Bozeman Office Update - October 2008
YBP, Uncommon Sense Update for CTA Bozeman, October 2008
Good Afternoon. I am writing you today to give you a brief yet informative update on the YBP guided Uncommon Sense program and how our office is measuring up! I know some of you may feel this is a long e mail but please take a couple of minutes and read through. This affects our office and our ability to be informed about what CTA is doing to promote sustainability.
Conclusion for YBP, Uncommon Sense, Waste Stream Assessment for CTA Bozeman:
In September / August 2008, CTA Bozeman bought more recycling containers, and had management announce to the Bozeman office staff, CTA commitment to recycling and sustainability policy. We purchased dish cloths for the kitchen in hopes of reducing our paper towel usage and offered to buy all employees personal recycling containers for their desk to help encourage recycling. CTA asked the LEED AP’s to help encourage recycling in the office and we are looking into office composting to help divert more waste from the landfill. Our CTA Bozeman office has toured our local city recycling distribution center as a means of education and resource identification for recycling options. A PDF has been created with the local recycling resources for Bozeman for our office to use as recycling resource & encouragement. It will be available to all staff. We will install the recycling centers from the design competition in the office upon their completion as a means of education and recycling conversation. Further waste stream diversion and analysis is ongoing. We plan on working with the EPA Waste Wise Program to further our land fill diversion goals. Our Bozeman office is currently registered with the EPA Waste Wise Program. We will re-assess our waste stream to better understand our effect of our implemented tools after all tools have been initiated. We will do another waste stream audit and assessment in approximately one year to prove how our office has diverted many tons of waste from the landfill.
As we progress to the next steps in this program, this is an overview of what we will be working with over the next 6 months in purchasing, social, & community sustainability investments.
We will investigate what we are currently purchasing for our office and how does it relate to CTA’s vision & mission statement.
CTA’s Green Vision Statement:
CTA is committed to sustainability. We practice green innovational thinking through integrated & engaging design practices. With delicate balancing of our project teams, we create healthy environments which facilitate sustainable lifestyles. All of our offices & employees are committed to enhancing our future with eco-logically motivated practices and continuing education. We are excited to pursue challenging new projects and maximize our sustainable impact within’ our communities.
CTA’s Green Mission Statement:
CTA is committed to continuing our efforts to be an environmentally conscientious company. We accept our responsibility and leadership role in advancing design and building practices that promote efficient and healthy buildings and protect our natural resources. We promote this effort by including these practices in our own facilities. CTA has created office environments in existing buildings in many of our locations, designed our spaces using sustainable architectural-engineering practices and have created recycling programs throughout our offices. These practices, among many others, are also integrated into our building projects helping us reduce our impact beyond our walls.
Purchasing
Our office will be working on creating a purchasing policy, & assessment for CTA as well as a method of communication with our vendors to get the results we are looking for. We will shop around and analyze at least 3 products for alternatives. As an ongoing effort, we will choose another product and provide an alternative for at least one product every 6 months. Preferred purchasing includes assessing important components to a product such as carbon footprint, price / unit, toxicity, recycled content, packaging, transportation costs, end-life disposal options - this is just to name a few. Thank you to all of you who help with these assessments and investigations.
Social & Community Investments
As our office has a commitment to our communities through the nature of our work, we will look at specific ways we can invest in our communities with a social and continual obligation. In order to prove our social sustainability, we will need to develop a work plan for social sustainability within’ the walls of CTA. We will work on implementing an incentives program for staff and a recognition program for those who are making our communities a better place. This process will be ongoing and challenging. If you have any insight as to how we can better document our accomplishments in & for our communities, identify our challenges as an office and maybe brainstorm ways to market our accomplishments, please stop by and talk with me, Brad Sperry, or Russell Jensen. I would love to hear your ideas and strategies. It will be our goal to define these items and challenges.¼br /> Thank you for all of your time, efforts, and patience. Stay tuned for further updates as they occur. Thank you again to our managers for making this possible.
*For some interesting trivia, our CTA Bozeman office trip to the local City of Bozeman Landfill saved the Livingston School District over $10,000 in potential costs of trying to dispose of hazardous waste. J At our conference in Red Lodge we learned the Livingston School District was up against the daunting task of disposing of an entire chemistry dept. of old toxic materials. They were quoted over $10,000 to hire a hazmat team to come a dispose of their toxic waste. Once they learned the City of Bozeman Landfill receives hazardous waste free of charge, they simply set up the appointment and are safely disposing of their chemicals free of charge at the City Landfill.
Intro to UnCommon Sense from Bozeman
This is an article that was published in our newsletter about our Bozeman Office’s efforts in the UnCommon Sense Program.
CTA Bozeman is Having Fun Getting Dirty with A Little Uncommon Sense
By Courtney Walton, CTA Bozeman
The CTA Sponsored program Uncommon Sense has planned some adventures for our Bozeman and Billings offices to test the waters for all of our company. This two-year sustainability workshop administered by the Yellowstone Business Partnership will help CTA assess, plan, implement, and then continually monitor our commitment to sustainability in our workplace. We will provide our claim to sustainability in the workplace. The program started out with a bang as the conference in West Yellowstone included some dumpster diving, a tour of the compost facility, a trip to the Grizzly Discovery Center, and testimonies from other companies benefiting from the program. CTA is at the front end of this commitment and establishing our baseline is just part of our homework.
