Among technology companies, Apple was one of the first to prioritize water conservation as part of its overall sustainability plan and continues to be at the forefront of water stewardship efforts.
Apple’s headquarters, Apple Park in Cupertino, California, uses municipal recycled water throughout its restrooms, cooling systems, and landscaping. (Arne Müseler)
Water conservation strategies
Water use monitoring and technology
Apple leverages data to measure and monitor its water use to understand its local footprint at each of its locations worldwide. Each area has unique water conditions, so the company takes advantage of tools like the World Resources Institute Water Risk Atlasto understand geographically specific water consumption and water-related risks to inform local strategies. Using these tools, Apple prioritizes investment in water conservation technologies based on each corporate location’s water risk profile.
Alternate water sources
Apple owns or operates 11 data centers worldwide, using chilled water or adiabatic cooling, including direct and indirect evaporation, to air-condition and keep servers cool and functioning properly. In total, Apple facilities used 1.29 billion gallons of water in 2020, 90 percent of which was potable freshwater. Through municipal recycled water, rainwater capture, and condensate recovery, over 9 percent of Apple’s water is from recycled sources—a number that is increasing. Apple’s Prineville, Oregon, data center was the first Apple-owned or operated site—and the first data center worldwide—to achieve certification under the Alliance for Water Stewardship, a third-party certification program that provides an accountability framework for companies seeking to demonstrate responsible water stewardship.
Recycled water infrastructure investment
Apple has also invested in public utility infrastructure to increase the availability of both fresh and recycled water near data centers and offices. At the data center in Prineville, Apple partnered with the city to create an aquifer storage and recovery system that will hold up to 180 million gallons of water for use in peak months, reducing pressure on the local watershed. Apple also made significant investments in recycled water infrastructure for Apple Park, its Cupertino headquarters that was completed in 2017. The company collaborated with the Santa Clara Valley Water District, the city of Sunnyvale, and the California Water Service Company to extend the region’s recycled water purple pipes and make the resource more accessible to the community. The project, which required the installation of about 2.5 miles of pipeline, has allowed the Apple campus to use recycled water throughout its restrooms, cooling system, and landscaping. Recycled water has been an important part of achieving Steve Jobs’ vision for the campus, which embraces nature and features native plants and fruit trees throughout the property as an homage to the site’s pastoral roots.
Apple Park features native plants and fruit trees throughout the property as an homage to the site’s pastoral roots. (Nigel Young / Foster + Partners)
Outcomes
Through a combination of efficiency projects and the use of alternate water sources, Apple has conserved more than 132 million gallons of freshwater since 2017. Apple’s efforts to reduce its freshwater withdrawals and return clean water to the watersheds in which it operates reflects the company’s commitment to managing this shared resource responsibly.
The complex has been home to various Denver Water operations since 1881, and over time, the buildings became outdated and inadequate to support the operational and administrative needs of the agency. The full redevelopment included the demolition of 15 obsolete and inefficient buildings, renovation of two existing buildings, and new construction of four industrial buildings, a parking garage, a wellness building, and the LEED Platinum and net zero energy administration building.
Denver Water’s 187,000-square-foot administration building pushes the boundaries of what is possible in water efficiency and reuse. (Frank Ooms Photography)
Water Conservation, Efficiency, and Reuse Strategies
The pioneering water conservation and reuse strategies incorporated into the campus are inspired by Denver’s One Water plan, a management framework that fosters collaboration between public agencies that oversee the region’s water systems. The most visible applications of One Water strategies are in the administration building, which features rainwater capture for irrigation and on-site wastewater treatment and recycling.
A key component of the One Water philosophy is the integrated approach to all forms of water: drinking water, wastewater, groundwater, reclaimed and reused water, rainwater, stormwater, and floodwater. The development team included Trammell Crow Company as owner’s representative and master developer, Stantec as project architect, and Mortenson Construction as general contractor, along with a team of more than 200 design and construction subcontractors. Together, they incorporated a wide range of water-smart design strategies. The project aims to use the most appropriate source water for each water use, like rainwater for irrigation and toilet flushing. Other strategies reduce as much water demand and discharge to the environment as possible through recovery and reuse. For example, the project features low-flow plumbing fixtures throughout, rainwater-capturing systems on the roof of the administration building and parking garage, porous paving, bioswales, and a native detention pond on site.
The water recycling system (WRS) is the most unique and innovative element of the campus. Wastewater from restrooms and the cafeteria is diverted to the WRS, an on-site treatment system in which water travels through various closed and open aerobic tanks before routing through a constructed wetland and a final filtration process.
Denver Water headquarters’ blackwater is treated on site through various closed and open aerobic tanks, a constructed wetland, as shown in the photo, and a final filtration process before reuse. (Frank Ooms Photography)
Outcomes
The system is capable of recycling up to 7,000 gallons per day, which is more than enough to meet current demand. The updated campus demonstrates what is possible in water efficiency and reuse.
“We’ve seen across our portfolio that owning and operating high-performance properties is a sound investment strategy that can lower utility bills, improve tenant attraction and retention, and improve net operating income when executed correctly. We really believe this and we’re seeing it adopted more and more widely.” – Lee Ferguson, Vice President, Denver Office, Trammell Crow Company
Water conservation has been a top priority since the husband-and-wife development team, Diane and Harold Smethills, conceived their vision for the community more than 15 years ago. Groundwater, the main resource enabling development in Douglas County, was not readily available for Sterling Ranch when the Smethills began planning, which afforded them unique opportunities to explore novel infrastructure and conservation strategies not in use elsewhere in the Denver metropolitan area. Drought resilience is top of mind in Colorado, which has experienced severe drought conditions for more than two decades,and as of December 2021, had more than 200 straight days without rain.
Sterling Ranch in Douglas County, Colorado. (Sterling Ranch)
Sterling Ranch will eventually include about 12,050 homes for 30,000 residents across nine distinct neighborhood villages. Since the first home closed in 2017, the development has opened three of the nine planned villages with 1,400 occupied homes, over 3,000 residential lots sold, and more than 3,000 current residents. The total project cost of buildout is estimated at over $5 billion.
