Among the Boston management companies working toward LEED certification for existing buildings is CB Richard Ellis, which manages One Boston Place.

Fenway Park is getting a lot of hype this month for the new solar panels that will heat 37 percent of the ballpark’s water and reduce its carbon emissions. But it’s not the only Boston property that’s undergoing such changes, and the Boston chapter of the Building Owners and Managers Association is doing everything it can to help property managers and owners figure out how to go green.

While big companies have been making headlines by building green for the past few years, smaller, local companies are now getting into the thick of it. Many are making small improvements that will enhance their buildings’ energy efficiency and lessen their impact on the environment, but some building owners and managers are going a step further and trying to get LEED certification.

LEED – or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design – is a designation given to buildings that achieve high performance through green design, construction and operation.

“[What’s driving it] is a combination of things,” said Rob Brierley of Brookfield Properties, which is based in New York and manages 53 and 75 State St. in Boston. “Certainly just the general environment. [Al] Gore’s big push has brought things to the forefront. The hot topic is going green.”

To that end, BOMA Boston has introduced a new committee, the Green Committee, to help guide its members as they move toward sustainable development.

“The primary goal of that committee is to introduce seminars around LEED, how to maximize your energy efficiency,” said Brierley, who is also the 2008 president of BOMA Boston.

The committee will also introduce a contest for buildings based on how much they reduce waste and recycle, and will oversee the Earth Awards, which are given to environmentally friendly buildings. The Earth Awards have been given by BOMA International, but this is the first time they’ll make an appearance locally.

The Green Committee has gotten a swell of support, according to Jeanne Wolf, the executive director of BOMA Boston.

“It’s tough to get volunteers sometimes, but with this committee, within days I had 40 volunteers,” she said. “It’s a testament to what’s on people’s minds.”

There are many reasons why sustainability and green building are on the minds of property managers. For one, it is a way to set a company and a building apart, Brierley said. Public opinion and pressure from investors and tenants is pushing it forward, and the rising cost of energy is playing a big part. Government agencies like the U.S. General Services Administration has new rules that say it will not sign leases unless the buildings are LEED certified.

“[The government is] putting more teeth into their commitment,” he said.

At Brierley’s own company, Brookfield Properties, executives have decided to focus more on green building, and have identified one building in every region to renovate with an eye toward LEED Silver certification.

“We’ve publicly come out and said we’re looking at our entire national portfolio,” Brierley said.

LEED certification is one area in which BOMA Boston will educate its members. Attaining LEED certification – there are four certification levels of LEED, depending on the improvements made to a building – is a complicated process.

“I think at this stage, most people are trying to get their arms around the LEED program itself,” Brierley said.

For the past several years, LEED has mostly been a designation attained by new buildings. It is easier to outfit a brand-new building with the latest environmentally friendly technology than it is to retrofit an existing building, and the requirements for new construction are black and white, with well-defined parameters, Brierley said. That has not been the case for LEED certification for existing buildings.

But LEED has recently made some changes that make it easier to attain a designation for an existing building, and that will make a big impact in Boston, where so many buildings are older, Brierley said. The update should come out in July.

Setting Standards

Among the Boston management companies working toward LEED certification for their existing buildings is CB Richard Ellis, which manages One Boston Place.

“One Boston Place is really ahead of the curve,” Wolf said.

And once the process for LEED certification is changed, more are sure to follow.

But even BOMA Boston members who are not seeking LEED certification for their buildings are finding ways to go green on a smaller scale. How far they are going depends on the sophistication of the company, Brierley said, with the larger players moving toward more comprehensive green programs like LEED and EnergyStar ratings. Smaller companies are looking at improvements like reducing waste and increasing recycling, hiring green cleaning companies and making other changes to increase energy efficiency.

“The other thing you’ll start to see people do is begin to purchase energy that is environmentally friendly,” Brierley said. “At the end of the day, most folks are moving to some type of green program.”

BOMA Boston is practicing what it preaches, Wolf said. The association, which holds 35 to 40 events every year, has started recycling name badges and has stopped giving out handouts.

The association, and its Green Committee, is challenging its members to follow seven steps toward more energy efficiency and sustainability. They include: continuing to work toward decreasing energy consumption by 30 percent by 2012; benchmarking a building’s energy performance and water usage at least once a year through the Environmental Protection Agency’s EnergyStar program; providing education to managers, engineers and others involved in building operations to make sure equipment is installed property; performing an energy audit and implementing low-risk and low-cost strategies to improve energy efficiency; improving operations and maintenance of building systems to extend the life of equipment; leading the way to reducing the industry’s role in global warming; and positioning themselves and the industry as leaders to owners and tenants who want to operate in an environmentally friendly manner.