Dec 26 - McClatchy-Tribune Business News Formerly Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News - Dennis Lien Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn.

As Gerry Flannery pondered a new building for his construction company, he calculated how much more to spend on environment- and energy-saving innovations. The key was how quickly he would see a financial payback.

"It had to be seven or eight years, tops," said Flannery, president of Flannery Construction, located on the north side of Interstate 94 near Hamline Avenue in St. Paul.

After his assessment, he put in solar panels and added a white roof to reflect sunlight and lower cooling costs. He installed recycled materials for insulation, used nontoxic paints and cleaning supplies to improve air quality and built a sawtooth wall facing I-94 to deflect freeway noise. That was just for starters.

Now, a year after the office opened, it's at the forefront of a new breed of commercial and public buildings popping up across the Twin Cities and Minnesota. Following a national trend, builders increasingly are eschewing old construction techniques for environmentally friendly features that use less energy, water and other resources, maximize natural sunlight and produce healthier indoor air.

Four buildings in Minnesota have been cited by a national program that certifies so-called green buildings, with an additonal 51, including Flannery Construction's, seeking that status. In addition, about 60 buildings that received state bonding money have been built or are being built under a similar state program. An additional 87 schools, offices and churches have received the Environmental Protection Agency's Energy Star award for improving energy efficiency at least 10 percent.

Those numbers tell only part of the story. Hundreds of other green buildings have been built in Minnesota over the past decade without ties to those programs, said David Eijadi, a principal at the Weidt Group, a Minnetonka energy consulting and software firm, and a fellow of the American Institute of Architects.

Moreover, Minneapolis voted in July to require all new or renovated city buildings larger than 5,000 square feet to meet green-building standards. St. Paul has committed to such an effort.

"A lot of people are getting on the bandwagon now," said Rick Carter, senior vice president of LHB Inc., a Minnesota architectural and engineering firm.

FACTORS BEHIND THE TREND

Driving this interest are higher and more volatile energy costs, a renewed environmental awareness, more public and private support for interested businesses and more attention to the long-term bottom line.

From skyscrapers to one-story structures, buildings use 40 percent of the energy consumed in the United States, including two-thirds of the electricity. In recent years, those costs have spiked, adding billions of dollars to expenses.

Using approaches such as geothermal or solar heating, new buildings can cut their energy costs by a third. Often, the payback for environmental extras comes in one to two years, according to the Weidt Group.

If some elements of the industry seem slow to respond, it's mainly because they're still tied to tradition, said Laura Millberg, green-building specialist for the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.

In the 1970s, when energy costs rose quickly and an environmental ethos swept the country, many businesses and homes began using energy-saving techniques such as solar heating. That largely stopped during the 1980s and early '90s, and only picked up again in the past decade as new concerns emerged about long-term environmental sustainability.

"The sustainability movement has captured people's imagination," said John Carmody, director of the Center for Sustainable Building Research at the University of Minnesota.

The U.S. Green Building Council, a Washington, D.C.-based partnership of builders, planners and architects, helped by starting a rating structure called the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED).

To get points, buildings must follow a number of steps, such as reducing water use, reusing materials and meeting minimum energy-efficiency standards.

Since 2000, more than 600 buildings, including four in Minnesota, have been LEED-certified, with more than 5,000 others in the pipeline. Some areas, such as New York and Portland, Ore., have been especially active.

Minnesota's relatively low LEED numbers don't mean the state is lagging, though.

Several years ago, Minnesota adopted a law requiring all buildings receiving state bonding money to follow standards called B3, for "Buildings, Benchmarks and Beyond."

"That law required sustainable design guidelines, including a 30 percent energy reduction," Carmody said. But people have been doing energy-efficient buildings for a long time without calling it sustainable design, he noted.

Some LEED buildings are new, and others are refurbished. Still other prospective ones, such as Great River Energy's 166,000-square-foot Maple Grove headquarters, are being built. The state's first two LEED-certified homes held open houses earlier this month in Arden Hills.

For many, the critical issue is whether the improvements pay for themselves.

"We looked very closely at what was cost-effective and what wasn't," said Bill Karges, co-owner of the Karges-Faulconbridge engineering firm, the first project in the state to receive LEED's gold certification for existing buildings.

ROOM FOR INNOVATION

From the 16 rubber-ball plants at Flannery Construction's entrance (no water needed) to the solar-tube skylights in bathrooms, comparatively little upkeep or energy is necessary.

"That's just a simple way to provide light," said Jamey Flannery, a company project manager, pointing to tubular skylights that funnel light from the roof, enhance and reflect it, and then shoot it into bathrooms. All the enhancements added an estimated 6 percent to the cost.

As she walked through the building, she pointed to one feature after another: heated floors from solar heating, motion light sensors, and recycled newspaper and resin ceiling insulation.

"This building is 37 percent more energy-efficient," she said.

It's not just new buildings that are going green. Existing ones are, too.

Karges-Faulconbridge was looking for a new location when a secretary at the firm noticed an abandoned grocery store in Roseville.

In short order, KFI, as the company is called, bought the building and began looking at ways to make it more energy-efficient. It ran across the LEED program and decided to pursue certification.

"We felt we could design a building that is energy-efficient and cost-effective as well," said Chris Nelson, a KFI mechanical engineer.

The old parking lot was ripped up. A geothermal heating and cooling system, with 48 circulating pipes going down 200 feet, was installed. The new, smaller parking lot drains into a prairie garden and retention pond that collects and filters runoff. Inside, recycled rubber or carpet covers the floor. Natural light is emphasized. In addition, waterless urinals are being tested, contributing to a 70,000-gallon annual savings in water.

Karges said each improvement was designed for paybacks within 51/2 years. But he cited an additional benefit: "Our employees love the building."

A CRITICAL MASS

The trend toward green-building construction should only pick up, according to Carmody and others.

Initial construction costs for going green may be slightly higher, but the premium isn't nearly what it used to be and often is quite small, according to Eijadi. It's also easier to determine how soon the savings payback will occur.

For companies that expect to own their buildings for a long time, the rewards of lower energy costs are clear. The advantage is less so for those that expect to sell buildings quickly.

Resale value, however, should be better with such improvements, according to Flannery.

Increasingly, architects are gearing up to meet the interest. In recent years, they've spent more time on green-building design, with schools also paying more attention, according to Eijadi.

"For the last five or six years, architectural students have been clamoring for more emphasis on sustainable design," Eijadi said.

Dennis Lien can be reached at dlien@pioneerpress.com or 651-228-5588.

GREEN BUILDING TRAITS

Environmentally friendly construction commonly:

Uses energy-saving features.

Uses products with low toxic emissions.

Maximizes outside green space.

Uses recycled or renewable materials when possible.

Emphasizes natural sunlight and ventilation.

Uses as little water as possible.