February 2008

Irving property management group goes green
by Gina Weems, RPA Property Manager

Las Colinas Corporate Center, owned by Piedmont Office Realty Trust, is located at the intersection of 161 and 114, only minutes from DFW Airport. This year we have challenged ourselves in entering the BOMA 2007 – 2008 Earth Award. The competition begins at the local association level, and advances from there to the regional and international level. The BOMA Earth Award has a simple mission: Honor and recognize building management teams that preserve and enhance the internal and external environment through an all-around “green” program.

It has all been very challenging for our team to address our practices and policies and concentrate on improving the way we do things and leave a smaller footprint in the process. The process has also been very rewarding for our team by involving our tenants in the recognition of the property. The real kick start to our goal was receiving the Energy Star performance rating for our buildings!

Then the next quickest and easiest step was to fine tune our recycling program. Many years ago it was a challenge to condition tenants to recycle paper. But today, we have the opportunity to also recycle aluminum, cardboard, plastic, printer cartridges, cell phones, electronics, etc. And we have found it to be a huge success! Through The Doveday Recycling Co. and Balcones Recycling we have an aggressive program with paper, cardboard and aluminum. Then annually we host an E-Cycle Day which allows our tenants to discard their electronics that otherwise fill up their storage areas. In fact, this year we recycled the carpet and vinyl when we renovated the multi-tenant floors!

We are also working with our landscaping contractor, Brickman, to replace areas within our color beds with more water-wise plants. This allows us to use less water, fertilizer and annual color, thus lowering the cost of our contract and our water bill. We do not overseed our turf and allow the berries and seeds to remain on trees for the birds.

Other straightforward changes have been with ABM, our janitorial contractor. We have changed out our cleaning chemicals to “green” chemicals and switched our paper products to post-consumer and 100% recycled products. Our building is just as clean, smells great and the janitors do not have to be exposed to chemicals.

With still many more changes in the works, these are simple changes made at no additional expense, no additional labor and the support from our company and tenant base! Retention is always important in our industry.

And remember, we are all in this together!

Gina Weems, RPA • Property Manager
Piedmont Office Realty Trust
Gina.Weems@PiedmontREIT.com
972-580-9015 main • 972-714-0167 fax