Water-Smart Strategies
Rainwater harvesting
Sterling Ranch is Colorado’s first and only municipal-scale rainwater harvesting pilot site project, aims to source more than 70 percent of its water from renewable sources, like rainwater and snowmelt, and not groundwater. Dominion Water Sanitation District manages the community’s wholesale water and wastewater, and is part of a broader regional coalition called the WISE Partnership (which stands for Water, Infrastructure and Supply Efficiency) that has worked to reduce infrastructure costs through the sharing of water assets such as Aurora’s Prairie Waters Pipeline.
Smart utility management
Technology is a cornerstone of the project and essential for meeting its water conservation goals. Sterling Ranch partnered with Siemens to deliver smart utility management throughout the community, like residential dual-meter water systems that differentiate between outdoor and indoor water consumption. Indoor use is priced lower than outdoor use, since indoor use is less elastic and to encourage outdoor water conservation. Other technology to reduce outdoor water use includes Rachio smart irrigation controllers, which tie irrigation to evapotranspiration data from nearby weather monitoring stations and alert users about leaks.
Native, drought-tolerant landscaping at Sterling Ranch was designed in partnership with Denver Botanic Gardens. (Sterling Ranch)
Drought-tolerant landscaping
In addition, Sterling Ranch reduces water demand through drought-tolerant landscaping co-developed with the Denver Botanic Gardens, a tactic that has garnered national attention. Sterling Ranch famously does not allow new homeowners to plant a full yard of water-thirsty grass and offers a palette of 150 native and drought-tolerant plants instead. The idea, said Smethills, is to “use grass as a throw rug instead of a carpet.” In addition, the area’s proximity to preserved open space and hundreds of miles of trails may encourage owners to reduce the size of their yards.
“People will make the right choices if you give them the right information and don’t penalize them. Residents know outdoor water is expensive. They don’t have to buy water they don’t need or want,” said Harold Smethills.
Business Outcomes
Water savings
So far, Sterling Ranch has used about half (sometimes less) as much water as other municipalities in the Denver Metro and Douglas County areas.
“We changed the conversation from water conservation to water demand management. Water demand management means figuring out how much you need. Educating residents shows them the best things they can do, in terms of sustainability,” said Smethills. Empowered with information technology and smart systems, Sterling Ranch residents are embracing sustainable lifestyles and helping the development not only meet but exceed its water management goals. The result? “It looks like Colorado and won’t die in a drought,” said Smethills.
Increased developable land
Since groundwater was not available at the site, this development would not have been possible without the rainwater harvesting and water conservation strategies employed at Sterling Ranch.
“In the old days there was a saying around Colorado: ‘whisky is for drinking and water is for fighting.’ Rather than adopt that mentality, we found that if we worked together with cities, districts, and water suppliers, we could bring complete water systems together that could be shared at a fraction of the cost of any one of us doing it by ourselves. Sharing infrastructure costs reduces costs for everyone, including our residents,” said Harold Smethills.
A single hotel room uses an estimated average 396 gallons of water per day. In the United States, hotel water usage accounts for about 15 percent of total water use in commercial and institutional real estate. The hospitality industry plays an essential role in advancing water-smart strategies, especially in areas that experience water stress.
Water-Wise Strategies & Their Cost Savings
More than 90 percent of hotels in Clarion’s portfolio have implemented low-flow toilets, which are estimated to achieve an annual average savings of $9,000 per hotel. Hotels’ improved faucet aerators have helped reduce annual water consumption by about 91,000 gallons, equating to an annual average savings of $1,000 per hotel. On top of this, showerheads were also replaced across 95 percent of hotels in Clarion’s portfolio. These upgraded showerheads save an astounding 500,000 gallons of water and result in $5,550 in savings. Further, the hot water heater uses less energy when water use is reduced, leading to an additional $1,700 in natural gas savings for a total annual average savings of $17,250 per hotel.
To save additional water and energy, Clarion also offers towel and linen reuse programs at 100 percent of its hotels, allowing guests to reuse towels, providing linen changes every fourth night of a stay, and then changing all towels and linens when a guest checks out. To support program success, Clarion trains hotel personnel to not replace towels that are not left on the floor. To some surprise within the hotel industry, this option was quickly embraced by hotel guests as a small way to engage in energy and water conservation, and resulting estimates of annual energy and natural gas savings are about 25 percent.
Lessons Learned
Clarion Partners’ hotel renovation program demonstrates that seemingly small changes to ubiquitous fixtures found in hotel rooms present a massive opportunity to conserve water, energy, and financial resources at scale.
Showerheads play an important part of the guest experience in hotels, so when undertaking this replacement, Clarion partnered with Kohler to compare two of its leading water-efficient products, one using 2 GPM and another using 1.75 GPM. Several asset managers and hotel managers tested both products at their homes, and surprisingly, the water coming from the lower-flow showerhead felt stronger than the higher-volume choice, saving money and ensuring a high-quality guest experience.
“Implementing sustainable practices that help our environment while ensuring guest comfort shouldn’t have to be mutually exclusive. Hotels host millions of travelers annually, so we have a real opportunity to not only demonstrate that we are taking quantifiable action to improve our planet, but we are doing so in ways that complement the guest experience.”
CHUCK LATHEM
Managing Director, Clarion Partners
Additional Resources
For more information on how to improve the environmental performance of a hotel asset, see ULI’s report, Sustainability in Hotels: Opportunities and Trends Shaping the Future of Hospitality. The report assesses the state of sustainability in the hotel sector; identifies best practices in energy efficiency, water conservation, and waste reduction; and highlights industry trends to watch.
For more information on water-wise strategies for real estate and their business case, see ULI’s report, Water Wise: Strategies for Drought-Resilient Development. The report provides best practices for addressing water scarcity through water-smart development and landscaping.
