Perry England is your "Building Performance Ambassador."

In this episode, show host Jeff Nichols speaks with Perry England, VP of Building Performance at MacDonald-Miller, one of the largest mechanical contracting companies in the Pacific Northwest. Perry brings decades of experience and a passion for helping his clients evaluate and ensure their buildings operate more efficiently and comply with ever-evolving standards. Perry reveals his biggest fear for building owners along with tips for staying ahead of the policies, standards, and fines that can be assessed for buildings that fail to meet these standards.   

Most To Gain and Most To Lose

Who’s accountable when buildings fail to meet energy efficiency standards?  Balancing building performance with climate policy is complicated. But with so much information available and an assortment of incentives designed to kick-start clean energy projects, why are we seeing continued resistance? Perry outlines what resources are available to help commercial building owners understand the policies, standards, and improvement options, and the skills that are needed to implement a plan.

States like Washington and Oregon have begun to establish stricter guidelines and standards. And compliance with these standards is binary–either you meet them or not. Once fines are assessed, they remain in place until compliance is confirmed which can be a 48-month cycle after the project is completed. Building owners who can get ahead of these policies and successfully implement energy-saving initiatives are uniquely positioned to take advantage of lucrative tax incentives and deductions that can offset their project costs by as much as 70%.   

Acknowledge Reality Instead of Ignoring It

Building sustainability has evolved into a matter of survival for both commercial and public building owners and operators. But where does this journey start?  Perry recommends several starting points including a comprehensive building evaluation using tools such as Energy Star Portfolio Manager.  Building owners must take the time to learn and consult with experts to understand how their buildings can operate more efficiently.

Perry stresses the importance of empathy to have constructive conversations with the “3 types” of building owners and how to make sure these discussions are productive rather than ‘prickly’.  And it’s not just about building a rapport with building owners, you’ll learn what role public utilities play along with local municipalities and the Dept of Commerce and discover where Perry sees the most buy-in and support for clean energy reform.  

• Follow Jeff on LinkedIn 
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• Learn how MacDonald-Miller makes buildings work better 
• Learn more about Washington State’s Clean Building Performance Standard
• Learn more about Energy Star Portfolio Manager

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Questions or feedback for the Reframe team can be directed to [email protected]. Stay updated on future episodes by following the podcast through your preferred app.

Reframe is presented by Pilotlight

Building ownership has a new playbook. Brad Werner breaks it down.

In this episode of Reframe, show host Jeff Nichols discusses the shifting landscape and new growth strategies for commercial building owners with Brad Werner, a partner at Wipfli LLP who leads their construction and real estate practice. 

Hear how Brad advises his clients on strategies to adapt and grow in a fast-changing market. Should they care about sustainability? How are energy incentives related to their growth? And where does technology deliver value? Tune in for Brad’s perspective on the 3 things that building owners need to focus on today to prepare for the future.

Experiences Matter

Like any business, building owners must meet their customers' needs– their tenants. Brad offers his perspective on the demands of present and future tenants seeking a different experience and how these demands are influencing building owners in their plans to invest in cleaner and more efficient spaces. Adapting to the needs of their building’s occupants will require a change in mindset and investment strategy requiring owners to find new ways to pay for sustainable growth.   

What's more, these challenges are growing exponentially for building owners. To stay ahead, many are looking for experts to help them navigate the complexity surrounding when and how to invest in more efficient and sustainable spaces.  This is where experts like Brad add value by helping his clients make more informed decisions across three areas that he says can impact growth the most. 

Speed Matters 

Brad outlines his vision for how building owners need to plan and execute their growth strategy by anticipating construction trends and adopting a mindset focused on value and sustainability.  Technology proficiency must also keep pace as efficiency upgrades need to be operated and maintained within a broader connected ecosystem– enabled through technology expertise that requires top talent. Brad explains the reason why technology expertise for building owners in the future will be crucial to meet the current and evolving standards for energy efficiency.

Experts like Brad, who are tuned in to the trends driving the construction and real estate industry, are writing the modern playbook for commercial building owners. Brad and his firm are committed to providing their clients with a deeper understanding of their growth and sustainability goals, the nuances of capital availability, and the needs of more demanding building occupants. And as if that’s not enough, Brad reminds us that speed matters in the race toward relevance, profitability, and sustainability. 

Listen and Connect

Questions or feedback for the Reframe team can be directed to [email protected]. Stay updated on future episodes by following the podcast through your preferred app.

