Webinar delivers perspective on green building trends

As leaders in sustainable building care practices, Diversey provides its customers and suppliers with expert consulting and perspective on trends in the industry. For the past three years, we have partnered with GreenBiz, a website of Greener World Media, to explore the business implications green building design and maintenance through its annual Green Building Market Impact Report.

Diversey sponsored the November 2010 webinar, titled “Building A Green Future: Emerging Trends in the Construction and Maintenance of Green Facilities,” as well as the research study, an annual global survey of green building market trends and the effects of LEED on land use, water, energy and raw materials. LEED—Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design—is an internationally recognized green building certification system developed by the U.S. Green Building Council. It provides concise, measurable standards for environmentally responsible building design, construction and operation.

The annual survey explores whether commercial green buildings provide demonstrable energy and environmental benefits.

The webinar featured analysis by Robert Watson, the study’s author, GreenerBuildings.com editor and “founding father” of LEED, and by Diversey President and CEO Ed Lonergan. The webinar was moderated by Joel Makower, executive editor, GreenBiz.com.

“In these tough economic times, green building continues to represent one of the few bright spots in the economy, not just for construction and real estate, but for business in general,” Makower said. “That is thanks in part to success of the U.S. Green Building Council LEED green building rating system, along with the recognition that greenercommercial buildings are better buildings in almost every respect. Green building has crossed the threshold from being the exception to being the rule.”

Watson presented a detailed analysis of the results of the annual study. The 2010 results showed that:

• LEED buildings are making a major impact in reducing the environmental footprint of individual structures;
• Great opportunities remain for progress in individual buildings;
• The opportunities for broader implementation of LEED standards in the marketplace are significant; and
• Realizing those opportunities in individual buildings and in the marketplace is critical to the success of LEED in reducing the environmental footprint of buildings in the U.S. and worldwide.
• Lonergan reported on what Diversey has learned through its efforts to improve the operational efficiency of its facilities, and the importance of applying those lessons to work with customers as a part of fulfilling the company’s purpose.

“We are convinced that playing in this space, with internal learning around LEED and our ability to employ that in how we go to market, is one of the key ways that we transform our industry,” Lonergan said. “To be credible as we approach our customers, we have to walk the talk. It is important for us to continually improve our own operations as we seek to improve the operations of our customers. We apply our internal learnings to our external solutions.”

Lonergan discussed Diversey’s four-year waste reduction results, and savings in water and energy. The company has continued to return about $2 in savings for every $1 invested in efficiency improvements, he said.

“As leaders, we have a clear imperative to deliver measurable results, and this applies to sustainability as well,” Lonergan told the webinar participants. “In fact, we built sustainability objectives into our corporate goals on a global basis and for individual leaders across our corporation regardless of the function in which they participate.” He said Diversey has a clear business case that creates genuine return on investment that makes sense, evidenced by its large cumulative savings on water, energy and waste.

Lonergan also shared his perspectives on sustainability and Diversey’s innovations that save water, energy and labor with GreenBiz readers in an August 30, 2010 “View from the C-Suite” interview.

“Going forward, we will focus on being a leader in (the sustainability) movement,” Lonergan said in the interview. “Not every customer will say they want the most sustainable products. But if we offer an opportunity to save water, waste, energy and labor with the same quality outcome, they will embrace it. That’s our future. We will continue to make business decisions based on a broader view of the impact of our operations on the planet.”

Diversey also partners with GreenBiz through its GreenBiz Executive Network, a peer-to-peer forum of senior sustainability executives from more than 50 large companies.