Steve Hennigan, president and chief executive officer of Credit Human, said he adopted a “different perspective and paradigm” in planning the building to challenge engineers and others involved in constructing the project. Hennigan urged those assembling the project to base their work not on current best practices but on what was “theoretically possible.” As such, his stance was this: “Give me a reason why it can’t be done.” Credit Human partnered with Silver Ventures to co-develop the building complex, which also includes the Oxbow and a parking garage.
Credit Human Federal Credit Union’s headquarters at 1703 Broadway in San Antonio sets a new standard for sustainable commercial buildings in Texas. (Credit Human)
Taking a long-term view of the building has also allowed Credit Human to break through conventions and see the long-term payoff for investing in sustainable building technologies, with Hennigan noting that Credit Human occupied its previous headquarters for more than 40 years. “We have a history of buying and holding things,” he said.
Climate Resilience Strategies
Water harvesting and recycling
A combination of rainwater and condensate capture, storage, and reuse systems make the project one
of the most water-conscious developments in Texas. “There is really almost nowhere on this building
where we’re not capturing rainwater,” says Matt Dunn of Joeris General Contracting, the general contractor on the project. The proprietary solar array and gutter system is designed to soak up the sun’s energy while allowing rainwater capture.
Several of the water storage tanks, including a 38,000-gallon tank repurposed from a local brewery, are
visible on the exterior of the building. It was important that the water conservation technologies were integrated with the building design to showcase Credit Human’s commitment to sustainability and conservation. Between the various water storage tanks, the building can store nearly 140,000 gallons of rainwater and condensate from its air-conditioning system to be used for irrigation, flushing toilets, and cooling the building.
A combination of rainwater capture, storage, and reuse systems make the Credit Human headquarters one of the most water-conscious developments in Texas. (Credit Human)
Beyond rainwater capture, the building’s geothermal heating and cooling system reduces water demand by diminishing the building’s dependence on cooling towers. With fewer cooling towers, the building requires about 1 million fewer gallons of chilled water to air-condition the building during the summer months.
In total, the water management systems have allowed the building to cut its demand for potable water from the San Antonio Water System by about 97 percent.
Energy efficiency
In looking at the building through a long-term lens, it was important that the design approach addressed the demand for resources before examining the supply side. Sticking with that policy, Credit Human initially weighed elements affecting the performance of the building envelope—elements, he said, that have been “quantum in their payoff.” The building walls feature four inches of continuous insulation and a thermally broken window system, a type of window construction in which a barrier between the inner and outer window frames limits the heat transfer through the window. The wall system doubles the insulation required by a Texas code baseline, allowing the building to reduce energy and water use, as well as operating costs involved with heating and cooling the building.
The payoff has been significant: the building uses approximately 96 percent less energy from CPS Energy, the municipal utility company, because of a 56 percent reduction in overall energy demand, as well as the building’s ability to generate its own energy through a rooftop solar array.
Business Outcomes
Reduced operating costs and water/energy savings
For Credit Human, the investments made in sustainable building systems have resulted in significant utility savings. Electricity and water at Credit Human’s two prior buildings—155,000 square feet combined—cost about $44,000 a month. At the new building, which is 200,000 square feet, the monthly cost is about $8,600. Credit Human estimates that the systems will result in a positive return on investment in 13 years or sooner.
Awards and recognition
The new headquarters has received significant attention for its sustainable design, including several awards:
2021 Associated General Contractors Outstanding Construction Award – Local Level
2021 San Antonio Business Journal Building San Antonio Award – Best Green Project
2021 San Antonio Business Journal Building San Antonio Award – Best Office Development, Large
When the opening of the Denver International Airport meant the closing of the Stapleton International Airport in the mid-1990s, a coalition of business and philanthropic leaders in the city realized the unprecedented opportunity to guide the former airfield into an environmentally and socially rich “city within a city,” that could continue the legacy of Denver’s historic neighborhoods while creating an abundance of new housing built around a system of parks.
Caption: Central Park’s redevelopment features large open spaces that help restore Colorado’s high prairie ecosystem with native and naturalized plantings.
Jim Chrisman, former senior vice president with Forest City Stapleton and then Brookfield Properties, and now an independent consultant, worked on the project for 30 years and saw it transform from the “Stapleton redevelopment” into the Central Park neighborhood of today. Chrisman notes how the coalition of local civic leaders raised several million dollars to fund creation of a master plan known as the Green Book. The plan was completed in the early 1990s in anticipation of the airport closure in 1995. This plan, ahead of its time as the concept of “sustainable development” was still in its infancy, laid the foundation for and defined the ethos for the project. It also underpinned selection of family-owned company Forest City as master developers for the project in 1998, as recounted by Bill Vitek. Vitek is principal with landscape architecture firm Dig Studio, which has worked on the community’s design guidelines and a large portion of Central Park’s 1,116 acres of parks and open space.
The development’s style, master-planned by sustainability-minded firms HDR and Calthorpe & Associates, leaned more toward a “traditional, New Urbanist design concept where we had a much finer grain of housing types per block and per lot, and not the 40-acre superblocks that you see in the suburban projects” that were more popular at the time, notes Chrisman.
As Chrisman describes, “We pushed the envelope on having alley-loaded product. We went back to the old traditions of Denver, and no one was really doing that, but it really helps with the streetscape. We also pushed really hard on narrow streets.” These small design choices had a major impact on creating a pedestrian-focused public realm.
In addition to the urban design, parks were always central to this style of development. “Nearly 24 percent of the site is parks or open space,” says Vitek. “And the idea was always that if you had such a large percentage of the site being open space, you could do much smaller lots. You didn’t do one-acre lots, or half-acre lots. Even a quarter-acre lot is big out there. The overall premise was to use the community parks and open space as everyone’s backyard.”
Keeping the parks accessible was also embedded in other ways, as the parks are at the front of homes, with a public street in between. “Another decision we made was that no property would back up to the open space. There would always be public right-of-way between open space and houses, so all homes would front open space and everyone would have access to it, which is the exact opposite of the suburban model,” says Chrisman.