Reframe is presented by Pilotlight

Steve Barnes reveals the real value of energy incentives and credits.

In this episode, show host Jeff Nichols speaks with Steven Barnes, a Partner at Wipfli LLP, a top accounting firm that supports construction and real estate clients.  Steve provides a straightforward primer on how energy incentives and credits can be materially significant and how they apply uniquely to commercial and not-for-profit buildings, and he explains how benefits can be allocated or used creatively to offset project costs and fund future initiatives. Find out what Steve means when he says building owners and operators must build green to get green.  

Going deeper into this episode: It’s Not Always About Shielding Income 

Savvy commercial building owners are drawn to these deductions and credits as they would be to capital asset depreciation and other familiar strategies that lower their taxable income.  This tends to drive a higher level of awareness of these incentive programs in the private sector.  However, many developers and designers who work on public or not-for-profit buildings are not as up-to-speed on what kinds of benefits are available or how to qualify.  

Public buildings like schools, for example, may be looking to replace a dated and inefficient boiler with a renewable system like solar, geothermal, or biomass.  These types of upgrades typically qualify for federal incentives under the Investment Tax Credit (ITC) and can range from 6% to 60% credit or cashback on a project.     

So why aren’t more builders and building owners taking advantage of these incentives?  Much of the reason has to do with the perceived barriers to energy tax incentive availability and qualification.   

Here are a few of the top misperceptions: 

• Building owners and developers often assume the work they’re doing to upgrade their properties likely won’t qualify or, that the scope of the upgrade wasn’t big enough. The fact is that most work does qualify for significant deductions or credits. 

• The bar for qualification is too high so why bother?  Actually, the standards for qualification are very achievable, especially for upgrades done within the prior 2-4 years.   The main reason for this is that upgrades are compared with previously established ASHRE 2007 standards for energy use and efficiency.  Many experts feel that the qualification benchmark is intentionally low to accelerate energy efficiency adoption. 

• It’s just too expensive to have my CPA firm look into this and advise me.  The reality is that many firms price these consultations at a fraction of the value of the qualified deductions or credits.  

The Evolving Energy Tax Advisor

Full-service advisory firms are becoming more capable of navigating their clients through these perceived barriers and challenges.  Having these conversations with your tax advisor upfront before the work starts allows for a more comprehensive vetting of upgrade options, CapEx planning, and comparison with current local, state, or federal incentive programs and energy standards.  

Energy consultations are also important where a client may be looking to apply for a 179D deduction for example, but instead may find that by the time the work was completed, a more favorable asset depreciation opportunity was available.  Another example is with buildings that have commercial space on the ground floor and residential units on higher floors, a properly advised building owner can apply 179D (deduction) and 45L (qualifying credit) thus taking advantage of several programs at the same time. In other scenarios that apply more to public buildings, energy credits can be donated to a scholarship fund or another charitable program and then written off as a donation– some may say ‘double-dipping’.  

These are just a few examples of why energy advisory firms are interested in sitting down with their clients to have a more strategic conversion leading to a potentially more beneficial and profitable outcome.

Stay tuned for the next episode of Reframe and join show host Jeff Nichols on a journey of discovery to learn first-hand how the stakeholders and innovators across the building and construction industry are turning energy challenges into opportunities for sustainable growth. 

• Follow Jeff on LinkedIn 
• Follow Steve on LinkedIn
• Learn more about Wipfli LLP 
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Jeff sets the stage with his guest Abby Massey. 

In this inaugural episode, show host Jeff Nichols sets the stage with Abby Massey who leads the energy tax incentives team at TaxTaker. As a civil engineer, Abby knows the systems and design methods for how to make buildings operate more efficiently. As an expert in energy tax incentives, Abby has helped countless building owners and operators discover new possibilities and opportunities in energy upgrades. Abby and Jeff discuss the tricky nature of energy efficiency conversations with building owners and a roadmap for capitalizing on lucrative energy tax incentives. 

Reframe is the podcast about building sustainability. Commercial and public buildings are among the biggest producers of carbon emissions. It’s a problem of massive scale. But, for building owners, engineers and contractors, solving it may actually be more of an opportunity than a challenge. That’s what the “Reframe” podcast is all about. Join host Jeff Nichols on an exploration of the forces driving sustainability in our built environment. And meet the people who are leading the charge.