sustainable construction

By Jack Wilhelmi

When I became president of MCAA this year, I said that one of the mechanical contracting industry’s biggest opportunities is to continue the movement to build highly efficient, sustainable buildings. I believe the mechanical contracting industry will be a very exciting place to be in the coming years.

This industry will be at the very center of the movement to construct and maintain the high performance buildings that will begin to transform our built environment and provide a sustainable future for all of us. MCAA will be working to make sure that our members are always on the leading edge of construction and technology and leading the rest of the industry in promoting a better environment for the safety and health of our families, country and the world.

The question is: What should we be doing to best prepare for this new world? Should we be devoting our resources to explaining the benefits of high performance buildings to owners? Or to retraining our employees and rethinking our business models? Or to attracting and training the next generation that will continue this work?

I think the answer is all of the above.

First, let’s look at the business case from the owner’s perspective.

The cost of building green is coming down. Recent studies have shown that green buildings can be constructed at about the same average cost as non-green buildings, with maybe a 2% premium for LEED Gold or Platinum buildings.

In return, its ongoing operating costs are dramatically reduced.

A study released this May by the New Buildings Institute confirms that LEED-NC buildings are delivering the anticipated savings. LEED energy use is similar to predictions -- 25 to 30% better than the national average. Average savings increase for the higher LEED levels, with Gold/Platinum buildings approaching 50%.

MCAA want to do our part to help the building industry better understand how energy efficiencies are optimized. Therefore the Mechanical Contracting Education and Research Foundation is underwriting a USBGC study to evaluate 18 LEED-certified buildings that have been occupied for at least one year. The goal will be to identify the factors that improve or diminish energy efficiency along with the areas of practice (design, construction, or O&M) that contribute the most to these efficiencies.

For these high performance buildings, rents are typically 15 to 40% above market, and asset values are exceeding comps by as much as 50%, according Liberty Property Trust, a Philadelphia developer with a $7 billion portfolio. In addition, many developers report that financing is easier to obtain (especially from European sources) and that the buildings are leased more quickly, increasing their returns. Many Fortune 500 firms now have sustainability policies directing their operations, making it more likely that they will select LEED-certified facilities. They also are recognizing the productivity contributions that result from the lower absenteeism rates we see in high performance buildings.

As a result, owners and developers have already begun to transform this movement into a market-driven revolution. We will see an irreversible change in what society demands of our built environment. Our owners, customers and the public increasingly expect a different product from our industry. Sustainable construction will in the not too distant future become simply how we do business.

Plumbing and mechanical systems are the heart of our built environment, representing the majority of leed points available for a building. For contractors, the rapidly developing new construction and retrofit markets for green and sustainable construction are the opportunity and challenge of a lifetime.

You can imagine the changes that we are going through internally. We are re-examining our business models, providing additional training from the top down and transforming and branding our companies to capture and create these new markets.

Training and workforce development will be a key to our future success.

Already underway is a green awareness training and certification program, developed by the United Association in conjunction with HVAC Excellence, which provides a 10-hour curriculum on basic green awareness and technologies.

Our new mobile classroom, designed and built jointly with the United Association, is on the road training our workforce about the new technologies being used in green and sustainable hvac and plumbing work. The on-board technology features innovative mechanical systems that are designed to enhance a building’s energy efficiency while decreasing reliance on nonrenewable resources. A new Web site, www.hvacgreen.net, highlights the technologies and training equipment included on the trailer.

To help our companies get up to speed, we have included high performance building strategies in many of our programs.

This June we held an extremely successful High Performance Estimating Conference that helped companies understand the opportunities available to them with bim and the latest technologies. Last year we held a Green Opportunities Conference, and this year we are hosting a series of webinars on our sustainable construction Web site, www.greencontractors.us, to help our members add to their knowledge base on advanced green topics. Topics include marketing, new technologies, retro-commissioning, water efficiency products and design, and lifecycle costing. In addition, MCAA and msca are hosting a number of preparation classes for the leed Accredited Professional exam.

Having employees trained to deliver energy-efficient and sustainable solutions to the marketplace is just one prerequisite for our future success. Another main focus is attracting and finding the talent needed for the future.

MCAA now has 44 student chapters at colleges and universities, and we are working closely with them to ensure that the next generation is ready. A recent survey of our chapters found that 91% of our students want to work for firms involved in the sustainable construction marketplace, and more than 70% of the students plant to become leed accredited professionals.

This summer we welcome the student interns that are getting their first look at our industry and what they can hope to achieve.

For many of us, there is nothing quite as exciting as actually seeing something built that you helped make happen. We can get out into the field and see the systems come to life that will provide heating and cooling, plumbing, energy, clean rooms and medical gas to buildings that will be schools, hotels, stadiums and hospitals. We can use the latest technology and building information modeling to see how our businesses are moving ever faster in estimating, design and construction.

One of my greatest joys is seeing our young people experience all that this industry has to offer. At our Student Chapter Summit in October in Omaha, we will have the opportunity to add real world expertise to their educational experience, and I know it will be a great event.

We don’t have to sell sustainable construction to our owners, our employees or our next generation. This is our future. And we are excited to embrace it.

Jack Wilhelmi is the president of the Mechanical Contractors Association of America (MCAA). He is president of the Omaha Division of Waldinger Corporation, a mechanical contractor located in Omaha, Nebraska.