Environmental consultants look to facilitate green building

Environmental consultants look to facilitate green building

As environmental initiatives in the construction and maintenance of commercial buildings continues to pick up steam, Arlington Heights-based Harnetech LLC is trying to guide building owners and companies toward higher sustainability and a lower carbon footprint.

Harnetech was just launched in early July. Its founder, Cris Arens, spent the past 12 years building a successful logistics software firm that merged with an Australian firm in 2006.

Arens has used this success to pursue one of his lifelong passions of eco-friendliness by creating an environmental consulting firm focusing primarily on business in the northwest suburbs.

“We’re answering a call to help fill the void of people that understand and can help customers and businesses go green,” he said.

The company is a member of the U.S. Green Council and is focused on assisting business and property owners in earning Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certifications. With the support of Mayor Richard M. Daley, Chicago has jumped head-first into the pursuit of LEED certification, a concept yet to embraced by the northwest suburbs.

Harnetech will focus its initial efforts on four communities: Elk Grove Village, Mount Prospect, Bensenville and Arlington Heights. Of all the buildings in those four suburban towns, not a single one is LEED-certified, said Arens.

“(Business and building owners) haven’t really looked at LEED certification and that’s unfortunate because it’s going to come at them fast,” he said.

One service Harnetech offers is a consultation on initiatives in sustainability, a key component for business owners trying to reduce energy costs.

“We come in and help them try to figure out ways to reduce their consumption of energy resources,” Arens said.

In addition, consulting in eco-friendly supply chain management is available to help companies weed through the various green options.

“If you’re moving freight from Chicago to L.A., there are different ways to move it there,” said Arens. “Trying to understand not only the cost factor and time factor but also the carbon factor, there’s a lot of that going on at the moment.”

As an additional way of helping achieve LEED standards, Harnetech offers assistance and guidance in recycling programs for commercial buildings and their tenants. This process is made easy for the residential sector but is almost non-existent at the commercial level, said Arens.

In order to spread the word and make “going green” easier, Harnetech has begun the process of contacting all building owners in its four-city target area to help gauge interest.

“We’re trying to understand what they’re planning on doing, what their goals are and if they have any current initiatives going on, to see if we can help them,” Arens said.

The company is talking to both tenants and building owners, as both can earn LEED certification. Harnetech will also be contacting architects and contractors, but its main focus will be on existing buildings, which may utilize day-lighting, sun tunnels, recycling, water conservation through rain barrels, as well as solar heating to reduce carbon footprints.

One of Harnetech’s biggest challenges is educating people on the availability of environmentally friendly products and techniques, while also overcoming the natural skepticism of business professionals who aren’t sure of the benefits of green programs and are wary of the costs.

“To me the environmental movement has always been people in sandals talking about ‘don’t consume’ and I think it’s important, if we really want to make a difference, that we make it easy to do,” said Arens. “Our goal is to try to take the complexity out and make it easier for them.”

Arens points out that while his previous business was in a cut-throat market with competitors battling against each other for business, the green movement is about working together for a larger purpose.

“In this space, I really welcome more competitors because the market is huge,” he said. “I think we need to collectively make a difference. There’s plenty to go around.”

Jeremy Stoltz, Staff Writer

Posted on Wednesday, August 20, 2008 (Archive on Wednesday, August 27, 2008)
Posted by jstoltz Contributed by jstoltz

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