Finally, in equal importance to creating a nature-first community was making sure Denverites of many socioeconomic backgrounds could afford to live there. Far from creating a luxury gated community, affordable housing was a key goal from the start: “We [the Stapleton Development Corporation] wanted [affordable housing] integrated throughout the community. . . . We tried to locate it near transit and close to amenities, at modest scale and densities so it wouldn’t be just a big standalone project, and it worked very well,” says Chrisman.
To accomplish this, the master plan called for a diverse mix of housing types, from single-family to townhomes to apartment complexes, and the development also made sure to expand options in other ways: “Our product segmentation was very broad,” Chrisman explains. “We pushed for product diversity from the cheapest builders could build to the highest the market would support. We had a lot of ability for moving up and down.” Partnerships with nonprofit (and later for-profit) developers helped make this happen, as did initial donations of land and $30,000–$40,000 per home to ensure the income-restricted for-sale and for-rent units penciled out. Even today, there are income-restricted units for sale in the $200,000 range—a remarkable achievement in today’s urban housing crisis.
Amidst the impressive development of 12,000 homes and 5,000 apartments, 3.3 million square feet of existing flex/industrial space and 2.6 million square feet of retail, the themes of sustainability and climate resilience remain prominent. Landscape architects Dig Studio developed a network of open space and green infrastructure that prioritized use of native and naturalized plants, restoration of the Colorado prairie ecosystem, and natural management and conservation of water to create a more drought-, heat-, and flood-resistant community that supports wildlife and ecology, while providing a rich set of amenities for recreation, social gathering, and healthy living.
Climate Resilience Strategies
Green infrastructure and flood control
The open spaces at Central Park increased the park system of Denver by an impressive 25 percent. As Laurel Raines, founding principal at Dig, describes it, Central Park’s green space is “a system of parks. And what is really effective about this system is that there’s the layer of the parkways . . . [that] are extensions of Denver’s historic parkway system,” says Raines. “The parkway systems knit the new development back into the existing fabric of Denver.” But that’s not all, as there are also large regional parks like Central Park, which is what gives the redevelopment its name and forms the system’s center at 80 acres. “It’s a very large park. Then there’s all the trunk [or core] open space system, which is run by Denver Parks. The trunk open space system acts as a contiguous fabric through the entire development, and it is primarily a natural system.” Finally, there’s the system neighborhood parks, or pocket parks, which reach as small as half an acre and are meant to give each neighborhood its identity, relates Raines.
Caption: In addition to large core, or “trunk” spaces, the neighborhood features many linear parkways that extend out into the neighborhoods, expanding access to parks while creating biodiversity corridors. Homes front directly onto these parks but do not restrict public access.
This is the heart of Central Park’s resilience strategy, notes Vitek. “Twenty-five years ago we didn’t call it green infrastructure, but it really was serving the same functions. And I think that’s what’s key in any parks and open space planning today is that it has to serve multiple purposes. It has to serve stormwater management and water quality, recreation, ability for greater mobility, and habitat creation.”
In addition to the broad restoration goals, Central Park also naturalized systems for water treatment, quality, and flood control. The south side of the site was in a floodplain, and occasionally airport runways used to flood, so the entire floodplain needed opening up and redesigning. “The first major large open space, Westerly Creek, was designed to take all the pipes that used to go under the ground for the airport and bring them through in a natural waterway through the center of the park and act as a flood control as well as water quality measure. And within the first year or two, the entire calculated drainage area filled up. It was like a lake. It certainly proved the point that it was needed and served its function,” says Vitek.
Caption: This network of large parks, parkways, and neighborhood “pocket parks” offers multiple opportunities to capture and retain stormwater, reducing flood risk and helping recharge groundwater supplies.
Additionally, Chrisman describes how the development team decided to work on a larger scale of water quality management. “We also made a decision that we were going to have regional water quality measures. What you typically see is someone buys five acres and they would have their own small detention pond, and [others do the same] and you have a whole bunch of properties with little detention ponds and it doesn’t look good and I don’t think it’s efficient from a water quality standpoint. We regionalized all that and had regional detention ponds that all properties would flow into.”
When major, hundred-year storms hit Denver in 2013—in Chrisman’s words, “just ridiculous amounts of rain”—the system was tested and passed with flying colors. “That Westerly Creek corridor was able to manage it. There are photos of the water almost up to the bridge, but it managed the water successfully.”
Native plants
The natural landscapes of the Central Park natural system were primarily designed as a restoration of Colorado’s historic ecosystem. Vitek and Raines explain that design guidelines for common and private land prioritize the creation of “Colorado-scape,” an evolution of the idea of xeriscaping, which focuses on use of native and naturalized plants that are adapted to the arid climate and do not need extra irrigation, in place of imported eastern lawn grass species. These plant species also attract pollinators and support biodiversity, and studies show they help with the urban heat island effect, because their roots are so much deeper than lawn species that they help more water evaporate from the soil and cool the area. Finally, they do not spread weed seed into the National Wildlife Refuge, which is adjacent to the neighborhood.
Caption: Landscape design focused on plants suitable to Colorado’s ecosystem, which would support pollinators and the larger food chain while also helping reduce water use for irrigation and enhancing the parks’ ability to cool their surroundings.
This evolution, as Vitek describes, was a shift in philosophy from the City Beautiful movement that shaped Denver in its early days, based on eastern U.S. designers’ ideals of lush lawns, to what he calls the “City Ecological” ideal focused on the no-less-beautiful but more appropriate local aesthetic of Denver’s high prairie landscape. This focus has rewarded people and nature, providing what Vitek calls “an opportunity not only for connective recreation, but connective habitat,” as they even saw beavers move in shortly after the fences came down around the old airfield.
As Colorado has experienced greater challenges with water scarcity, the landscaping selections have become more water conscious. “The old guidelines from the south and the new guidelines from the north [of the development] are different. For instance, just the plant palette alone that is suggested is more water conserving than it used to be,” says Raines.
