Developer Finds the Environmental Win-Win

LOS ANGELES—Environmental responsibility is common topic among developers today with a wide range of opinions about a developer's duty to create a sustainable environment. Bob Ruth, the president of the Ruth Group, believes that creating an environmentally sustainable design in his office properties. is the "fiduciary responsibility" of property owners, but also sees the challenges and costs of going LEED.

"I think environmentally sensitive design is our fiduciary responsibility as owners and we trust and hope that tenants will feel the same," Ruth tells GlobeSt.com. "When we were forcing it through LEED certification, we were creating an environment that was very expensive and driven through a lot of outside influences. It did get us to the right place, but it didn't solve the problem for the people in those buildings or the economics. Now owners are fiscally responsible and they are environmentally sensitive. That is a win-win."

In an earlier story, GlobeSt.com reported that the Ruth Group made its first office purchase in Long Beach, and plans to renovate and reposition the building into creative office with environmentally sustainable design. Their plans include infusing ambient air into the property with working windows, completely revamping the HVAC system, wet sealing the entire building, installing digital controls to reduce energy consumption and developing an open plaza with drought-tolerant plants. "We are really embracing a creative office environment that allows people to be collaborative in an environmentally sensitive design," says Ruth. "There is a lot of bricks and mortar available, but it doesn't respond to the people occupying the space, and our goal and objective here is really to creative something that is different and unique."

In addition to creating a totally collaborative and totally environmental workplace, Ruth believes that these characteristics will also attract tenants to the building. "There are a lot of companies that are allowing employees to create the design of their office space and work with the architects on it, and it goes to a collaborative environment," he explains. "A lot of times the executives are not very excited about it, but when they move in, they really embrace it and can't imagine life without it. All of this ties back to an environmentally sensitive design."