A new kind of green<br />

A new kind of green
The financial industry sees a new wave of green banking centers from Bank of America and Wachovia

By Alison Embrey Medina, Senior Editor
June 01, 2008

Bank of America in Adelanto, Calif.

Ryan Gobuty

As the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) continues to offer new certification criteria more applicable to the retail environment, a flush of sustainable retail projects have hit the market at various speeds. The banking industry, long known for attracting customers with a different kind of green, is jumping on board, with top players Bank of America and Wachovia striving for their first Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)-certified financial centers this year.

The American Way

As part of a $20 billion corporate environmental commitment, Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America Corp. has opened its newest prototype banking center in Adelanto, Calif., which it hopes will receive the company's first LEED Platinum certification—the highest standard in the LEED program.

As part of the environmental investment, the company will devote $1.4 billion toward achieving LEED certification in all new construction of banking centers and corporate offices. The Bank of America Tower at One Bryant Park in Manhattan, scheduled to be completed in late 2008, is designed to be one of the world's most environmentally responsible skyscrapers (also pursuing LEED Platinum certification) and was a major catalyst in the company's initiative to move green forward throughout its flanks. "Sustainability has been a big push for the company for the last five years," says Lisa Shpritz, senior vice president, environmental manager for corporate workplace, Bank of America. "Our first major project was the Bank of America tower at One Bryant Park. That was really the galvanizing event that took us forward into this green building push. The commitment that the bank has to the USGBC really taught a lot of the people, especially in corporate workplace and in project management, about the benefits of green building."

Bank of America's green commitment comes from the very top of the organization, Shpritz emphasizes. "Our chairman and CEO (Kenneth D. Lewis) believes that building and operating in a more sustainable way can provide value to our shareholders, to our customers and to our associates," she says. "We believe it's a win-win-win."

Because banking centers are the most numerous of Bank of America's properties, they were a natural place for the company to manifest the green building push, Shpritz explains. Teaming up with San Francisco-based Gensler on the design, Bank of America set out to build a California prototype that encompassed its green values. The Adelanto location serves as a test lab, where the design team could explore what works well and what doesn't.

Solar energy is a big part of the new Adelanto design plan—the chevron roof is comprised of 64 photovoltaic solar panels that generate enough power for 60 percent of the site's energy needs. This solar generation facility also exceeds California's already stringent energy codes for commercial buildings by 60 percent. "Owners must recognize a commitment to sophisticated equipment and controls," says Lynn Newhall, project manager in Gensler's Phoenix office. "Typically, Bank of America branch banks have rooftop HVAC units that service the buildings. For Adelanto, it was decided to pursue all 10 points for the EAc1 credit - Optimize Energy Performance. This meant that a central plant was installed in lieu of typical rooftop units." High-efficiency clerestory windows allow in natural daylighting, and drip irrigation, low-water landscaping and low-flush plumbing also enable the site to reduce water usage by 40 percent compared to traditional banking centers.

More than 20 percent of construction materials are made from recycled materials, including 100 percent insulation made of old blue jeans. Within the building envelope, the design team substituted 6 in. of recycled blue jeans and rigid foam for traditional fiberglass insulation. Additionally, counters are made of pressed wheat byproducts, including kernels and chaff. Rather than the typical wood frame, the building design specified steel framing and canopies, offering a recyclable and more durable material.

Gensler designed the bank's teller line with individually controlled temperature (under the floor) and lighting (above the counter) controls for associates—as comfort also adds LEED credits. Additional LEED points are expected for placement of recycling separation bins in the employee break room, using a green cleaning service and utilizing filtered water rather than buying bottled water.

In addition to meeting criteria for USGBC's pilot LEED New Construction (NC) for Retail, the Adelanto location is also striving for LEED Volume building standards currently being developed by the USGBC. The Volume certification pilot attempts to certify a prototypical process, so that each building built along that process going forward receives the same certification. Gensler and Bank of America also have established a checklist for site selection, so location planners can target sites with inherent sustainable features to give each new project a head start on the path to certification.

A second Bank of America green banking center, designed to meet LEED Gold certification standards, is scheduled to open mid-2008 in Los Angeles. Gensler is also currently designing three of the 10 branch banks involved in the LEED Volume certification retail pilot program.