In addition, these native and naturalized plants also include tens of thousands of trees (nearly 40,000 officially, and Vitek and Raines suspect it may be closer to 50,000) that also help cool the area, support biodiversity, and enhance human mental wellness through their biophilic benefits.
Reclaimed water
Lastly, the area uses Denver’s reclaimed water system, also known as purple pipe water (sewer water that has gone through sufficient treatment for nonpotable reuse). This water now irrigates the larger parks in the system, significantly reducing water withdrawals for irrigation.
Energy efficient buildings
As a key aspect of sustainability, many buildings in Central Park have been designed to LEED standards or Energy Star requirements. By virtue of these achievements, Central Park has become the largest Energy Star community in the state.
Value Creation
Added amenity and enhanced user experience
The parks and open spaces create significant amenity value for Central Park as places for recreation, exercise, and connecting with nature, improving quality of life for residents and Denverites and attracting large numbers of users.
Avoided losses, energy savings, water savings, and reduced operational costs
The natural flood control and floodplain protection measures significantly reduce the potential for property damage from heavy storms and river flooding. Additionally, the high level of energy performance required for buildings and the drought-resistant plantings both reduce energy and water use and associated utility bills for residents and owners.
Awards and recognition and marketing advantage
As development has unfolded, Central Park has attracted numerous awards, including a 2006 ULI Award for Excellence, a U.S. EPA Environmental Achievement Award, and the prestigious Stockholm Partnerships for Sustainable Cities Award from the King of Sweden, among others. This recognition as an international model for large-scale, sustainable redevelopment creates significant competitive advantage and marketing opportunities.
Business developmentand enhanced property value
The high-quality design and execution of the homes and communities in Central Park have created high demand and a strong pool of occupants. From 2010–2019, Central Park appeared six times in RCLCO’s lists of the year’s top 10 best-selling master-planned communities in the United States. As Vitek notes, “study after study will show that communities that have more parks have a higher premium value for properties and sales. . . . Additionally, Central Park stood the test of time during the COVID-19 pandemic, because sales there continued, while in other places they really dropped off.”
Raines and Chrisman both highlight that resale within the neighborhood is one of the biggest sales pools, constituting 40–50 percent of sales every year and demonstrating a high level of satisfaction and desire to remain in the neighborhood. As Raines puts it, “This is a beloved neighborhood. It’s very common for people to move from one house to another, to another.”
Although in a large, master-planned community it can be hard to attribute success to a single factor such as parks, Chrisman believes it has much to do with the exceptional amount of green space created. Though he notes the location was hampered by an Air Force base to the south, an Army medical hospital to the east, and an Environmental Protection Agency Superfund site to the north, the parks were able to overcome those barriers. “They really did create value in the long run, especially with the way we had the houses fronting the parks. It created immediate value for their homes as well as overall value, because it created demand for people to want to be there. And there’s no way to prove it, but if we’d had only 400 or 500 acres of parks [instead of the 1,100], I don’t think it would have done as well.”
Lessons Learned
Embed sustainability from the beginning. Central Park’s champions, the group of leaders in the Stapleton Redevelopment Foundation who began the master-planning and development process, were committed to environmental and social performance from the start and ensured the execution matched the original vision of the Green Book. Sustainability is best achieved when it informs every choice made throughout a development’s life cycle.
Find the right partners. Similarly, sustainability can be difficult to carry out unless all partners throughout the value chain are committed. The Foundation was able to find the right development partners, from Forest City and Brookfield to design consultants Dig Studio, HDR, Civitas, and Calthorpe & Associates, to the multiple builders involved, to align on aiming high for the redevelopment.
Design for the long term, even if ahead of one’s time. Sustainability is still not mainstream in real estate, but when the redevelopment planning began in the early 1990s, sustainability was far from reaching the levels of acceptance it has today. Nevertheless, the development team realized its potential as a strategy to create lasting value, and as modern demand for ecologically and socially oriented communities continues to rise, the development is well-positioned to capture even greater value.
The Aurora Bridge is an essential piece of Seattle’s transportation infrastructure and carries more than 65,000 vehicles through the city per day. During the city’s frequent rainstorms, chemicals from the roadway are cast into the waters of the Lake Washington Ship Canal below. This untreated runoff—which researchers say is six times more toxic than the national standard—flows directly into local waterways, harming the health of local ecosystems, economies, and communities.
As climate change increases the severity of Seattle’s rainstorms, the volume of stormwater runoff is expected to grow. According to research commissioned by Seattle Public Utilities (SPU), extreme rainstorms have become 30 percent stronger since 2003 and are projected to intensify over the coming decades. Heavy rainstorms are already overwhelming the sewer system’s capacity in many neighborhoods, triggering flooding and toxic overflow into local waters.
Developers Mark Grey, Joanna Callahan, and Mike Hess of Hess Callahan Grey Group (HCG) were inspired to do their part after learning how polluted stormwater affects local wildlife. They had watched a video of baby salmon dying when put directly into water runoff from a nearby bridge. The video then showed the runoff being filtered through soil before introducing the fish, resulting in none of the fish dying. The video demonstrated the power of natural systems to mitigate the effects of toxic stormwater.
This knowledge led HCG to partner with Salmon Safe, a local organization working to protect waterways, to integrate green infrastructure into two commercial office projects they were developing on a steep slope under Aurora Bridge. Given the unique location, the project team saw an opportunity to collect and treat the bridge’s runoff while improving the adjacent rights-of-way along Troll Avenue, directly underneath the bridge. Dark and unwelcoming, these overlooked tracts of land were mostly empty except for the streams of polluted water that were spilling out of downspouts from the bridge above.
The team installed the bioswales in three phases. The first two phases, which line Troll Avenue, were financed and permitted as part of the two office projects’ frontage improvements. The third phase, which sits down the hill and closer to the lake, was developed thanks to a nonprofit, Clean Lake Union, formed by Mark to advocate for continued clean-up efforts around the lake. Many public and private partners also contributed to the third phase, including Salmon Safe, The Nature Conservancy, Boeing, Tableau, Adobe, Seattle Public Utilities, and the state of Washington. Together, these three phases collect and treat up to two million gallons of water annually from the entire north span of the Aurora Bridge, minimizing the risk of neighborhood flooding and improving water quality.
