Green marketing.

Byline: Jessica Perry

When Wu & Associates put its 3,600-square-foot Cherry Hill headquarters up for lease as it relocated to Mount Laurel in 2015, the energy-saving features of the design-and-construction firm's old digs were a marketing point, said Vice President Katherine Ng. "We pitched the energy-saving features of the building including a rainwater capture system that irrigates the lawn, low-flow faucets and toilet fixtures, a high efficiency HVAC system, and solar panels as an attraction," she said. "A tech firm ended up taking the space, which isn't unusual since that industry is often sensitive to energy-saving features."

A combination of environmental sensitivity and a desire to cut back on costs means that more companies want office space that retains heat in the cold months and stays cooler in the hot months, according to some industry insiders. Many corporate tenants also want devices that use less water, and embrace other efficiencies like solar power.

In fact, after Wu & Associates completed a ground-up renovation of its 10,000-square-foot Mount Laurel headquarters, which is pursuing LEED Platinum certification from the U.S. Green Building Council, "we again used the energy-efficient features as a marketing point when we leased out about 4,000 square feet," added Ng. "Energy-saving features are also important to many of our clients because it hits them in the wallet or pocketbook. It's ideal when the concept is part of new-construction design, but energy savings can also be part of a tenant fit out or a retrofit, where simple design changes can have a big impact. We've done plenty of each, from new construction to fit outs, to retrofits."

Industry matters

[box type="shadow" align="alignright" width="45%" ] Oldies but goodies

"Way too many" commercial building owners in New Jersey have not taken advantage of retrofitting and other incentives offered through the NJ Clean Energy Program and local utilities, said Raymond Perry, managing partner of NJ Green Energy Consulting, an energy management consultancy.

A technical school that wanted to cut costs by upgrading its 25-plus-year-old lighting system and got a $140,000 cost estimate reached out to NJGEC, he said. "After analyzing their utility bills, I was able to qualify them for a comprehensive energy efficiency program that offered a 70 percent subsidy. The end result was that we were not only able to upgrade the entire facility to LED lighting, we also upgraded the HVAC...