A Green Empire
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Harvard’s 1912 squared off at Fenway against the Boston baseball team. Braves, Princeton, and Yale in the 1910s Wingate (front at left, holding cap) and 1920s, and during the past two de- was Fenway’s first cades has played there regularly during the batter. Baseball Beanpot. (The men’s ice hockey team has played at Boston’s baseball cathe- to two runs when dral as well, skating there against Union giving passes at the College in January.) rate of two an in- More recently, the Red Sox have regu- ning. Felton kept larly started their spring-training sched- the Red Sox hits ule by playing against Boston College well scattered and and Northeastern. Perhaps it’s time for a twice retired the rematch with Harvard as well. And this side when the bases year the Red Sox are planning a range of were full.” celebrations for Fenway Park’s centennial, Fenway Park’s a milestone no other major league park has inaugural game was reached. There, on April 9, an event will not the only time commemorate the historic game with Har- first run. In the fifth, the Red Sox starter a Harvard nine has taken to its turf. The vard played a century ago. struck another RBI single to give his team Crimson played exhibitions against the v christopher klein a 2-0 lead. Meanwhile, the Crimson’s bats Red Sox in 1913 and 1916, when they actu- stayed as cold as the weather, giving the ally defeated the reigning world champi- Christopher Klein is a freelance writer and the Harvard fans few opportunities to remove ons 1-0. In 1943 the Sox took revenge, shel- author of The Die-Hard Sports Fan’s Guide their hands from their coat pockets (ex- lacking Harvard 21-0. The Crimson also to Boston (Union Park Press). cept possibly to take surreptitious nips from flasks buried inside). Harvard finally got to Hageman in the ALUMNI fifth when captain Robert Potter, A.B. 1912, struck a well-placed single between short and third, but that would be the team’s only base hit of the afternoon. The A Green Empire closest the Crimson came to scoring oc- curred in the sixth when the centerfielder was cut down at the plate attempting to How Anthony Malkin ’84 engineered the largest “green” retrofit ever reach home on a double steal. By then, dusk was settling in, and the mud-caked ball became more difficult hen it opened in 1931, People tend to focus on vehicle emis- for fielders to pick up through the snow- the Empire State Building sions as a principal source of the heat-trap- flakes. Fans were beginning to leave, and was not only the biggest ping carbon dioxide that propels global Hageman had the Harvard boys at his building in the world, it warming. But building operations actually complete mercy as well. After the Crim- Wwas—with the tallest elevators ever cre- account for a much greater share of carbon son were retired in the seventh, Stahl sig- ated—an exemplar of the mechanical age. emissions—about 40 percent—and are naled the umpire, and the game was called But recently, the landmark had begun to therefore the single most important con- on account of the freezing temperatures, show its years. In 2006, the Malkin family, tributor to climate change. And buildings, with the Red Sox besting their Cambridge signficant owners who are responsible for unlike vehicles, are also an enduring capital guests 2-0. the building’s day-to-day operations, faced investment. Tony Malkin points out that Against a professional team destined a decision: as Anthony Malkin ’84 put it three decades from now, approximately for a World Series victory that fall, Har- to his father, Peter Malkin ’55, J.D. ’58, they 80 percent of current structures will still vard made a respectable showing in its could either sell the iconic structure or take be in use. “If you want to turn back carbon first game of the year, particularly given on massive infrastructure upgrades likely to emissions,” he says, “you have to deal with Sam Felton’s erratic performance. In five cost half a billion dollars or more. After se- existing buildings.” innings, the Crimson starter walked 10 curing the agreement of the Leona Helmsley Beyond an undertaking that he hoped men but, remarkably, allowed only two estate (which shares control of the build- would be both environmentally and eco- runs as Boston managed just four singles ing’s operating lease with the Malkins), they nomically sound for his own building, and stranded 12 base runners. “It was an decided to take the riskier course and pur- Malkin aspired to something much larger: extraordinary game in this respect,” the sue a turnaround of the asset while simul- creating a reproducible, scalable process Harvard Crimson reported the next day, “for taneously making the building an energy- for energy-efficiency retrofits