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Friday, May 1, 2009

SAP America plants 'green' office building behind Newtown Square HQ

Less than 10 years ago, SAP America Inc. moved into its 400,000-square-foot headquarters in Newtown Square. Today, executives will snip the ribbon on a 200,000-square-foot expansion.

Back then, the businesssoftware maker had 1,100 workers in Delaware County. Today, headcount tops 2,000.

If the design of the original structure sought to reflect the changing role of the office in the 21st century, the new one embodies SAP’s embrace of “corporate sustainability.”

Yes, it’s another “green” office building.

Engineered to cut energy use by as much as 49 percent compared with conventional structures, SAP’s building aspires to that loftiest state of greenness: the platinum level of the U.S. Green Building Council’s standard known as Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.

Locally, only one building has attained it, according to the council’s Web site: Liberty Property Trust’s One Crescent Drive at the Philadelphia Navy Yard Corporate Center.

SAP America president Rob Enslin described how all building materials came from within 500 miles of Newtown Square. Wood used for the huge structural ribs inside the glass exterior wall came from trees felled to make way for construction.

New York’s FXfowle Architects pulled out all the recycled stops for this project:

The requisite grass roof helps reduce the urban heat island effect. Rainwater gets collected in a 50,000-gallon cistern for use in flush toilets and landscape irrigation. A hybrid air-conditioning system makes ice in storage tanks at night when energy demand and electric rates are low. There are geothermal wells, “daylight harvesting” and more.

SAP wouldn’t disclose how many greenbacks it took to attain this level of eco-consciousness.

Asked why tech firms seem to lean green more than others, Enslin quibbled: “SAP is not really a tech company. We’re a business company.”

Having helped other companies become more efficient and reduce waste, SAP understands the benefits of operating in a sustainable manner more than most, he said.

To Enslin, the green building is as much about SAP following its own advice as it is about being a good corporate citizen.
Posted by Mike Armstrong @ 2:30 AM  Permalink | File Under: Real Estate | | Technology | 8 comments
Comments   
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 9:20 AM, 05/01/2009
    Kind of a joke. A green suburban building with 2000 employees draws in each day propbably 2000 not-so green SUVs and other one-trip vehicles. If SAP was so "green" they would have located their offices in a commuter hub say, like Center City which is centrally located and served by mass transit trains and buses. There is little debate that suburban office campuses are highly energy inefficient and energy hungry. You don't even mention the chemicals the dump on the ground to keep all that mono-breed grass so green. I would have thought a "journalist" would have at least addressed these issues...
    — Trugbydog
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 10:14 AM, 05/01/2009
    From the time I staffed Ecology Food Coop in West Philly in the '70s, and we fought to install our passive solar collector, I would hear from all the nitwits, the holier than thou, the politically correct, the left, the right, the don't-go-to-fast-but-get-there-incrementally moderates. All of it added up to do not change until you can change perfectly for everyone all the time without costing too much or shaking up things or forgetting some less than significant detail, like you are all still driving cars and we aren't floating through the air fueled on self satisfied upper middleclass noblesse oblige. So congrats SAP, you are actually doing something, guide by ecological principles, such as they are now, better than what we had before. And that is real change, not whining sniping do you know you are not pure enough or do you know how much that costs, it should be going to the shareholders or it should be going to the poor or anywhere else but the useful energy saving progress you are a pioneering example of. Good Job!!
    — Fernando08
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  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 1:07 PM, 05/01/2009
    First, to PhillyPhan12, a Newtown Square location creates very long driving commutes for any potential employee; and, racially excludes a diverse work force from Philadelphia who can't drive an hour out there every day. It also excludes the job pool from Bucks County and southern New Jersey, unless they want to drive more than an hour and burn lots of gas! Second, to HD1200R, SAP's decision to avoid paying their fair share of taxes in Philadelphia is not very Obamaesque (and geographically racist)and the suburban campus seems a bit oppressive to the environment. (What is the carbon footprint of 2000 daily commuter trips?) Of course, who could dispute the cultural advantages of the inter-section 252 and West Chester Pike over Center City. A commute from a bland office park to a bland over-mortgaged McMansion in a leased Lexus is so exciting! And the local restaurants in Newtown Square, as good as Applebees, WOW!
    — Trugbydog
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 1:38 PM, 05/01/2009
    To prove Trugbydog's point. My wife works in a green building in Yardly/Newtown area just off of I-95. She drives average of 325 miles a week.
    — ioucho
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 1:04 PM, 05/04/2009
    Trugbydog, that's a pretty big axe you seem to have to grind. As a former SAP employee I just wanted to address a few of your misinformed claims, which are apparently fueled by animosity to what you view as the typical "suburban" lifestyle. First, an office location anywhere will by definition exclude a pool of labor who deem the commute to be too far. Locating it in CC Philadelphia will exclude a pool of workers who don't want to deal with the hassle of getting into the city every day. Second, if you go to the SAP campus on any given day, you won't see "2000 SUV's", even though your anti-suburban lifestyle viewpoint so badly wants that to be the case. There is a bus stop at the entrance to the campus on Rte 3 - park there one morning and watch as scores of workers disembark after using SEPTA to get to work. Maybe the "racially diverse job pool" you claim are excluded because they can't DRIVE to the SAP campus could ride SEPTA instead? SAP also provides bicycle parking and has showers in its onsite gym for anyone who chooses to cycle to work. The restaurant point is kind of moot - SAP has a very good cafeteria onsite, and also subsidizes its employee's meals, reducing the need to travel off-campus at lunchtime to eat. Finally, the workforce at SAP is the most culturally and racially diverse one I've ever had the pleasure of being a part of. Not everybody who works there lives in an "over-mortgaged McMansion" and drives a "leased Lexus", as much as you'd like to believe that they do.
    — Burbanite
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 8:48 AM, 05/04/2010
    Burbanite- thanks for the correction. As a former SAP employee, I agree with all that you have said. One of the prerequisites for building a green space is that there is commuter access and bike access for employees who want to ride bikes to work. At my current place of employment we are constructing a green office building so I applaud SAP for gaining platinum status.
    — robey


8 comments
About Mike Armstrong
Mike Armstrong, a business editor and writer for nearly two decades, is the Inquirer's business columnist and PhillyInc blog editor. Contact Mike via e-mail or at 215-854-2980
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