The World’s Greenest Office – How They Did It.

The world’s greenest office building is being built in Paris, very near the Eiffel Tower and is called Energy Plus.  It’s designed to use no electricity – that’s right, no electricity – other than the power that the building itself generates.  Can you imagine that?  How did they do it?

In France, it’s illegal to not smoke

It’s really different to look at than standard office buildings.  What we’re used to seeing are high-rise steel columns that jam as many people into the smallest square footage on the ground as possible.  That’s because every square foot on the ground costs money, so the smaller your building’s “footprint”, the less it’ll cost you – and the more money you can make in leases down the road.  This building, however, is the complete opposite idea.

Designed to hold about 5,000 people, this “green” project will be a low-rise, sprawling edifice with a flat roof with – you guessed it – solar panels on the roof.  The building will also feature lots of insulation.  This will make it similar to homes or buildings that are built into a hillside, where the earth serves as a natural insulation, helping to keep the building an even temperature without expending much energy on heating or cooling.

Bet you thought Solar Panels would be mentioned earlier?

Speaking of cooling, there will be no traditional air conditioning units.  Instead, cool water from the nearby Seine River will be pumped through the building, cooling the surrounding air.  It’s estimated that the electricity consumption per square metre of office space in this building will be approximately 16 kilowatts per year.

Drawings of the building look like several “Y” letters joined together.  The solar array on the roof will not only power the building and everything in it, but also generate enough kilowatt-hours to feed electricity back into the grid.  This excess electricity can hopefully purchase “carbon credits” in the future, which are then traded for money.  The idea here is that the building will not only be carbon-neutral, but will actually make money for its owners down the road.

A building that makes electricity?

Because of the size and shape of the building, much more greenery will be planted around the building than with standard office buildings.  This will, of course, help clean the air in the immediate vicinity, a definite plus in this ‘arrondissement’ of Paris. Also, once trees mature, they should help shade the building in the summer, further reducing cooling costs.  Not to mention the fact that the landscaping will make the area look better and provide enjoyment and picnic areas for the tenants.  Of course, they have to make sure that any plantings around the building don’t grow too tall.  If they begin to shade the solar panels on the roof, then that cuts down on the energy the building can generate.

In France, nearly half of all pollution today comes from buildings, and commercial buildings are at the front of the pollution line.  This building is designed to showcase how “green” can apply to even office buildings.

Office buildings are the worst for pollution

It will be more expensive to construct – about 25 to 30% more expensive than standard buildings.  However, when you factor in the life of the building, and the lack of electricity required along with lower maintenance charges, the building will begin to pay back that initial cost as soon as the first tenant moves in.

Within a few years, the cost savings will begin to overtake the initial construction costs, and the building will eventually surpass the break-even point.  In the end, it should actually end up being one of the cheaper buildings on the planet!

This building is getting a lot of attention.  Former President Clinton used it as an example of how, with forethought and good planning, we can make decisions now that will have large, beneficial impacts on our environment for the future.  When you consider how long the average office building stays around – several decades – you can see how big the impact of “green” decisions can be.

Bill Clinton even paid the building some attention..

Several top-tier environmental groups have advised on this project, including America’s Rocky Mountain Institute, a think tank that specializes in environmental issues.  They know all the cutting-edge technology that can make this work, and the big names working on it, including architectural firm Skidmore Owings & Merrill, will help make sure the place gets filled.

Hopefully it can help revitalize a somewhat run-down area of Paris, too.  It’s outside the main tourist area, and has definitely seen better days.  But if this gets enough press, it should help make this a “must have” address for firms who either want to capitalize on their “green” image, or perhaps start repairing an environmental image gone bad.  Oil companies, are you listening?

Don’t let the old petrol station be a ghost pump

Besides, if this works – and there’s every expectation that it will – then the lessons learned from this project can help with success in more office buildings.   Combine “green” office buildings with telecommuting and digital file transfer, and you can see how we can quickly begin to change how we do business and pollute the planet.

Electricity will always need to be generated.  This is one genie that’s never going back into the bottle.  But with solar, wind, and even hydro or wave power, there are plenty of ways out there that will generate electricity and leave a very little carbon footprint on the planet.  The days of digging giant holes in the ground, sucking up a finite resource, and then burning it to create even more pollution, will have to end some day.  Oil will simply not be available forever – especially at the prices we’ve been paying.

It won’t be around forever…

The oil that remains in the ground is getting harder and harder to find and bring to the surface.  Most of the giant oil fields have already been exploited – no matter what the oil companies want to tell you.  So building offices like this is the way of the future.

In fact, Google announced plans for its own new green office building, along with plans to produce the software that will run these green buildings, and the green homes they see sprouting up as smaller copies.  The Twin Lakes Park office building in Florida is another good model.

The greener the better, I say

Sustainable buildings are starting to pop up.  It just takes great imagination, design and money to make them happen.  I sure hope we start seeing more of them soon.

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