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Green developer Ryan Olsen has two projects now mired in city permitting. Both are what the president of Elemental Urban Living calls 鈥渕icro villages鈥� 鈥� mixed-use communities oriented around central courtyards that utilize rooftop space for trees and community gardens.

By taking a birds-eye view, Olsen had hoped to satisfy landscaping requirements and earn stormwater credits. But the city doesn’t offer such incentives in low-density residential neighborhoods, he learned; only in the high-density Central City.

鈥淲hy does this have to be a fight?鈥� he said. 鈥淚 mean, we’re pretty excited about this. It’s good for people. It’s good for the city. Why do we have to fight the city to do it?鈥�

Olsen isn’t alone in his frustration. Business owners and building professionals say that thanks to red tape and disappearing incentives, other cities have caught up to Portland in terms of green building, a concept that it helped pioneer and still is a major part of its brand. Perhaps more incriminating is that they say now the city’s most sustainable projects are affordable only to its wealthiest residents.

鈥淔or a long time I think we’ve all benefited from each other’s great work in this area,鈥� said Bob Packard, partner at ZGF Architects. 鈥淏ut what many of us who’ve been engaged in this practice are beginning to see and to talk about is, you can’t brag about something, you can’t point to something, that isn’t there.鈥�

Oregon outside U.S. top 10

Portland builders have been on board to combat climate change since it was called 鈥済lobal warming鈥� in the early 1990s. Green building (construction and land use practices that limit negative effects on the Earth) has informed many, if not most, prominent projects dating to that time, including Veridian Place (2000), the Mirabella condo tower (2007) in the South Waterfront District and the OHSU Center for Health & Healing (2007).

But the rest of the world has started catching up. Illinois now has the most Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design-rated buildings per capita. Oregon isn’t even in the top 10. Cities like Chicago, Washington D.C. and Salt Lake City have made significant strides in transit and planning. California’s CALGreen building code is nearly identical to the LEED code. Reno, home to Tesla and cheap housing, is said to be a particularly hot spot.

鈥淭he tech companies are swarming to that place,鈥� said Steven Straus, president of Glumac, an MEP firm specializing in sustainable consulting.

Green building is today among America’s fastest growing industries, along with health care and legal marijuana. Glumac, with 10 offices on the West Coast, is quite busy these days, Straus said, though mostly outside the Portland area. The firm was able to establish and grow a solid reputation thanks in part to an Oregon program tying energy tax credits to the LEED rating system (the higher the LEED score, the more credits), he said. But that program has diminished, and become less effective, he added.

Glumac’s latest office is in Shanghai. China has started looking seriously at green building, due in part to the high health care costs associated with pollution. The Portland office of LEED consultant U.S. Green Building Services has been active in all kinds of projects there, including Shanghai Tower, principal Richard Manning said.

鈥淲e’ve done a 122-story building, and a bunch of KFCs,鈥� he said.

Packard said Europe is passing Portland and the U.S. He’s currently traveling the world learning about sustainable building practices in places like London, Paris and Madrid. As an environmentalist who cares about mitigating climate change, he said what he’s seen is heartening. But as a Portlander, it has him worried about the health of the local market.

The problem is that sustainability is still central to Portland’s brand, Packard said.

鈥淐an we really say we’re leaders on this?鈥� he said. 鈥淚f we want to lead on this kind of thing, we can’t just do it once in the past 10, 20 years. We have to continually apply forward-thinking.鈥�

Barriers to innovative projects

Also, a list recently passed around the Internet, of the country’s hottest green cities, omitted Portland. Mayoral candidate Ted Wheeler called this 鈥渆mbarrassing鈥� in a debate.

But, Vanessa Keitges points out, Portland did make a recent USA Today list of cities with the worst heat islands.

Keitges, co-founder of Columbia Green Technologies, is also frustrated these days. Its status as a Portland green building firm carries a cachet outside the area, she said, like being a tequila maker from Mexico. Her company’s green roof tray systems provide a simpler, cheaper alternative to waterproof membranes, but can run afoul of building codes, stalling projects and making it harder to find clients.

鈥淚nnovation is happening so fast across the country and the world that the building codes have to try to keep up. And in Portland, they haven’t,鈥� she said.

There were as many green roofs installed in Portland last year as there were in 2000, she said.

One issue with green products like roof trays is that they must be specified through an architect.

Melissa Milburn, spokeswoman for SolTerra, said her firm has been successful in part because it’s 鈥渧ertically integrated.鈥� SolTerra, with offices in Seattle and Portland, owns, designs, builds and leases all its projects, all of which are heavily green. This helps accelerate the permitting process, she said.

鈥淲e have everybody in one room,鈥� Milburn said. 鈥淲e have the architect sitting right next the construction leads. They’re a part of the same team, at the same company, with the same mission.鈥�

SolTerra’s Woodlawn project, they say, features the largest 鈥渓iving wall鈥� on the West Coast. The 8-year old company owns 13 properties it plans to develop near its two offices.

Establishing eco-districts, like Lloyd or one including Portland State University, is one proposed way to reduce costs by pooling resources. Architect and affordable housing advocate Stuart Emmons says another is altering RFPs for public projects, which he says are so dense and complicated that they can be an early barrier for forward-thinking developers, as well as for minority- and women-owned businesses.

鈥淩FPs are the gateways to projects; they’re a really big deal,鈥� he said. 鈥淚n general, I feel like innovation is not supported in these RFPs. It’s always, 鈥楬ow many things have you done?’ 鈥�

As projects are downscaled, the green attributes end up being affordable for spaces with the highest rents. That has led to a feeling that green features are perks of being rich, Ryan Olsen said.

鈥淲e shouldn’t treat them like amenities 鈥� this is healthy living. It’s good for all people,鈥� he said.