Environmental Stewardship: A Win-Win Opportunity

Environmental Stewardship:

A Win-Win Opportunity

By: Kathryn Kavanagh What is Environmental Stewardship?

Environmental Stewardship is embracing a responsibility to protect and improve our environment by implementing sustainable practices.

Everyone’s actions affect the environment in one way or another, including commercial buildings so why not utilize environmental stewardship as a catalyst for tenant engagement, reduced maintenance, and lower costs?

Beekeeping

Urban beekeeping is sustainable, educational, and engaging for tenants. Lee-Kathryn Bonner, founder, and CEO of Bee Downtown, recalls how excited employees and tenants get about their corporate hive program where tenants are invited to engage and learn about the bees.

One of our property management groups, Accesso Club, in Atlanta. The first thing a new employee at their company does is they go to see the bees and they’re so proud of having their bees on the campus” explains Bonner.

The on-site nature of this engagement allows more team building opportunities as well as an environmentally friendly workplace. According to Forbes, many tenants today want to work and live at environmentally conscious buildings where owners and managers are intentional about the sustainable practices they choose to be a part of. Urban beehives are an amenity allowing people to connect to agriculture in a safe and controlled setting.

Bonner adds, “For many people, it’s the first time they’ve ever been invited to experience agriculture and it’s presented in a really fun way where they’re not in charge of the bees because it’s a skilled agricultural entity facilitating the event.”

With companies like Bee Downtown, property owners and managers can purchase programming packages where a beekeeping organization will facilitate educational programs aimed at team building. This can include candle making, honey tasting, hive tours, and more.

Beehives in commercial real estate are an investment but the benefits are plentiful with tenant engagement, LEED certifications, environmental impact, and more.

Urban beehives can increase environmental stewardship for tenants and managers as well as engage tenants to participate in exciting experiences.

“What we really focus on at Bee Downtown is getting people to love where they work and love the bees and the environment at the same time” says Bonner.

Community gardens in commercial real estate are a fantastic way to increase tenant engagement and provide fresh produce for tenants and visitors. For example, a commercial property with multiple restaurants may benefit from on-site produce gardens.

Conventional gardens require large allocations of space, which can come at a premium in many commercial spaces. Vertical farming is an excellent solution when space is tight.

Hydroponic, aquaponic, and aeroponic farming technologies are all methods of vertical farming used in urban landscapes. These techniques differ from conventional farming due to their lack of soil. Vertical farming also requires significantly less spaces than conventional farms.

These techniques are time and yield efficient while using a fraction of the resources required for conventional farming. Hydroponic and aquaponic systems also differ from conventional farming methods because they utilize submersion techniques where the roots of a plant are fully underwater to absorb the maximum nutrients.

Many vertical gardens and farms are housed indoors lowering the impact of climate considerations on what your property chooses to plant. Indoor farming allows for increased flexibility in where these systems are located on your property.

Their vertical nature also saves space and is adjustable to meet various measurement location considerations such as in a lobby or recreation area.

Vertical farming can be another added amenity for tenants in commercial properties. Tenants could have access to fresh produce regularly or participate in educational or team building programs similar to urban beehives producing honey for tenants as well as educational opportunities.

Additionally, pollinator centric gardens are a fantastic way to attract pollinators like honeybees and butterflies with aesthetically pleasing vegetation. Luckily, pollinators appreciate a variety of colors so planting a variety of native species with a diversity of colors will help attract pollinators and create a balanced and beautiful habitat.

Native Plants

In the Southeastern United States, wildflowers such as Golden Alexander and Butterfly Milkweed are native to this region and are pollinator friendly. In the Pacific Northwest, native flowering plants like Selfheal and Large-Flowered Collomia are perfect for attracting pollinators.

In the Midwest region, Pale Purple Coneflowers and Wild Geraniums are ideal for pollinators. Being intentional about planting native species that are beneficial to pollinators is not only helpful to biodiversity but also cost effective. Native plants require less water, pesticides, and fertilizers and require lower maintenance.

Once your vertical or pollinator garden is in place, the next step in a comprehensive environmental stewardship plan is addressing the migratory bird populations. Have you ever had a bird fly into your window? When a bird collides with a window it can be frightening and unsettling for tenants and staff. Tall buildings with large windows can confuse migratory birds because of their transparency.

These birds may collide with windows, resulting in their injury or even death, as well as a horror story for the unfortunate person working behind the window.

Tall buildings can also block bird’s migratory movement, leading to irregular reproduction patterns and displacement, affecting other flora and fauna in an area.

“Somewhere between 350 million and one billion birds every year in the US alone die from running into glass. It’s not just large commercial structures, it’s small commercial structures and its residential properties” explains Adam Betuel, Director of Conservation at Georgia Audubon.

Properties can avoid this through treating your windows with fritted, etched, or UV-glass. Fritted glass has printed designs or patterns on the surface of the glass that can serve as a visual cue to birds that the window is solid.

Etched glass utilizes of abrasive materials to create a pattern or markings into a piece of glass to give it a translucent white finish. UV-coated windows utilize an opaque film to block solar rays, rendering them visible to birds.

All three of these treatment options have an added benefit of reducing the cooling costs in a building by reflecting or blocking heat.

“The American Bird Conservancy and other groups recommend something called the two-by-two rule. This means you need some kind of visual cue every two inches horizontally or two inches vertically to stop a bird from trying to fit between those markers.”

Another way to prevent or reduce bird collisions is altering lighting in buildings. Betuel explains that building owners and managers can save energy by installing motion sensors or timers on their lights and help prevent bird collisions as well.

Reducing the light in a building, especially at night, will prevent birds from being attracted to commercial buildings.

Migratory birds have specific ecological benefits like pollination, seed dispersal, pest control, and more. Their survival across long distances is already difficult, and urban development is an obstacle that can be directly addressed.

An estimated 350 million to 1 billion birds die from building collision annually but that number can be reduced with alterations to glass such as fritted, etched, or UV treatments and reduction in light use with motion sensors and timers.

“The main thing is you must provide that visual cue at the right spacing” explains Betuel.

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Environmental stewardship focuses on environmentally sustainable improvements that can make a large impact on our communities. Being a steward of the environment refers to being conscious and considerate about our influence on the environment and making an effort to reduce any negative effects.

Protecting local and migratory bird populations can help protect your community from pests, reduce your property’s impact on local wildlife, and allow the community and tenants to enjoy the birds who help define the area’s we inhabit.

Tenant retention and engagement is a huge part of owning or managing a commercial property. Many prospective tenants today are looking for environmental stewardship in their workplace.

Urban beekeeping, vertical gardens, and conscious building practices are only a few ways property owners and managers can engage in environmental stewardship to enrich their tenant’s experience at their property and lead their community’s sustainable development.

Urban beekeeping and gardening help enrich tenant experience by making educational and team bonding programs readily available while being sustainably conscious. Altering windows and lighting in buildings not only helps migratory birds but also helps reduce energy costs and improve a building’s sustainability.

Sources

• Leigh-Kathryn Bonner | Founder and CEO of

Bee Downtown

• Adam Betuel | Director of Conservation at

Georgia Audubon

• Guardian Glass | Bird-Friendly Glass : Protect

Birds with Patterns & Coatings

• Audubon | Building Collisions Kill Hundreds of

Millions of Birds per Year

• REMI Network | Five building tips to help migrating birds this spring

• Forbes | The Increased Importance Of

Environmental Sustainability In Real Estate

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