HCG worked with project architect Weber Thompson and engineering firms KPFF and DCI Engineers to bring the swales to life. “The most exciting thing about this project,” says Rachael Meyer, landscape architecture principal and director of sustainability at Weber Thompson, “is that it has convinced so many people that green infrastructure is a viable solution, and it has paved the way for future projects of this kind to be developed throughout the region.”
Climate Resilience and Sustainability Strategies
Bioswales and natural stormwater management
The bioswales harness the power of nature to help collect, filter, and absorb stormwater before it is discharged into the lake. Six downspouts located under the Aurora Bridge carry runoff from the roadway into planted areas. The runoff flows through the swales before being returned to the municipal storm drainage system that discharges into Lake Union.
The swales in the first two phases, located on either side of Troll Avenue North, are terraced and step down every two feet of grade. At each stage, low dams made of Corten steel hold and slow the movement of water so that sediment and contaminants can be filtered into the soil, while the clean surface water outfalls to the next retention cell. The second phase also features staggered concrete walls, which help slow runoff from the adjacent building and promote evaporation. A block downhill, phase 3 is characterized by a spillway and five low steel walls to settle and divert incoming water before it reaches the lake.
Testing of the water entering and leaving the swales confirmed measurable filtration of a large range of contaminants.
The design incorporates consecutive swales down the steep hillside of Troll Avenue. As water flows through the swales, sediment in the runoff settles into the soil and the cleaned water at the top of the pool flows to the next stage. Image credit: Built Work Photography
Native Plants and Biodiversity
All three phases incorporate a variety of native plants and trees that provide both an aesthetic landscape and play an important role in stormwater management. Vegetation slows down the movement of water and filters sediment and other large particles. Plants also support healthy soils, which contain microbes that digest contaminants and other tiny particles.
The project team prioritized pollinator habitat by including flowering plants and designing flat areas within the swales where bees can find water and shady respite in the summer months. Native vine maples, which are often found in the understory of Pacific Northwest forests, add shade in the summer months and color in the fall.
Most critically, water that has made its way through the swales is visibly cleaner, promoting the health and longevity of five different species of migrating salmon that travel through Lake Union on their way to rivers and streams for spawning. Salmon are foundational to the region’s natural environment, fishing industry, and the cultural identity of local Native American tribes. As indicator species, they provide a signal of the overall health of the Pacific Northwest marine environment.
Native shrubs and Vine Maples serve as understory plantings to provide a robust forest floor below the overhead canopy that the bridge structure and columns simulate. Image credit: Built Work Photography
Green space and public access
Through the addition of native plants and natural features, the swales have enhanced two rights-of-way on Troll Avenue North as well as a previously grass-covered tract of land closer to Lake Union. Prior to the swales’ development, these areas were dark and forgotten, always in the shadow of Aurora Bridge above. Today, the swales open up the streetscape and provide a new place for the community to congregate in formerly degraded areas.
Educational signage in the first two phases engages visitors with the story of the swales and the importance of water quality on the region’s salmon species. Phase 1 also has embedded brass numbers in the sidewalk that show visitors the volume of water cleaned annually in the adjacent swale cell. The steel weirs in the third phase feature silhouette cutouts of the five species of salmon that reside in the nearby waterways.
The swales are centrally located in the heart of the Fremont neighborhood, known for its quirky shops, unique restaurants, and the iconic Fremont Troll, an 18-foot cement art piece that has lived under the Aurora Bridge since the early 1990s. Down the hill, next to the phase 3 swale, is the Burke-Gilman Trail, which serves more than one million pedestrians and bicyclists annually. Throughout the year, thousands of people travel beside the swales on the Burke-Gilman, on the way up to the Troll, or down to the waters of Lake Union.
Value Proposition
Added amenity
The bioswales transform previously dark, vacant areas into well-lit, landscaped destinations that people are eager to visit and enjoy. Lined with native plants, the meandering pathways, plazas, and benches invite visitors to gather, take photos, and spend time observing the natural flow of water through the swales. “People stop and appreciate the bioswales even without really knowing what the system is doing to protect the neighborhood and improve water quality,” said Meyer.
Reduced maintenance costs
Prior to the swales, the area that is now phase 3 was covered in grass, requiring regular mowing and upkeep. Today, minimal maintenance is needed beyond an occasional weeding. In addition, nearby property owners have reported reduced instances of vandalism since the swales were installed, reducing the need for frequent repairs and upkeep.
Awards and recognition
The bioswales have been recognized by numerous organizations for their unique design and success delivering environmental benefit through a unique public/private partnership.
ULI Global Award for Excellence Winner, 2023
ULI Americas Award for Excellence Winner, 2023
2022 GRAY Magazine Awards, Grand Winner: Landscape Design
2022 Gold Nugget Awards, Merit Award: Best Landscape Architecture for a Community
2022 WASLA Awards, Honor Awards: General Design, Private Ownership
2019 King County Green Globe Award: Leader in Water Quality Solutions
2018 WASLA Awards, Phase 1: Vision Award for Water
A case study of this project is included in a United Nations Guide for Sustainable Practices to teach professional designers ways to include green infrastructure as a standard practice.
Staggered concrete walls help slow runoff and promote evaporation, reducing the amount of water flowing into the swale. Image credit: Built Work Photography
Lessons Learned
This project demonstrates how privately funded green infrastructure can be leveraged to improve public roadways, especially bridges, and provide community benefit. Prior to the Aurora Bridge swales, few precedents existed for private developments electing to clean roadway runoff as part of frontage improvements. This type of development was not originally allowed outright in the city’s code but has now paved the way for more streamlined permitting of future swales across the city. In addition, the success of the Aurora Bridge swales has inspired Seattle Public Utilities to establish programs to incentivize similar improvements as partnerships with private developments.
