Q: What can we do to make our office more green? Will any of these things help in obtaining LEED Certification?
A: The very first place to look would be this wonderful overview entitled, "Greening Your Business."
There are some notable additions to this list I have included below, as well as some insight on how to really look at your office and analyze the greenness of your own office.
When thinking about your office, look at it like any system. What are the inputs (items coming in) and the outputs (items being produced).
Your office may vary, but generally will look like this:
|
INPUTS |
OUTPUTS |
|
Paper |
Used paper |
|
Electricity |
Heat |
|
Ink jets |
Used cartridges |
|
Equipment |
Outdated, broken equipment |
|
Snacks |
Dirty dishes |
|
|
|
How can you reduce both of these categories of items?
All offices use paper, so how about:
Encourage mass transit use by employees by:
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locate the office near bus or transit routes
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provide transit vouchers
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Make your next company car a hybrid
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Setup a corporate account at a car sharing service
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Allow employee telecommuting or allow for flex time hours to reduce demand loads and traffic jams.
Purchase your office supplies from a local store to support the local economy. Consider a service like Give Something Back that sells business products for a good price and donates their profits back to the community.
Use non-toxic office cleaners.
SEE: GreenBiz Essential on Cleaning Products
SEE: U.S. EPA Cleaning Products Wizard
Other quick tips for greening your office include:
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Donate your old computers to a local school
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Refill printer ink-jet cartridges, or at least recycle them
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Turn on the EnergyStar settings on your computer monitor
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Donate old cell phones
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Purchase healthier, fair trade or organic office snacks: coffee, popcorn, etc.
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Use a reusable filter system like Brita, rather than bottled water
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Make recycling areas: paper, food compost, plastic/glass
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Purchase green power from your utility company
RECYCLING E-WASTE:
In our modern, tech-savvy society, the issue of what to do with these discarded computers, cell phones and other electronics is becoming increasingly important. How big an issue is electronic waste, or e-waste? Gartner research predicts we will replace over 153 million computers in 2006. The average cell phone in the U.S. is replaced after just 18 months, most of these are simply thrown in the trash.
The typical computer monitor contains toxic amounts of lead. When thrown into a landfill, the monitor breaks, leeching these chemicals into our air and water. Lead exposure has been linked with learning disabilities, behavioral problems, seizures, coma and even death. In addition, the plastic housing often contains brominated flame-retardants.
Internet retailer eBay has joined the fight against e-waste with their Rethink Initiative.
TELL OTHERS:
Be sure to also read my previous column about becoming a Certified Green Business. Lead by example and tell the world about your efforts.
LEED and the GREEN OFFICE:
Some of these measures will even help with the US Green Building Council’s LEED Program. As you (should) know, the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Building Rating System is a voluntary national standard in which construction and renovation projects earn credits toward certification as sustainable buildings. If you look at the point system, the green office measures could earn you up to 14 valuable points out of 69 total. (See SIDEBAR). This is assuming the building is already designed or built.
Greening your design office:
If you are an architect or designer, here are specific steps you should take to finally become the green firm you have talked about for years.
1. Include green discussion into your existing office peer review. If it gets measured, it gets managed.
2. Fill your office materials library with green finishes and information. If you see it, you will use it.
3. Stop asking the client for permission to do the right thing. There are so many firms talking about green building, but not doing anything with it. What are they waiting for? Do they really believe a client is going to walk in and say, "Design me a green building?" Hardly. Your clients expect you to design in a professional manner. They expect the building will meet codes, meet the budget and be beautiful. Well they also expect the building will not kill they or waste energy. Stop waiting to do the right thing.
4. Bring green design options to the attention of your current clients. Explain to your clients how important this is. You cannot expect clients to know about such things, so they will never bring it up on their own.
5. Offer green design as part of your basic services. Mention it in your proposals; talk about it in meetings. Do not do this because it is hip or trendy; do this because you care about your clients.
6. Only show the client green materials. Clients have a wonderful talent of only choosing from what you offer them. If you only offer green materials, you will be delighted by the result. You will never want to offer toxic materials ever again.
7. Create green standards for all projects. Other departments can learn from mistakes and successes and repeat what you have accomplished. there is no benefit to keep things secret and have them reinvent the wheel.
8. Explain these environmental goals to the entire project team. You will be amazed at the support and ideas you get. You are not alone in understanding the importance in these ideas. A contractor can be a valuable source of information for materials; a mechanical engineer is an expert in energy use. Use their experience.
LINKS:
How to Inventory Your Wastes for Environmental Compliance
Eco-efficiency: A Guide to Reporting Company Performance
Ten Keys for Educating and Engaging Employees
Commercial/Office Recycling Factsheet
Electronics Recycling Consumer Education Initiative
Business Recycling Cost Model
Energy Star Small Business Program
Energy Star is a federal program that seeks to improve environmental quality through the reduction in energy use. It provides technical support, educational information and energy-conservation guidance to small businesses.
Flex Your Power
Significant rebates and incentives may be offered through your local utility that can help offset up-front costs for many energy- and water-saving measures. Provides an easily searchable database of money-saving rebates, grants, and loans for commercial customers in California.
The US Green Building Council and their Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)Provides information about the voluntary standards created by the U.S. Green Building Rating System® for developing high-performance sustainable buildings.
