Concerned About the Bottom Lines? Try Landscaping Them

Urban Landscape, October 2009
By: Dennis Kaiser

2000 Avenue of the Stars in Century City, California is a property that has successfully incorporated sustainable landscaping and efficient irrigation to conserve water and yet maintain appealing garden settings for workers. Landscape Architect: SWA Group; Photo Credits: Goran Kosanovic, SWA Group

With its nose for culture, a 42-year legacy of tending to trendy tastes and a decidedly Southern California atmosphere, Newport Beach’s Fashion Island is one of the country’s premier open air retail centers, a showcase for what consumers covet. Its architecture exudes Mediterranean accents. Its flowering bougainvillea and Mexican fan palms frame tranquility.

Look deeper and you’ll also see hints of what’s next – not just for shoppers, but for developers, owners and managers across the United States whose landscape needs are being shaped by a challenging economy, increased environmental awareness, water conversation and sustainability. Here, parking lot islands once canvassed with lush green turf have been replaced with far-less thirsty ornamental plants. Artfully arrayed shrubbery shadows areas where turf grass once grew. Seasonal flowers are giving way to perennial color. The touches are subtle, barely noticeable to shoppers who are attracted as much to the beautiful environment as the stores. But the changes sought by The Irvine Company, the retail center’s owner, acknowledge a geography prone to drought. The changes are achieving maintenance cost savings and are even helping in reducing air emissions because of the fewer hours required to mow large acres of lawn.

These days, landscape design, construction and maintenance experts are spending a lot of time talking with and advising commercial customers about the value of designing and building great landscapes. In addition, emphasizing how to preserve the landscaping investment and how to enhance aesthetically pleasing spaces for employees and visitors with an eye on protecting precarious bottom lines. Frequently, those conversations are punctuated with references to drip irrigation systems and smart weather-based controllers, hydro-zoning, native plants and carbon footprints. Where once landscaping might have been an afterthought, it is creeping higher up on the developer’s priority list. It is attracting the attention of property managers looking to shave rising costs and address tenant and customer appetites for sustainable (read “green”) environments. Truth is, landscaping should always be considered within the equation of operating a property at peak efficiency. The current economy now requires it and many states and cities are mandating it.

“Aesthetics, affordability and efficiency need not be mutually exclusive, and it’s a message welcomed by commercial real estate customers who are frequently asking: ‘What can we do to help save money, save water and keep the place looking sharp?,’” said Kelly F. Duke, Vice President, Pre-Construction Services, for Calabasas, Calif.-based ValleyCrest Landscape Development, a division of the nation’s largest integrated landscape services firm, and one of the experts expected to address key sustainable issues facing the real estate industry at FutureBuild LA 2009.

ULI LA’s Green Conference and Expo being held October 20 in Los Angeles was conceived as a way for developers in Southern California to hear from the leaders in green design, sustainable building practices and smart water management programs.

“In order for real estate leaders in Los Angeles to more fully embrace the concept of green development, we felt it was important for FutureBuild LA to offer the expertise and ideas from those who’re actually designing and building sustainable projects, as well as executing smart water conservation concepts,” said Karl A. Fielding, an Environmental Planner with the Los Angeles office of PBS&J, a national multi-disciplinary consulting firm, and the Program Chair for FutureBuild LA. “The net result is by seeing examples of sustainable developments that are cost effective and hearing about what’s currently happening in our region, conference attendees will gain a clearer vision of where the industry is going, learn skills and strategies applicable to their sector, and walk away knowing how to incorporate more sustainable and water wise practices into new projects in Los Angeles.”

One area of potential high impact and significant return-on-investment is a landscape plan that is grounded in water efficiency. Ideally, that plan is forged and implemented as part of a project’s design and construction process, but very often it is achieved through modifications much like those implemented at Fashion Island and scores of properties from Newport Beach to New York City. The changes tend to revolve around 1) horticulture improvements – switching out non-functional lawns and thirsty plants for more drought-tolerant peers; 2) watering infrastructure – the replacement of overhead irrigation in favor of drip irrigation systems, or the installation of smart water controllers that adjust automatically to weather conditions; and 3) waste reduction – essentially the time and effort it takes to tend to lush grounds through mowing, waste hauling or air emissions.

