By Lauren Otis / Staff Writer
Few commercial properties in the greater Princeton area are being developed using green, energy-efficient technology, although Aubrey Haines had heard here and there that businesses might be interested in leasing such properties.
With only anecdotal evidence, Mr. Haines, a managing director of Mercer Oak Realty LLC in Ewing, saw a need to more formally gauge market interest in green commercial buildings. “We saw a trend emerging within the last six months, and said we need to jump on this, we need to have good evidence,” Mr. Haines said.
So this summer, Mercer Oak charged two summer interns with conducting a survey of corporate executives in the area. The survey reveals both nascent corporate interest in green buildings, as well as a lack of understanding of some of the benefits of operating in a healthy workplace environment, according to Mr. Haines.
According to the survey, 61 percent of respondents said they would consider leasing space in a green or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certified building when their current lease was up for renewal. But only 34 percent said they would be willing to pay 5 percent more initially to occupy a green building, and only 22 percent would be willing to pay 10 percent more initially. “Most people are willing to go green only if they can justify it financially,” the study stated.
”I think the economy is influencing people’s decision,” Mr. Haines said, noting that when their bottom line was being threatened in a poor economy businesses were less willing to invest more upfront in a green space despite long-term efficiency and worker benefits.
”It is noteworthy that only 45 percent of respondents associated green buildings with employee productivity, although experts believe that this is one of the most important aspects of green buildings,” the survey reads, citing green buildings’ better control of temperature and ventilation, their use of less hazardous paints, adhesives and other materials, and their incorporation of more natural light, all beneficial to workers and their productivity.
”People just don’t connect productivity to green buildings, so part of this is just educational,” said Mr. Haines.
Jerry Fennelly, president of NAI Fennelly Associates, Inc., a commercial real estate services firm based in Hamilton, said he saw some commercial interest in green buildings but also significant hurdles as well.
Green buildings were expensive to build and obtaining LEED certification was an arduous process that could add another significant cost to a project, Mr. Fennelly said. He said developers were likely to incorporate more green elements into buildings but forgo LEED certification as a result.
Mr. Fennelly said he also saw larger upfront costs to leasing a green space as a hurdle. “I think the question there is how long it takes to pay off,” he said, noting that payback times were still significant even with added efficiencies.
But the argument for leasing a green commercial space is compelling, not just for efficiency and worker productivity, but because it is a good public relations story, presenting a positive corporate image by being based in a green space, Mr. Fennelly said.
Mr. Haines said his firm’s green building survey was the first of what would hopefully be annual studies of the market, aimed at giving him and clients concrete findings to make logical business decisions.
”This clearly is going to be an incremental change, it is not going to be a sea change,” he said of the movement towards green commercial spaces.

