7/27/2019 Water Conservation Advice

1/226 BOMA March/April 2009

Challenging times call or even

smarter plans and strategic initiatives

to be deployed by building owners and

managers. Commercial real estate indus-

try leaders involved in operating large

portolios, corporate campuses or sin-

gle assets must examine all aspects o a

budget to fnd ways to maximize value,

yet still achieve the highest standards o

perormance in order or a property to

compete in the marketplace. One area

o potential high impact and signifcant

ROI is a landscape plan that is grounded

in eciency and sustainability and is

aesthetically polished.

A key component o a smart landscape

is water conservation. For owners and

managers in arid regions, it is a act o

lie. But or some, water may not be

perceived as a precious resource simply

because it seems to be plentiul. Even

though water is relatively inexpensive, it

is a limited natural resource. Adopting a

smart water management program nowis a critical component to operating a

commercial site at peak efciency at all

times, not just when drought conditions

or irrigation restrictions exist.

Companies ranging rom technology

giants (such as Cisco, Applied Mate-

rials, Sun Microsystems, Yahoo! and

Genentech) to asset owners and man-

agers (such as Jones Lang LaSalle, Carr-

America, CB Richard Ellis, Grubb & Ellis,

Equity Ofce and The Irvine Company)

are learning that landscape and watermanagement can enhance the bottom

line fnancially and in a number o other

By Eric Santos

10 SmatIigatio Tips

Iigatio ca accout o mo tha

50 pct o a popts wat cosump-tio. H a 10 was to wat smat:

1. Wat a i th moig ight bo

daw. It ducs osss to wid advapoatio.

2. Wat o wh dd.

3. Adjust spiks to avoid wast ad

su uiom distibutio.

4. Tst th spa patts o spiksstms; chck o coggd is ad

mid o sis o spik hads;ad b su to pai aks.

5. Us dip iigatio o oamta

shubs to duc wat usag.

6. Ista ai shut-of dvics o

i-goud moistu ssos.

7. St aw mow bads high to

icas goud shad ad watttio i soi.

8. Much aoud shubs ad pats to

duc vapoatio ad cut dow owds.

9. Us a boom, ath tha a hos,to ca divwas o sidwaks.

10. Us a hos with a automatic shut-ofo.

Maximizing Water Conservationin Challenging Times

ways. Making the grounds aesthetically

pleasing and more sustainable can play a

role in attracting new tenants and retain-

ing current ones.

Cisco Cas StudA good example o smart adoption

o water conservation measures in the

commercial oce park environment is

Cisco Systems in San Jose, Cali., which,

over the past decade, adopted a greener

landscape program and reduced itslandscape operating costs. Cisco, which

provides networking equipment and

network management or the Internet,

made the changes at the suggestion o

ValleyCrest Landscape Maintenance, its

landscape company since 1998. Over the

past decade, overall landscape costs at

the expansive campus have declined

signifcantly.

Ciscos landscape management plan

ocused on three components: horti-

cultural improvements, reducing waterconsumption and reducing landill

waste. The goal was to determine how

much water was being consumed and

what high water-using plants were being

employed, as well as determining their

water and ertilizer needs. Showing what

was currently being spent or water usage

and maintenance costs revealed some

opportunities to improve.

An extensive analysis o the vegeta-

tion on the company campus pinpointed

the areas that consumed the most water

and took the most time to maintain. A

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Wat CosvatioStatgis o PoptOws ad Maags

SWITCH om ovhad iigatio to

a mo cit dip sstm with thistaatio o smat wath-basd

cotos that masu pcipitatio,soa adiatio ad wid, ad adjustautomatic sstms as dd.

MAInTAIn adscaps that a ihamo with th viomt b ducig

g wast, utuig hath sois,catig widi habitats ad ducig

stom wat uof.

AnAlyze wat usag tds ad dvopa wat maagmt pa to su

iigatio sstms opat cit,iigatio uof is ducd ad caimd

wat is usd.

PrACTICe hdooig o goupigpats with simia wat quimts o

th sam iigatio vav to duc ov-watig.

