Green roots in emerging markets

AIG Global Real Estate started going green almost 15 years ago, backing into environment-friendly practices almost by accident while working in Puerto Rico. Since those early days, AIG has imported sustainable methodology to its developed-market projects.

In Puerto Rico, AIG was developing a building one of whose selling points would be its capacity to generate 100% of its own power requirements. At the time, it believed the ability to provide a constant power supply would be a differentiator on leasing. And it was, enabling AIG to command the highest rents in the market. However, delivering the power supply turned out to be a challenge.

The idea was to build generators in the building to compensate for an unreliable power supply. In order to keep the size of the generators down, they needed to reduce power consumption. Working with their engineers, AIG came up with a solution that was new at the time, using tanks of glycol (a liquid somewhat like antifreeze), which it froze at night when power demand was relatively low. During the day the air-conditioning blew air over the glycol, which melted during the day. As it turned out, in daytime when power demand was at its highest the building’s power demand was lower. That meant the size of the generators needed to power 100% of the building, not just the emergency systems, was a lot lower and more economical.

Fifteen years on AIG is applying so-called green technology to its developments all over the world. Its sustainable approach to development has attracted the US Environmental Protection Agency’s attention. Its Atlantic Station development in Atlanta, Georgia, is the first US site to be sponsored by the EPA, because it deems the project to be a better alternative to urban sprawl.