Located in the heart of California’s Silicon Valley, Cisco System’s San Jose corporate campus is surrounded by 68 acres of landscaping. Landscape Architect: Guzzardo & Associates, Inc.; Photo Credit: Horst Stasny

At Cisco Systems in San Jose an ecologically friendly landscape maintenance program initiated over the past 10 years has helped the company significantly reduce overall landscape costs at the vast, 98-acre campus. The landscape program included a plant density reduction plan, resulting in the removal of some plants that required significant amounts of water and care. Plants that required watering five days were replaced with shrubs requiring only two days of irrigation. Water-conserving drip irrigation systems were also added, along with weather-based controllers that lower irrigation water usage on average 24 percent a year. Cisco saved more than 81 million gallons of water through the company’s water conservation efforts in California alone, and even helped the company earn corporate responsibility bonus points among its stakeholders.

Stoneridge Corporate Plaza has long been recognized as the premier corporate address in the East Bay, but the suburban, three-acre campus with meandering waterways and lush landscaping also doubles as a site for weddings on the weekends. Photo Credit: Photo © Jay Graham.

A common misconception is that an initial landscaping installation is likely to cost more than the maintenance over the lifetime of the project. The reverse is actually true in most instances. The current economy is giving owners and managers the opportunity to reassess their landscaped environments, with an aim toward sustainability and improving asset value.

“The benefits extend beyond water conserved or money saved – and that’s something our customers concerned about their facility’s carbon footprints are fast coming to appreciate,” said Duke, who notes that ValleyCrest’s landscape designers, licensed landscape architects, and landscape specialists frequently design and build green roofs for customers.

“A green roof can accomplish a variety of objectives for a commercial structure. It can improve the thermal insulation performance of the roof. It can mitigate daytime rooftop heat gain and serve as an effective strategy against urban heat island phenomenon. It can provide a patch of vegetation capable of supporting biodiversity in an increasingly “hardscaped” world. It can detain and filter the first few minutes of rainfall during a storm event so as to avoid overwhelming the storm drain system in volume or contaminants.”

A certified irrigation specialist can analyze which areas of a landscape use the most water and create a customized plan that achieves the highest level of water conservation through improved scheduling and reduced maintenance. Photos credit: ValleyCrest, Inc. and © Jay Graham, Graham Photography.

ValleyCrest has constructed virtually every type of on-structure and green roof project that one can imagine across the country. Optima Biltmore Towers in Phoenix, Arizona is an example of a green roof ValleyCrest was involved in building. It has helped transform the Phoenix skyline with its environmentally-friendly design. A green roof caps the towers where a trellised sky bridge links luxurious condominiums to a recreation area offering residents a unique natural view. The property integrates solar systems that compliment an environmentally-sensitive green roof and retreat.

Clearly, having a firm grasp of a wide array of sustainable practices and water management techniques is important. Today, developers are also faced with new and soon-to-be enacted water regulations. Cities and state government are adopting rate hikes, mandating water conservation measures and enacting smart water management programs – all of which may impact whether a development gets a green light to proceed. Water is an easy target given that irrigation typically accounts for 50 percent of a property’s water consumption. That means commercial developers must know and understand use trends, develop water management plans and incorporate advanced technologies or systems in the construction process. These new laws go beyond the process of LEED certification or looking for ways to integrate improved landscape maintenance approaches that yield a range of dividends on the operations side.

Positive results occur when developers work closely with landscape design and construction experts up front to anticipate and meet new water regulations while adopting best practices in sustainability. In the long run, the value of the landscaped asset can increase, the costs of maintenance can drop, and more environmentally-friendly processes can be integrated into standard operations.

The factors shaping how developers view landscaping today are real, and the economic considerations are profound. Economy, sustainability, drought and water conservation are giving rise to a host of questions, but the answers need not be complex or expensive. Whether your properties are as vast as Cisco’s, in an arid region such as Optima Biltmore Towers or as lush as a Fashion Island, forward-thinking commercial owners are responding to today’s challenges head on, drawing upon the counsel of landscaping design, construction and maintenance experts. They are approaching their landscaping in ways that can add value and pay wide-ranging dividends over time.

Dennis Kaiser is communications senior manager, public relations at ValleyCrest Landscape Companies, the nation’s largest integrated landscape services company. The Calabasas, Calif.-based firm is commissioned by architects, developers, commercial real estate owners, public agencies, property managers and luxury home builders to help create, build or maintain some of the world’s extraordinary natural environments. For more information about ValleyCrest Landscape Companies, please visit www.valleycrest.com.