The project team has observed that the bioswales are dry most of the time, indicating that less space is needed to collect and filter the bridge’s runoff. This means that the system’s capacity can keep pace as Seattle’s rainstorms become heavier and more severe. Climate predictions for the Seattle area indicate that extreme precipitation events are likely to be more intense. For example, the magnitude of the average 25-year storm is expected to increase by 13 percent by 2050 and 12 percent by 2090.
The bioswales offer a replicable model for other communities looking to leverage green infrastructure to improve stormwater management and water quality in urban settings. The regulatory environment around stormwater management is complex, and the team had to navigate numerous requirements from various public agencies at the city, state, and federal level. In particular, the project had to secure special approval to divert roadway catch basins and downspouts into the right–of–way temporarily before returning the water to the storm drain system. Despite these hurdles, the success of the bioswales demonstrate the importance of collaboration among these agencies to realize significant community and environmental benefit.
Thank you to Alex Wilson and the Resilient Design Institute (RDI) for permitting a reprint of the article “Babcock Ranch – A Solar Town Proves Resilient During Hurricane Ian,” which was incorporated as the Context and Climate Resilience Strategies sections of this project profile.
Context
Babcock Ranch was a 91,000-acre (143 sq mi) property in southwest Florida when it was acquired by Kitson & Partners in a complex real estate transaction in which 80 percent of the land was immediately sold to the state of Florida. The property is named after Edward Vose Babcock, a past mayor of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, who purchased the land in 1914.
The private development company, Kitson & Partners, founded by the former professional football player Syd Kitson, stepped in and purchased the entire property in 2006, then immediately sold roughly 73,000 acres of the land to the state, with some of the funding from Lee County, to create the Babcock Ranch Preserve, which continues ranching operations that support the maintenance costs of the preserve. The remainder of the land is being developed in an environmentally responsible manner.
“Developers have an impact on the environment, and we need to mitigate those impacts,” Kitson told RDI. “What I set out to prove is that building a new town—a new city—can work hand-in-hand with the environment. I think we’re doing just that.”
Kitson & Partners, with input from public planning meetings held in 2006 as well as outside experts including the Rocky Mountain Institute, developed an environmentally sensitive master plan with a high-tech commercial center that would include an R&D hub for clean energy development, four villages and five hamlets that would ultimately comprise nearly 20,000 homes and 6 million square feet of commercial space—all powered by solar energy. Under the plan, roughly two-thirds of the remaining property would be permanently set aside as open space.
Approximately 2,000 dwelling units have now been completed at Babcock Ranch, with hundreds more under construction. Most are single-family homes, but some are attached villas, townhouses, condominiums, and apartments, according to Jennifer Languell, PhD, who has served as the green building and sustainable development adviser through her company Trifecta Construction.
Climate Resilience and Sustainability Strategies
Site design and wetland engineering
Several factors contributed to Babcock Ranch’s performance during Hurricane Ian. For starters, most of the land is about 30 feet above sea level—veritable highlands for South Florida!
As promised, nearly 12,000 acres of the 18,000 that Kitson & Partners retained has been permanently protected as wetlands, uplands, greenways, and preserves. “Our water management plan is one that uses the natural flow-ways within the community versus clearcutting and forcing the water to go where it doesn’t want to go,” Kitson explained. “We went back and looked at maps a hundred years old and found the natural flow-ways.”
Wetlands and lakes are integral components of the stormwater management system at Babcock Ranch. Photo: Kitson & Partners, courtesy of Alex Wilson/Resilient Design Institute and Lisa Hall.
The wetlands were designed to mimic natural flows and provide natural stormwater management, according to civil engineer Amy Wicks, P.E., the engineer of record for Babcock Ranch Community and vice president of Kimley-Horn, which provided surface water management design, master planning, landscape architecture, roadway design, water and wastewater engineering, and permitting services for Babcock Ranch.
“The water management system is a multifaceted design that utilizes a natural systems approach, coupled with redundancy to protect infrastructure,” noted Wicks. “While the system internal to Babcock Ranch starts with a series of rain gardens that ultimately lead to lakes for stormwater attenuation (detention), these systems then utilize a series of created wetlands and natural flow-ways for storage, similar to how natural wetlands act as storage during large storm events naturally.”
During extreme events, such as hurricanes, this distributed approach is highly advantageous, because it prevents blockages of culverts from causing flooding. “By having a system that operates both in series and in parallel, the system will flow a different direction with little effort,” she explained, “allowing it to function normally, even with blockages.”
Natural landscaping requirements
For a planned community in Florida, Babcock Range mandates native landscaping and minimal chemical treatments. “In common areas, Babcock requires 90 percent native vegetation, and for the homesites, 75 percent must be native,” said Languell.
A commercial center at Babcock Ranch with native landscaping that is resilient to storms. Most commercial buildings have solar modules on the roof. Photo: Kitson & Partners, courtesy of Alex Wilson/Resilient Design Institute and Lisa Hall.
“We require native plant materials here,” said Kitson. “We decided that we were going to go for something authentic. What did Florida look like 100 or 200 years ago? There’s a reason those native plant materials do very well in hurricanes and dry seasons and wet seasons—they’re accustomed to it.” Kitson, who doesn’t have any lawn area at his own Babcock Ranch home, described the native landscaping as beautiful. “I think if you drove through Babcock Ranch, you would notice almost immediately that this area is different.”
Yards at Babcock Ranch can only be 30 percent grass. Lawns are restricted, explained Kitson, because they don’t want the chemicals—including phosphates and nitrates—contaminating their surface waters. “Our lakes are crystal clear because of the limerock, and we don’t want to do anything that disrupts that,” he said. “There are no algae blooms here.”
High-performance, hardened buildings
All buildings at Babcock Ranch must be certified by the Florida Green Building Coalition’s Green Home or Commercial standards, which Languell described as similar to the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating, but specifically designed for hot-humid climates. She noted that this is “the only certification program that contains a disaster mitigation section.” Under the building code, “homes are required to be designed to 160-mph wind loads,” said Languell.
