Rental owners adapting to green renters

Assistance and advice abound for homeowners seeking to reduce their energy bills and help environment. But eco-conscious renters often find themselves at the mercy of the carbon footprint imposed by their landlords.

Luckily, some building owners and property managers are treading lighter on the earth by upgrading their buildings to be more energy efficient, reducing energy costs for their tenants. While cost concerns seem to be the primary driver behind energy-efficient upgrades, environmentalism is a wholesome byproduct if not the motivating force.

"My attitude is, if you're not going green now, your building is going to be obsolete," said Jim Stoller, president of The Building Group, Inc., a Chicago management and development firm.

Stoller's company manages more than 6,000 condominiums and apartments in Chicago and Evanston and promotes itself as a green management company. Other property management companies are sending the same message, he said.

"We're finding that potential clients are encouraged by [green management] and want to see it," Stoller said. "There are many people who want green but are concerned about additional cost. We're concerned with being energy efficient and cost effective in our procedures," he said.

Improvements can mean upgrading heating or electrical systems, installing insulation and sealing off air leaks to conserve energy.

While the initial cost of energy efficient upgrades has been a deterrent to potential residents and property owners alike, help has arrived for Chicago building owners seeking to curb energy costs.

Cook County Energy Savers

The Cook County Energy Savers project, touted as "a one-stop energy efficiency shop for multi-family building owners," is a new program that aims to help building owners invest in greater energy efficiency.

CNT Energy, a division of the non-profit Center for Neighborhood Technology, partnered with the Community Investment Corporation, an Illinois non-profit mortgage lender, in 2007 to help multifamily building owners to address energy costs. The program applies to buildings with five or more units in Cook and Lake Counties.

The goal is "to improve energy efficiency for environmental reasons and to keep down costs of energy in apartment buildings," said Stephanie Folk, CNT Energy spokeswoman.

Energy auditors go to buildings to complete energy assessments for energy-efficiency improvements, Folk explained. The on-site audits examine the basement, roof, a representative apartment unit and a past utility bill.

Owners are then presented with the recommendations along with financing options for implementing changes. They receive assistance with coordinating energy tax benefits and credits as well, if they qualify.

In addition to providing construction oversight, the project also provides an annual report. to track whether the energy changes have been effective.

Some 45 separate building owners throughout Cook and Lake Counties have expressed interest in participating so far, estimates Kang Chang, operations and research associate with CNT Energy.

"As far as programs and motives, I feel like it's not so much we want to show that going green or being energy efficient needs to be done as kind of a fad, but it's more of something that's a crossroads with maintaining your budget," Chang said.

Bryan Cagan, property manager with Cagan Management Group, Inc., just began working with the project. Changes have not yet been made to any of his properties as he awaits his audit recommendations.

"I think it's the right start," he said. "We are looking at making buildings a sustainable investment in the future."

Cagan said he wants to make rents more affordable at the 100 buildings his group manages in the Chicago area..

Two goals efficiently united

Environmental awareness is not top priority for most tenant advocacy groups, such as the Metropolitan Tenants Organization of Chicago and the Center for Renters' Rights.

These groups are focused more on crisis situations such as eviction and on organizing and empowering tenants who are confronting safety issues.

Tenants and landlords in big cities are not likely to be concerned with energy efficiency, according to Shannon Weiss, chairwoman of the Center for Renters' Rights.

"We can't even get landlords to put in [carbon monoxide] detectors so we sure as hell aren't going to impact them to go green, not in a big city," Weiss said. "In a small town I can certainly see that happening," she added.

Cost concerns associated with energy efficiency seem to be of greater interest.

Green extravagance

Eco-conscious renters who dream of living in environmentally friendly luxury will have the opportunity to do so in 2010 when Chicago's first Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED-certified, high rise opens its doors to tenants.

Jupiter Realty Company, the developer and owner of the 50-story West Loop apartment building located at 215 W. Washington St., decided to build a green apartment complex for a number of reasons, according to Don Smith, Jupiter CEO.

"[It] made sense to take it up a notch and make it LEED-certified," Smith said. "From an energy standpoint, obviously that's a key to make it more energy efficient."

LEED is a rating system used by the U.S. Green Building Council to certify the construction and operation of green buildings.

Smith said the building will likely attract young professionals who work in the Loop because they prefer to walk to work rather than drive. Rent for the 389 units in the building will generally run between $1,000 and $2,500 a month.

There are some things that renters and condo-owners can do to make their living space a little greener in any building. Renters can take steps toward reducing energy by putting plastic sheeting on their windows in the winter, for instance, Folk suggested.

"As a renter looking for an apartment, ask about what electric and gas bills typically are," she said. "Landlords are supposed to be able to provide that information but getting that out of them isn't that easy."

The right to recycle

Renters can also inquire about their apartment building's recycling program.

For more than 10 years, a city ordinance has required residential buildings that contract with private waste haulers to provide an effective recycling program for tenants, according to the Chicago Department of Streets and Sanitation Web site.

The ordinance specified that "source-separated" recycling, or when recyclables are separated from trash before pick-up, as with the city's pilot Blue Cart program, is preferable to "post-collection systems."

The city's contentious Blue Bag recycling program, a source of skepticism for many Chicagoans, is an example of a post-collection system, in which the trash and recyclables are to be separated at a plant after the refuse has been collected.

The Chicago Recycling Coalition would prefer to see recyclables separated and collected upfront, rather than the Blue Bag, "loophole," according to Betsy Vandercook, coalition secretary and former president.

Earlier this month, however, the city announced it will shift to the Blue Cart program citywide as its main means of recycling by 2011, making the Blue Bag system history.

"People need to realize there has been a sea change in last month now that the city has abandoned the Blue Bag program," Vandercook said. "Now the city is admitting the Blue Bag [program] doesn't work and will provide Blue Carts to all households."

"Haulers can't fake it anymore," she added.

It is easier for condo owners to effect environmental change to their unit and building when it comes to recycling, Vandercook conceded.

Condo owners, unlike renters, own their unit and a percentage of the common property shared among all of the condominium owners.

The 700 to 800 residents of Randolph Place Residences Condo Association will be getting a new recycling program this summer, said Jeanine Fragale, property manager.

Residents who wish to recycle will soon be able to put their source-separated recyclables in bins placed near trash containers.

"Everybody wants to be the green friendly building now," Fragale said. "We are implementing a recycling program that's beyond the city's requirements."

"As for efficient lighting and the green roof thing, it's all been talked about," she said.

Despite the apparent discord between the eco-rights of the renter versus the homeowner or condo owner, renters have control over personal environmental efforts and practices.

"[Renters] don't have as much control but you can choose what kinds of cleaning products you use, which has an impact on your air quality. And you can do your own composting in your kitchen or backyard," said Carla Bruni, resource center assistant at the Chicago Center for Green Technology.

The city-sponsored center provides information and experts for builders, developers, facility managers, architects and homeowners seeking to learn more about sustainable design practices and environmentally friendly materials.

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