The Bozeman office started our waste stream assessment phase to discover what we are throwing away. Considering ourselves fairly “green,” it was surprising to find over 70% of our garbage consisted of recyclables and compostable materials. The Bozeman office has surveyed our staff to establish an office standard; survey conclusions are in the works.
Expect a survey and dumpster dive for the Billings office just around the corner. By establishing a baseline, we will be able to gauge where we are on the sustainability challenge, then create a plan and make the improvements within each office.
Greening our offices facilitates a standard we are encouraging for our clients. We are starting to practice what we preach. We are very lucky to have such encouragement and support from the Principals, Associate Principals, and Associates to get this program started and maintained. Thank you to all.
For more information on the Uncommon Sense program and how it has impacted other businesses in our communities, visit YBP’s web site at https://www.yellowstonebusiness.org/UncommonSense/.
Stay tuned for updates as we progress through this journey.
Waste Stream Audit (Dumpster Dive)
Waste Stream Audit - July 10, 2008
One of the requirements for the Uncommon Sense Program was that we perform a “waste stream audit.” It also fulfilled Materials and Resources Credit number 6 of the LEED for Existing Buildings program as well which was great.
So what is a “waste stream audit?” It is a tool used to quantify the amount and type of waste generated by a business, family, or individual. It’s a messy job, but essentially you sort through your waste and separate it into piles of recyclable materials, compostable materials, and non-recyclable materials or general waste. The intent is to find ways to divert waste from the landfill by accessing what is in your waste and evaluating ways to reduce that waste. Some good ways to do that would be to purchase items that are more durable (not disposable), can be recycled, and/or use less material (including packaging). Another strategy is to improve recycling efforts by implementing recycling materials found during the waste stream audit or strengthening you existing recycling plan. Another way is to find creative ways to reuse waste products to give them a “second life”.
On the morning of July 10, an excited bunch of us volunteered to dig through the dumpster and see what treasures we could find. It was an interesting experience and not nearly as dirty as I thought it would be. Garbage was picked up the day before so we just had a one day sampling to deal with and most of it, thank goodness, was dry items. We only had a few bags of juicy wet material.
After about 45 minutes we were finished and weighed all of our waste materials and this is what we found:
Paper 14% Oops. We can do better.
Misc. Plastics 3%
Plastic Bottles 4% Looks like we need to start recycling these.
Aluminum Cans 2% Cans don’t weigh much, there were still quite a few of them.
Glass 2%
Cardboard 22% We need to work on this one as well.
Compostables 32% Something to consider.
Non recyclables 18%
Other 3%
Overall, it was a successful event with great participation from enthusiastic volunteers. We were able to gather some valuable information that has helped us understand what areas we can improve in. Because of this audit, we are looking at reworking our recycling contracts and planning to implement recycling of plastics and hopefully more materials as they become available.
…And we are in the process of building some really cool recycle centers made from recycled and salvaged materials…
In for review…
Finally after months of effort, we have paid the USGBC the big application fee. Now, we await our fate. We have submitted our LEED EB | O&M application for review on November 19th. We turned in a total of 50 points which is a solid Silver level application. How many of those points will actually count remains to be seen. In the process of the last minute preparations for submittal there was a great deal of effort that went into finalizing the templates. With that effort many lessons were learned.
First, there is a real need for all involved to have at least some familiarity with sustainable initiatives. There was definitely a fairly steep learning curve for those that had very little prior knowledge. For others who have been exposed to “green” design and other sustainable concepts the work flow was much more smooth. Therefore, the ideal project team would be comprised of individuals with exposure to the culture of sustainability and better yet prior LEED project experience!
Second, there is no substitute for sitting down and thoroughly reading through the actual templates. We had some surprises as people delved into the templates. Some of these surprises came at the last minute. Do not let this happen to your project. There were times when the templates called for information that was not a part of the summary description of the credit available online or even a part of the printed reference manual! The best approach would be to have everyone actually read through the templates noting the requirements of the template in comparisons to the other material available at the very beginning of the project.
Third, narrative writing is an art. Almost every credit has at least one required narrative. If you have a lot of credits assigned to you, do not make the mistake of waiting to the last minute to write narratives. You will burn out quickly. The narratives can seem a bit overwhelming when taken in all at once. It makes good sense to start writing narratives early so that you can space them out over the course of the entire project.
Fourth, policy and program development is on a different time table than most of the other credits. We made the mistake of having a general deadline that applied to all credits. However, it became glaringly apparent that the policies and programs should have had an earlier deadline. The process of review, revision and in some cases rewriting is more time consuming than many of the other credits.
Overall, we learned that LEED EB | O&M is a different animal than the other LEED rating system. Take the time to familiarize the project team with the requirements with an emphasis on the fact that this LEED rating has a lot more to do with facility management than design. As with any project, there have been ups and downs. There have been moments of frustration and elation. We are all releaved to have turned it in to the USGBC. Now, all we have to worry about is whether or not we certify.
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!