Company Philosophy
As we move forward with creating LEED tools, blog sites, VIsion 2013 goals, etc. I believe we should not overlook developing (or refining) one comprehensive mission statement defining our Company’s Sustainability Philosophy. I recently attended a Lunch & learn hosted by InterfaceFLOR. During their presentation, they shared some questions they have recently encountered on RFQ’s (listed below).
Does your company’s vision / mission statement include a sustainability commitment and does the commitment apply to all business units?
Is sustainability discussed in your company’s annual report? Is it a footnote or a key business strategy?
Has your company joined any partnerships with NGOs or governmental agencies to help reduce its footprint? Examples: EPA Climate Leaders, EPA Green Power Partnership, World Business Council for Sustainable Development, USGBC, Pew Center on Global Climate Change, etc.)
Does your company have any LEED certified buildings?
Clearly we are making great strides towards sustainability within CTA and for our clients. Let’s work together to define and communicate our mulit-disciplined sustainability measures so every CTA employee can share our achievements at any time to anyone!
Alternative Compliance Path
In my opinion, one of the most important things to recognize about the different LEED rating systems is that all credits cannot and will not apply to every project. When you encounter this, and I suspect you will, the first step the USGBC advises is for you to review the Credit Interpretation Rulings (CIRs). If you are lucky, you may find the answer to your question on this database. If not, the second approach you can take is to review other LEED rating systems and see if they prescribe the credit requirements differently (or in a way that is more achievable for your project). The ultimate goal of this exercise is to determine if there is an Alternative Compliance Path that your team can pursue for the credit.
I recently wrote the USGBC and asked for confirmation on the “rules” associated with the Alternative Compliance Path. Below is the answer I received on 7.7.08 from Stacey King of the USGBC. I hope this helps in any of your future alternative endeavors!
“Thank you for your inquiry about the alternate compliance pathways. A project team would pursue this option if they were intending on using a method other than what is outlined by each credit to meet that credit’s intent. There are no formal guidelines about submitting an alternate compliance approach in lieu of the stated options, but the project team must be sure to thoroughly document their chosen approach in order to clearly demonstrate to the review team that the original intent of the credit is still met. The small paragraph on the templates about this option refers to teams that may have submitted their own CIRs or are using a previously accepted CIR because of project similarities, again to demonstrate that their approach is still adequate for meeting the credit requirements. If you are considering alternate compliance approaches for any of your credits, you may wish to first review previously submitted CIRs or consider submitting your own CIR in order to gauge how successful your approach may be. Please let us know if you have any further questions.”
Cleaning Audits and Alternative Commuting
As a part of my involvement in the LEED EB certification for our office, I picked up a few credits to help lighten the load of the rest of the team. I took over SS 4.1 and IEQ 3.2. It has been great to finally get my feet wet and see what it takes to pull a LEED credit together and earn a point or two along the way.
For SS 4.1 Alternative Commuting, we first had to look at the requirements in the context of Billings, Montana. There is no external governmental entity that tracks commuting for our area. We also looked at the requirements of the SCAQMD survey and found it to be a bit convoluted. We wanted a program that looks at commuting habits and the seasonal impacts to those habits. So, we needed to know where we were at as a company for a baseline. We issued a survey and found that on average we had an annual alternative commuting rate of 14%. We have a good number of bikers and walkers supplemented by some carpooling. This was good enough for one point. Using this information as the baseline we are now poised to implement a program to track in an ongoing fashion our commuting habits.
IEQ 3.2 amounts to a holding and analyzing a cleaning audit for our building. This was actually an easily obtainable credit that makes sense for anyone pursuing LEED EB to go after. Perhaps your building is not cleaned very well and that might deter you from pursuing this credit, if not it is quite accessible. We looked over and learned from the APPA publication, Custodial Staffing Guidelines for Educational Facilities. After a programmatic survey of our building and proper categorization of spaces, we were ready to look what would be included in our cleaning audit. After a little training, two staff conducted two independent surveys. We pulled all the numbers together and ender up with a score of 2.4 which again qualified us for one point.
Both of these credits were worth the effort for the points obtained. More importantly, we now can quantify our alternative commuting and our building’s cleanliness.
Project Management
As a young Architect in Training with only a year of professional experience, I was surprised to have this opportunity to work directly with managing this LEED EB effort. With the help of a mentor I have been guided in this effort and learned quite a few lessons. I have been able to learn the value of record keeping, communication, accountability and timeliness.
Record keeping has been valuable to be able to track progress and know where we are at in the process. This has lead to being able to communicate with the team at large and individually whether through meetings, phone calls or emails to stay ahead of the deadlines. Accountability has provided the means to see the credits implemented and completed. By checking in with the responsible staff assigned to the credit there is the reminder and the accounting for their responsibility. Though perhaps the most valuable lesson that I have learned is timeliness. With LEED EB there is a ‘performance period.’ This has proven to be a major stumbling block. It is critical to know and recognize that the three month minimum performance period will directly impact the project’s submittal date. With our goal of obtaining LEED certification before the end of the year, it has developed a lot of pressure to track down the credits and have them implemented in a timely manner. Timeliness also relates to the accountability. It is so important to relate to the team with enough advance notice the importance of various mile markers and the associated deadlines.