Buildings are designed to the Florida Green Building Coalition’s Green Home or Commercial standards, which can include wind-resistant concrete construction. Photo: Alex Wilson/Resilient Design Institute.
Hip roofs are used on most single-family homes to protect against high wind, because of the better performance in high wind than gable roofs. Hurricane strapping, continuous structural connections between foundation and roof framing, and other structural requirements are rigorous—as mandated by the Florida Building Code, which Kitson credits with dramatic improvements in how well newer homes perform throughout Florida. Homebuilders who build at Babcock Ranch also have to either install hurricane-rated windows or supply homeowners with removable hurricane shutters.
Buildings, mostly built of concrete masonry units, are heavily reinforced with rebar and concrete-filled cores for strength.
Many homes include strong metal roofs for wind and debris impacts, and pervious pavers for stormwater management. Photo: Alex Wilson/Resilient Design Institute.
The average Home Energy Rating Score (HERS) for homes at Babcock Ranch is 58—which Languell said is “25 percent more efficient than the Florida Energy Code, which is fairly stringent.” Electric heat pumps are used for all heating and cooling, though natural gas is used in some houses for cooking and water heating.
Both indoor and outdoor water conservation is a community focus, according to Languell. “All plumbing fixtures must be at a minimum WaterSense, but we find that most builders are doing better than the minimum WaterSense conservation levels.”
Site elevation and protection strategies
All homes at Babcock Ranch are built “1 foot above the flood elevation of a 25-year event followed by a 100-year event,” according to Wicks. This standard was adopted to address the increased flood vulnerability when soils are already saturated from prior precipitation, and it equates to about 11 inches of rain followed by 14 inches of rain (25 inches total), she told RDI.
There are no basements to flood, because all buildings are slab-on-grade (which is standard practice for much of Florida). Fill dirt from creating the lakes was used to elevate house sites on the building lots.
Specialized floodproofing measures, such as flood vents and use of wettable materials (materials that can get wet and dry out without growing mold), are not required at Babcock Ranch, according to Wicks, “because we do not anticipate any flooding events.” She explained that “because of the extra precautions taken in the design of the elevations and the stormwater management system, floodproofing of the buildings is not necessary.”
Resilience also involves protection from winds. “All utilities are underground,” said Kitson. The Babcock Ranch–owned water, wastewater, and reclaimed water pipes were colocated with conduit for electricity and data utilities. With all utilities buried, risk of damage from storms is all but eliminated.
A solar city
Babcock Ranch bills itself as “America’s first solar city.” As part of the development plan, Florida Power & Light (FPL) operates two solar farms that generate 150 megawatts on 840 acres of Babcock Ranch. The FPL arrays produce enough electricity to power 30,000 homes—more than will exist at Babcock Ranch at buildout. The rest of the power is fed into the FPL grid.
The two 75-megawatt solar fields at Babcock Ranch comprise over 700,000 modules spread over 840 acres and owned by Florida Power & Light. The field includes 10 megawatts of battery storage. Photo: Kitson & Partners, courtesy of Alex Wilson/Resilient Design Institute and Lisa Hall.
Kitson describes the relationship with FPL as extremely positive. Kitson & Partners gave FPL 440 acres for the first 75-megawatt solar plant, and the company purchased another 400 acres to build a second array. More than 700,000 solar panels have been installed on these 840 acres. In addition to the large, ground-mounted solar array, most of the commercial buildings have extensive solar arrays on their roofs.
A 10-megawatt battery system helps with power management, but this is really part of what Babcock Ranch refers to as their “Living Laboratory,” according to Languell, which will showcase new and emerging energy technologies. “As battery technology is changing rapidly, we continue to work with Florida Power and Light to research and potentially test next-generation systems,” she said.
Value Proposition
Avoided losses
Babcock Ranch performed remarkably well during Hurricane Ian. The community never lost power or water service, and in property damage, a few young trees were downed that were quickly righted and some roofs saw minor dislodging of tiles or shingles. According to Kitson, “other than that, if you drove through here a day later, you would not know that all around us . . . there was destruction or that a Category 4 hurricane basically sat over us for over eight hours.” Given that Ian was the costliest hurricane in the state’s history, emerging unharmed from it creates significant value in avoided losses for property owners.
Awards and recognition
Babcock Ranch received major national attention after its success during Hurricane Ian, being featured in multiple news outlets. The community has also received multiple awards for its design, including two Edison Awards for sustainability and resilience, and was listed as the fifth best-selling master-planned community in the United States in 2022 by RCLCO and John Burns Real Estate Consulting, up from 14th of 50 in 2021.
Extended building life
As buildings are built out of the floodplain, using durable materials resistant to wind, they should incur less damage and repair/replacement costs over their lifespan.
Energy savings
Babcock Ranch’s sizable renewable energy resources and energy efficient home designs create notable energy savings, which should translate to cost savings as well for residents.
Lessons Learned
Thinking community-wide creates greater opportunity. Babcock Ranch’s resilience to extreme weather is derived from the combination of its inland site selection, innovative stormwater management system, extensive backup power, native landscaping, and building hardening approaches, none of which would be as effective in isolation. Developments that can work at multiple scales will see better outcomes against multiple hazards.
Careful design attracts attention. A well-deserved reputation for resilience can be as important to a project’s success as its design features. Babcock Ranch’s rapid rise to prominence after weathering Hurricane Ian demonstrates that real estate developments prepared for extreme weather will stand out from the crowd and build significant market distinction.
Finding the right partners enables bold steps. A major aspect of Babcock Ranch’s ability to withstand disruption is the energy resilience provided by the network of on-site renewable energy and battery storage, enabled by the strong partnership with Florida Power & Light. Partnerships among real estate, utilities, and other energy providers can be critical to ensuring buildings and sites can stay operational during climate hazards.
Apple Park features native plants and fruit trees throughout the property as an homage to the site’s pastoral roots. (Nigel Young / Foster + Partners)
