A green building project without sufficient insurance coverage will never get out of the ground, which is why the recent efforts of Marsh to review current trends in the marketplace with respect to green building insurance issues have been particularly insightful. While I’ve talked extensively here at gbNYC about the potential for green design services rendered by architects and engineers to trigger exclusions in professional liability policies (in relation to the signing of credit submittal templates in connection with LEED projects) the Marsh report did not explicitly discuss this specific risk. However, the report did note the potential liability for design professionals who guarantee or warrant “an outcome without having complete control over things such as construction means and methods, and operation and maintenance.”
September 11th, 2008 | Stephen Del Percio | 0 comments | ContinuedGreen Insurance
Red-Hot Green Roofs a Hidden Green Building Risk for Owners and Insurers?
A number of commercial insurers- including Zurich- expressed concerns in a recent issue of Property Week over the increased installation of green roofs across the United Kingdom, believing that some installations have the potential to dry out and become flammable. Stuart Blackie, a risk management consultant for Zurich, argues that green roofs could become hazardous during drought conditions, identifying schools as particularly at an increased risk. “If roof access is easy, it could be quite an easy way to set fire to a school,” he said. Mr. Blackie recommends that green roofs include means for irrigation and that insurers assist their policyholders during the green roof design phase. Blackie also cautioned that Zurich was not implying that buildings with green roofs would not be insured, only that insurers should be consulted prior to construction in order to ensure that a proper maintenance schedule is established and overall risk assessment program executed.
September 8th, 2008 | Stephen Del Percio | 2 comments | Continued
Green Building Statistics: Demand is High, Design Experience is Low
We’ll be signing off today for the holiday weekend, but before we do that, I want to point out a couple of interesting green building statistics: one group collected by NAHB and the other which was mentioned during yesterday’s Green Building Initiative webinar discussing insurance and surety issues for green construction projects. During the webinar, one of the panelists noted that only 20 percent of his company’s (XL Specialty Insurance) insured design professionals consider themselves “very experienced” in green design- obviously a percentage to which XL is paying close attention in the context of green risk management. On a different track, the National Association of Home Builders recently released figures from a survey of multi-family builders and developers. While 74 percent of respondents said that their buyers and renters are willing to pay more for green amenities, the median additional amount that they’re willing to pay is just 2 percent.
August 28th, 2008 | Stephen Del Percio | 1 comment | Continued
Green Construction Law: As Legislation Proliferates and Insurance Issues Emerge, Is Green Building’s Future Being Compromised?
An insightful letter to the editor that suggests many potential green construction law issues appears in the February 2008 issue of The Construction Specifier magazine. Written by Anne Whitacre of Gehry Partners’ Los Angeles office, A Different Perspective on Green draws attention to the LEED mandates that continue to be enacted in the author’s hometown of Seattle. In the letter, Whitacre raises her concerns about both local green building incentives and public mandates; her comments ring particularly salient in light of the recent Managing Risk in Sustainable Building conference at DePaul’s Real Estate Center in Chicago a couple of weeks ago, as well as freshly proposed Seattle-based legislation that would expand a green building mandate at the county level.
February 19th, 2008 | Stephen Del Percio | 0 comments | Continued
Green Insurance Law: Industry Thoughts on BIM and LEED Coverage for Design Professionals
Last week, the AIANYS Statewide Advisory Committee and the American Council of Engineering Companies of New York sponsored the 2007 Annual Joint Session on Current Insurance Issues for Design Professionals. Speakers from a number of prominent insurance companies, including Lexington, Beazley, Zurich, CNA, Liberty, and XL shared their thoughts on the current state of the [...]
December 11th, 2007 | Stephen Del Percio | 0 comments | Continued
The Top 5 Legal Issues to Consider on Green Construction Projects
I had the opportunity last week to attend an excellent CLE that was offered by American Land. The program focused on the legal issues that attorneys must remain particularly mindful of when advising clients on green real estate projects. Accordingly, here are gbNYC’s top five legal issues that green construction projects may present to participants. [...]
November 1st, 2007 | Stephen Del Percio | 7 comments | Continued
Green Insurance: Number of Climate Change-Related Products Doubles in 2007
Ceres is a non-profit coalition of investors, environmental groups, and other public interest organizations that works with companies as they negotiate the issues implicated by sustainability and climate change. Last week, it released From Risk to Opportunity: 2007, Insurer Responses to Climate Change, a comprehensive overview of presently available climate change-related insurance products. The report [...]
October 30th, 2007 | Stephen Del Percio | 0 comments | Continued
Monday LEEDoff: BOMA Celebrates 100 Years & Gotham Green Milestones
Last week, the Building Owners and Managers Association (“BOMA”) International celebrated its 100th anniversary by holding its annual convention here in New York City. The Citicorp Building, Time Warner Center, and 1 Madison Avenue were all lit up green during the four day event- attended by over 2,300 real estate professionals from all over the [...]
July 30th, 2007 | Stephen Del Percio | 0 comments | Continued
BD+C White Paper: Chapter 3, Financing Green Office Buildings
My somewhat ambitious goal for the remainder of 2006, at least with respect to this blog, is to provide a review, with commentary, for each chapter of the 2006 Building Design + Construction green building White Paper (which came out last month and is entitled Green Buildings and the Bottom Line). In my last post [...]
December 5th, 2006 | Stephen Del Percio | 2 comments | Continued
Fireman’s Fund Introduces Green Building Policy Package
On October 16th, the Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company introduced a Certified Green Building Replacement and Green Upgrade coverage endorsement, designed to provide lower premiums for buildings already certified under LEED and the Green Building Initiative’s Green Globes Rating System, as well as give owners of conventional buildings the opportunity to green their systems in the [...]
November 9th, 2006 | Stephen Del Percio | 1 comment | Continued