Perhaps, these are all old hat for the seasoned manager, but for a first time experience these values are really sinking in for me.
The UnCommon Sense Program
Uncommon Sense is a 2 year program lead by the Yellowstone Business Partnership and is comprised of a series of seminars and conference calls. The focus of the program is to teach business how to “green” up their business practices and provide a basic structure to get them started. CTA started the program this spring and sent Russell Jensen (Billings) and Courtney Walton (Bozeman) to West Yellowstone to attend the first conference. Brad Sperry (Billings) is also involved at will be attending the remaining conferences.
The first session of the conference was primarily an overview of sustainable business practices and creative solutions to common and not so common obstacles. Jim Evanoff from Yellowstone National Park visited and shared with us some of the strategies that the Park is using to reduce their environmental impact and educate the public on recycling and conservation issues. Jim’s message was very inspiring as he described the unique struggles the park is confronted with and the creative solutions they were able to come up with. Check out this document to see some of the things that Yellowstone Nation Park is doing to promote sustainability.
In the second session, we discussed our waste streams, that’s the waste that each of us produce and where the waste goes. It was shocking to see some of the statistics of what types of waste are being generated and what ends up in our landfills. Unfortunately much of that waste can be diverted from the landfill by purchasing more durable or recyclable products instead of disposable items, reusing items that can be reused (be creative), or recycling and composting. To help make this point stick, we conducted a short waste stream audit right at the hotel. Waste stream audit? Yep, we dug through some garbage to see what we were really throwing away. As gross as that sounds, it really leaves an impact when you actually see your own trash and what shouldn’t be there. Then we were tasked to do this in our own offices. (More to come on that topic with pictures!) After our waste stream audit we took a trip to the West Yellowstone Composting Facility. Pretty interesting. Luckily it was during the winter, their slow season, so the facility wasn’t full of juicy trash. We saw enough to understand the processes they are using. Believe it or not, there is a lot of energy embedded in composting our garbage, especially if the compostable material is not separated from the non compostables. This experience was another eye opener as to what we are throwing away and what ultimately ends up in our landfills.
Courtney and I have taken home many great ideals and practices from this first session of the Uncommon Sense program and, over the next two years, Courtney, Brad, and I will be working hard to implement these environmentally responsible business practices at CTA. Our progress will be detailed here on this page.
CTA Billings Office Exceeds Energy Star Program Requirements!
One of the prerequisites for LEED-EB under the Energy and Atmosphere category is entering your building data and utilities into EPA’s Energy Star Portfolio Manager. We found the tools on their website extremely easy to use. Simply enter your building characteristics (space types, square footages, hours of operation etc.) and one years worth of utility bills. Energy Star will then generate a Statement of Energy Performance (SEP) that shows how your building compares to the national average for that space type. The top 25% of buildings (or those that score a 75 and above) qualify for the Energy Star Recognition and plaque.
Our building scored an 82! That was high enough to earn 8 points in the LEED-EB rating system. This is thanks mostly to our extremely efficient mechanical and electrical systems. Our basic mechanical system is a VAV reheat with supplementary baseboard heating around the perimeter. The notable energy saving features include high efficiency condensing boilers, a variable speed drive on our supply fan in the air handling unit, and direct / indirect evaporative cooling coils that provide us with free cooling for the majority of the spring, summer, and fall months. For lighting we have occupancy sensors in all of the restrooms, corridors and stairwells. We also have photocells on all of the perimeter lighting, but these were not positioned very well and so are probably not contributing very much to the energy savings.
We mailed in our documentation last week. Hopefully within the next month we’ll receive our plaque and recognition. I’ll post pictures once it is displayed!
Welcome!
Our Billings office is currently in the process of documenting and applying for LEED-EB certification! The building was designed to LEED-NC standards, but never certified due to budget constraints at the time. We are so excited to finally be working toward that plaque on the wall!
See below for a little background on our building:
Resurrected from an old 1920’s warehouse, the 2003 renovation used over 75% of the original building structure, roof, and floors. Windows were replace with more modern energy efficient ones as were the mechanical, electrical, plumbing systems. Some of the more notable sustainable features include a 2500 square foot green roof garden, daylighting controls, a highly efficient mechanical system, and extensive use of recycled / low voc paints and reclycled content materials. However as with any building there is always room for improvement. We are finding several additional opportunities to increase efficiency and conserve energy and natural resources through the LEED-EB program.
Through this thread we intend to keep you updated on the process of certification as we work our way through it. We’ll discuss both the successes and hurdles we encounter as we make improvements and adjustments to meet the LEED-EB criteria. Maybe you will find some strategies that would be useful in your own building or perhaps you will decide to pursue LEED certification on your next building project. Please feel free to post feedback on questions about the process. We look forward to hearing your input and are excited to be sharing this process with you!