InSTAll owig pia pats to

povid a sustaiab ad cost-fctivpacmt o sasoa coo chags.

IMPleMenT a otatio schdu owat atus so w opat at otim, ducig g costs.

reTrOIT ou adscap with

sustaiab, wat-cit adscapsad ativ, dought-toat pat

matias to duc th us o atuasoucs ad dcas th amout o

maitac quid.

OPTIMIze th pacmt ad hath ots aoud ou buidigs to icas

shad ad duc g costs.

MAInTAIn th adscap atua busig puig tchiqus that highight

th idividuait o ach pat.

exPlOre pubic pogams ofd bwat disticts, citis o oth titis that

povid bats o cdits o upgadso cotos, cit iigatio, dip

covsios o ai shut-of ssos.

program was developed, which encom-

passed a plant density reduction plan,

resulting in the removal o some plants

that required signicant amounts o

water. Plants that required watering fve

days a week were replaced with shrubs

requiring only two days o irrigation, rep-

resenting a 60-percent decrease in the

amount o water needed.

Water-conserving drip irrigation sys-

tems are being systematically installed

and all 48 buildings on the campus were

retrotted with smart weather-based

controllers to lower irrigation water

usage, on average, 24 percent a year. In

Caliornia alone, Cisco saves more than

81 million gallons o water rom the

companys water conservation eorts

as reported in its 2007 Corporate Citi-zenship Report.

Multi-colored fowerbeds at Ciscos

sprawling campus were converted to

attractive swatches o low-maintenance

iceberg roses. Ornamental hedges were

replaced with drought-tolerant shrubs

that require less maintenance but still

have the desired visual impact. Nearly

our dozen water eatures spread

throughout the campus were either con-

verted to landscape beds or were shut o

completely, saving considerable waterand energy. The average water eature

on the campus annually uses 87,350

gallons o water and consumes 24,528

kilowatt-hours o electricity. The savings

rom not runningthe ountains add up to

more than our million gallons o water

each year.

Perhaps one o the largest challenges

on a large ofce campus is green waste

reduction. Bagging and dumping grass

cuttings is labor intensiveto say noth-

ing o the water needed to maintain avivid green appearance and the uel used

to cut and transport it. Tur-reduction

programs in areas o Ciscos 98-acre cam-

pus helped to produce less green waste.

And, in the tur areas that remained

untouched, use o specially designed

equipment to mulch the grass clippings

on-site resulted in reductions in water

and ertilizer usage, which is good or the

environment and the bottom line.

G ootpitsLandscape is a primary element or

companies looking to achieve LEED

standards. Existing buildings under-

going LEED certication must score a

minimum o 34 points out o a total o

92. With 14 points potentially coming

rom the landscape, it is just plain smart

to incorporate advanced water technol-

ogies, sustainable plant materials and

renewable resources.

Many companies are looking at their

landscape as a means to reduce their

environmental ootprint. For example,

at Genentech, architects designing

new buildings wanted recommenda-

tions or an aesthetically appropriate

but also water-ecient plant palette.

Applied Materials wanted to track how

many LEED points it could earn via the

landscape category. Though certica-

tion comes later in the process, a plan

was developed speciying what perennial

plants should be used, how the company

could qualiy or waste reduction, how

many points could be earned by convert-

ing all irrigation to drip irrigation and

which trees to plant to generate savings

in heating and cooling costs.

The success stories speak or them-

selves: Through proper planning and

execution, a strategic landscape man-

agement plan can help meet both cor-

porate environmental and inancial

objectives, especially in these times o

increased awareness and attention to the

bottom line. Proactive planning and a

collaborative partnership between build-

ing management and their landscape

partner can yield big returns.

About th Autho: Eric Santos, the division irri-

gation advisor for ValleyCrest Landscape Mainte-

nance, is certied with the Irrigation Association

and an EPA Watersense Partner. He can be reached

at esantos@valleycrest.com.

For Ciscos corporate campus in Northern California,grouping plant materials with similar requirementshelps reduce the use of water resources. Photo cour-tesy of ValleyCrest, Inc.