that could rarely does a pitcher hold his opponents efficient exemplar of the green age. be adopted worldwide in other big build- Photograph courtesy of theReprinted Harvard University from Archives Harvard Magazine. For more information,Harvard please Magazine contact 63 Harvard Magazine, Inc. at 617-495-5746. JOHN HARVARD'S JOURNAL ings, in hospitals, and on campuses. “If we Holdings’ total square footage in the city. tegrated engineering ap- could put all the best minds together on Initially, in fact, he offered to retrofit a proach, getting paid only this particular task,” he reasoned, “it could property at 1333 Broadway, but Magaziner for their other work. Visit harvardmag.com/ fulfill all of my objectives in life, ranging demurred: “If we succeed at 1333 Broad- Most important, they extras for videos of Malkin discussing the from making money to making the world a way,” Malkin recalls him saying, “no one’s agreed when Malkin told Empire State Building better place.” It was a green synergy. going to give a damn. We want the Empire them they would have retrofit. In 2007, meanwhile, New York City State Building.” first-mover advantage in began discussing legislation designed To make that work, Malkin brokered a the marketplace, but “we don’t patent this to drive down energy costs by reduc- nearly risk-free deal for himself: if the extra process…we want everybody to copy this. ing waste. (Mayor Michael Bloomberg, money he spent on the energy retrofits was If we succeed at the Empire State Building M.B.A. ’66, ratified four such laws in not recouped in three years, the engineer- alone, we have failed.” December 2009.) One statute requires ing firm that projected the savings would The team quickly got to work. In the that every building of more than 50,000 have to pay him the difference. With CCI’s course of 12 months, of the nearly 70 ener- square feet must make public how much help, he assembled a team for the proj- gy-saving measures considered, just eight energy it uses per square foot. In that ect in 2008: the engineering firm Johnson were chosen. Among those, “the biggest context, Malkin calculated that his busi- Controls; property manager Jones Lang energy-savings contribution is 9 percent, ness objective—to replace the hundreds LaSalle, which wrote the guidelines for the smallest is 2 percent, and the other six of tenants in his 2.85 million-square-foot outfitting tenant spaces; and the nonprofit are between 6 percent and 3 percent of the skyscraper with fewer, larger businesses Rocky Mountain Institute (co-founded by total benefit,” reports Malkin. But these that would occupy whole floors (new Amory Lovins ’68), a “think and do tank” small numbers add up to one big number: tenants now include Skanska, LinkedIn, that promotes sustainable use of resources. a total anticipated reduction in energy use and even the Federal Deposit Insurance Malkin persuaded each of them to work as of 38.4 percent—a remarkable benchmark Corporation)—would benefit from a partners—and in secret, in case the effort that he says will make the project “the green rebranding that would also appeal failed. They also agreed to forgo payment most energy-efficient building retrofit in to brokers. “I am a capitalist,” he says for the legwork involved in devising the in- the world.” forthrightly. “I wanted to Perhaps even more sur- make money. This is not Anthony Malkin ’84 has prising is how relatively charity; that’s separate.” transformed the Empire little the added energy- When he got a call State Building into a model efficiency measures cost— from the mayor asking of “green” engineering. about $13 million. “But we if he would light up the spent $93 million differently Empire State Building in than we had planned to green in honor of an event spend it,” Malkin reports. co-sponsored by the “The point is, by building Clinton Climate Initia- the measures in…you just tive (CCI), Malkin said, spend that $93 million more “Sure—if I can attend the intelligently.” event.” There, by chance, Take the decision to up- he ran into Jamie Russell grade all 6,514 windows. ’97 (the younger brother When the project team of his College roommate, priced the cost for up- Andrew ’84, now duke grading, they found that of Bedford), then work- the payback time for that ing for CCI, and CCI $4-million expenditure was head Ira Magaziner. They 10 years, double what was eventually persuaded him acceptable. But one of Mal- to push beyond simple kin’s priorities was to se- “green” rebranding and cure full-floor tenants, and instead to undertake a the removal of many small potentially risky “deep offices meant that previ- energy retrofit” intended ously unheated and unven- to result in energy sav- tilated hallway space near ings exceeding 10 per- the elevators and staircases cent.