The California experience

Long established as a banking entity on the East Coast, Charlotte, N.C.-based Wachovia Corp. has recently taken its presence to the Western shores, expanding to the California market for the first time. To ensure a successful brand migration with its entry into the California market, Wachovia recognized the opportunity to update its neighborhood financial centers with a design that translates its brand for the banking preferences of the California customer, while also reducing resource and energy consumption. "It's a large growth market for us, and it's a market that understands sustainability and appreciates it," says Jeff Austin, in Wachovia's corporate real estate department. "We felt like we were going to build a lot in California over the next few years, and it made sense to start [our green program] there."

The first green location to open, at 89th and Sepulveda Blvd. in Los Angeles, is pursuing LEED Commercial Interiors (CI) for Retail certification, as well as simultaneously being certified under LEED Volume.By 2010, Wachovia plans to open more than 300 branches designed and built in accordance with LEED for Retail standards. (The company is also building a new 1.2-million-sq.-ft. corporate headquarters in Charlotte in accordance with LEED Gold standards.) By 2009, every new Wachovia financial center opened throughout the United States will be built to LEED specifications.

For the Los Angeles location, Wachovia and Seattle-based design and architecture firm Callison were tasked with constructing a physical facility to not only support Wachovia's existing brand equity, but to also be a good environmental steward. "They wanted to be a good community neighbor," says Chris Hamilton, principal, Callison. "They wanted to aggressively look at a sustainable design that can be certified and possibly move up into a new certification level. In this, there was a value proposition. It wasn't a matter of money as no object. It wasn't sustainable just in terms of LEED, but sustainable in terms of being able to replicate and build it many, many, many times. The cost was a significant factor to maintain, or actually decrease if we could, while still getting the enhanced value of a LEED-certified prototype."

Working in close partnership with Wachovia, Callison's Brand Experience group conducted extensive market research with potential target customers about their banking experiences. The research revealed that customers preferred an environment with more access to private meeting spaces, engaging reception areas and clean, streamlined spaces. To answer that call, the distribution of natural lighting, repositioning of queues, and addition of check-writing stands and waiting areas were implemented to ease accessibility, functionality and transparency.

Lighting enhancements were a major push in terms of energy reduction—Callison pledged to the USGBC that the lighting program would be able to meet 35 percent energy reduction on all projects, says Crayden Henderson, LEED project coordinator, Callison. Sensors along the window lines enable interior lighting to dim as exterior light levels increase, and energy-saving bulbs such as compact fluorescents and LEDs were also utilized. "Lighting is the second-largest draw for power in a building, with HVAC being the first, so it's a really important place we can drop a lot of power consumption by slowly turning down those lights," Austin emphasizes. "It does cost more money to buy those kinds of lights with those controls, but if you do the math you'll see that within about a 2 1/2- or 3-year window, you're making money using those fixtures."

The prototype boasts a recycled content label that exceeds 30 percent, and water-use reduction exceeding 40 percent, Henderson says. "They're also buying 100 percent green power for all of their buildings across the country," he explains. "It's a credit driver—you can purchase credits to offset your consumption using regular power. Typically on a LEED project, you're offsetting 50 percent over a two-year contract, so they're getting an innovation credit because they're doing 100 percent."

Finding LEED-credit-gaining products can prove difficult, as there is still not a huge market for them, Henderson adds. "We went through a number of different products before we found one that both met the sustainability credits in terms of LEED, but also met the sustainability criteria in terms of the economics and being able to sustain for long periods of time," he explains. "Wachovia actually went back to their manufacturers and said 'okay, we understand the substrates that you typically use on this furniture don't meet the low-emitting VOC requirements that we need—would you consider changing the substrate?' The vendors have been really supportive in making modifications to their product so that there is an assembly that is required for the LEED criteria."

Wachovia expects to save up to $80,000 in construction costs for each new financial center over a traditionally constructed branch, in addition to a reduction in operating costs of about 20 percent in the first year. "At a global level, we have a corporate climate change commitment where we are attempting to reduce our greenhouse gas/CO2 emissions across the portfolio 10 percent by 2010—that's sort of the catalyst for all of this work," Austin emphasizes. "Attempts to minimize the C02 emission profile for new branches drove the decision to pursue LEED certification. We sort of felt like we would have to rethink how we design buildings, build buildings and manage buildings—and LEED is a great way to get your arms around that."

Beginning with California late last year, moving to Texas later this year and then to the rest of the country sometime in 2010, every new financial center Wachovia builds will be LEED certified. The company is also in the exploratory phases of looking at LEED for Existing Buildings (LEED EB). "The hard work is the blocking and tackling of how to get existing buildings to consume less energy, consume less water and have less impact on the Earth," Austin says. "That's the work that's ahead of us."