| Shoot 4 the Moon Helps Green Up Multi Family Properties in Colorado.
From the Denver Business Journal.
The
Griffis Group of Cos. LLC —
a Denver-based luxury apartment complex owner — is
embracing energy in a big way.
The company agreed Oct. 1 to buy enough
renewable-energy credits to offset 60 percent of its apartments’
electricity use with wind power.
In the second year of the contract with
Boulder-based Renewable Choice Energy Inc., Griffis will
increase the number of energy credits it buys to offset
100 percent of the electricity used.
“We are committed to reducing our
carbon footprint and educating our residents on the importance
of conserving energy and encouraging the production of clean
energy,” Managing Director David Birnbaum said in
a news release.
There won’t be wind turbines in the
parking lots of the nine complexes Griffis owns in Denver,
Aurora, Boulder and Colorado Springs. Instead, buying the
energy credits subsidizes wind farms that supply energy
to the nation’s power grid.
Griffis — a privately owned real estate
firm that’s been offering private equity real estate
funds for 24 years — will purchase enough credits
to offset 6,967,404 kilowatt hours — or 6,967 megawatt
hours — of electricity its complexes will use in the
coming year.
“Certainly Griffis sees itself as
leaders in this movement, with strong environmental ethics,”
said Renewable CEO Quayle Hodek. “There was broad
support among the tenants. We’d love to see other
apartment buildings around the state, and country, follow
suit.”
Griffis conducted a survey of tenants before
entering into the contract with Renewable.
“There was a demand for greener living
specifically,” said Katie Moon, Griffis’ project
manager for the company’s “Green Initiative.”
“Current residents are very excited
about the program,” she said.
Moon said a person’s electricity consumption
is one of the biggest impacts on the environment.
“Residents are excited by the fact
that by living in one of our communities, they are lowering
their individual carbon footprint,” she said.
Company officials, using figures provided
by the Environmental Protection Agency, estimate the energy
credits purchased “will help save nearly 7.8 million
pounds of carbon-dioxide pollution and have an impact similar
to planting more than 32,000 mature trees or not driving
nearly 8 million miles in an average passenger car.”
While the move is voluntary for existing
residents of the 2,290 apartment units the company owns,
it will be mandatory for all new residents, Moon said. The
move costs residents about $3 per month extra, or $36 per
year.
Griffis offers one- to three-bedroom units,
and the complexes have amenities such as fitness centers,
coffee bars, pools, spas and business centers. The company
bought two complexes with 399 units in 2009: the Enclave
at Belleview Station apartments on Monaco Street near the
Denver Tech Center, and The Boulders in Boulder.
“We have not found another apartment
company taking it to this level,” Moon said of Griffis’
Green Initiative.
Renewable Choice officials confirmed Griffis
is the largest apartment owner it’s sold energy credits
to, and the first one in the state to buy credits for multiple
complexes.
Renewable Choice, which is a private company
founded in 2001, is one of the nation’s largest providers
of renewable-energy credits, and does so for wind power,
sun, geothermal and other alternative energy sources.
Hodek said the Griffis deal is unique because
other building owners typically buy the renewable-energy
credits in an effort to get LEED — or Leadership in
Energy and Environmental Design — certified.
“The environmental impact of their
decision speaks for itself,” Hodek said. “It’s
part of a broader green effort Griffis has taken.”
Griffis also has launched single-stream
recycling at every complex, energy-efficient appliances,
landscaping that uses less water and the use of “green”
materials such as recycled carpet and recycled glass kitchen
backsplashes.
Dennis Huspeni | DenManH@aol.com |