LEED Points for Greening your office
Alternative Transportation, Public Transportation Access
Provide an area drawing highlighting the building location, the fixed rail stations and bus lines, and indicate the distances between them. Include a scale bar for distance measurement.
Alternative Transportation, Bicycle Friendly
Provide site drawings and specifications highlighting bicycle securing apparatus and changing/shower facilities. Include calculations demonstrating that these facilities accommodate 5% or more of building occupants.
Green Power
Provide a copy of the two-year electric utility purchase contract for power generated from renewable sources.
Provide documentation demonstrating that the supplied renewable power meets the referenced Green-E requirements.
Storage & Collection of Recyclables
Provide drawings highlighting locations for collection and storage of materials separated for recycling. Indicate the path from recycling locations to the building loading dock and demonstrate that the recycling area can handle the recycling material volumes generated by building occupants.
Construction IAQ Management Plan, After Construction
Provide a letter from the architect or engineer describing building flushout procedures including actual dates of building flushout. OR Provide specifications and documentation demonstrating conformance with IAQ testing procedures and requirements as described in the referenced standard.
Low-Emitting Materials, Paints
Provide a cut sheet and a Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) for each paint or coating used in the building highlighting VOC limits and chemical component limits.
Low-Emitting Materials, Carpet
Provide a cut sheet for each carpet product used in the building highlighting VOC limits.
Indoor Chemical and Pollutant Source Control
Provide drawings and cut sheets highlighting entryway systems, including locations of entryways in the building.
Provide a narrative and drawings highlighting the deck-to-deck physical separation and independent ventilation system of chemical use areas and copy rooms.
Provide a narrative and drawings highlighting the plumbing system employed in chemical mixing areas.
Controllability of Systems, Operable Windows
For perimeter regularly occupied areas, provide drawings and cut sheets highlighting operable windows and lighting controls for perimeter areas of the building. Include calculations summarizing the total perimeter occupied area and number of operable windows and lighting controls.
Controllability of Systems, Individual Controls
For non-perimeter regularly occupied areas, provide drawings and cut sheets highlighting airflow, temperature, and lighting controls. Include calculations summarizing the total non-perimeter occupied area, number of occupants, and number of airflow, temperature, and lighting controls.
Innovation in Design
Provide a narrative and supporting documents (e.g., drawings, specifications, cut sheets) for EACH innovative measure incorporated into the project. Include information that demonstrates the sustainable benefits of each measure.
Q: Do you know of any innovative, alternative foundation materials?
A: Concrete, the old mainstay of building foundations, has a great deal of positive features. It is locally mixed, often formed on site, durable and non-toxic when complete. Unfortunately, the primary ingredient of concrete, Portland Cement, has a high-embodied energy and toll on the environment. If you wish to avoid the use of Portland Cement, some interesting alternative exist.
Flyash Concrete:
Fly ash is the fine residue powder byproduct from coal-fired electric generating plants. Depending upon the use of the concrete, fly ash can be substituted for 20 - 50 percent of the Portland Cement in the concrete mix. There have been reports of some people using as high as 70 percent fly ash substitution.
Precast Concrete:
Depending upon the location and depth of the excavation, precast concrete panels might be a good solution. Although they would require a crane to put into place, they could speed the site construction and would be especially attractive if the wall is left exposed. Several precast manufacturers offer a foundation product, and it is usually insulated to create a warm, dry basement area.
Insulating Concrete Forms (ICF’s):
For new construction, pre-insulated foundation panels called insulating concrete forms (ICF’s) can simplify the task while achieving superior performance. Sometimes referred to as "permanent forms," ICF’s are hollow foam blocks that snap together to create formwork that doubles as insulation. The hollow core is filled with concrete to make a strong, well-insulated wall. There are now dozens of manufacturers.
Wood:
Wood foundations consist of load-bearing walls framed with 2-inch nominal lumber and sheathed with treated plywood. The walls are designed to withstand backfill and vertical loading. They are supported laterally at the top by the floor system, and at the base by backfill and foundation footing of crushed stone or gravel. The footing distributes the vertical load from the structure to the soil. If detailed and waterproofed correctly, a wooden foundation will break with your logic and actually hold back the earth and water.
Gabions:
Hundreds of years ago, Gabions were protective round cages made from wicker and filled with earth for use as military fortifications. The modern gabion is a large, wire mesh cage block filled with stones. Mostly used as a riprap for erosion control, gabions can also be used for foundations.
Often used with other natural building systems, like straw bale, gabion foundations are essentially perimeter footing foundations made of crushed stone instead of concrete. Place a layer of 6"-12" of loose drain rock into in two foot deep trenches. The empty wire-mesh gabion baskets (18" deep, 36" wide) are placed on top of this drain rock.
Steel reinforcing (rebar) are placed into the cages to provide for a connection between the gabion and the wall that will be built over it. The baskets are filled and the earth is backfilled into place.
Of course, check with your structural engineer before working with this system.
Swiss architects Herzog and deMueron used gabions to build the load bearing walls of the Dominus Winery. The result is a beautiful wall with a thermal mass perfect for the hot climate of Napa.
Given their structural arrangement, gabion foundations would not be suitable for basements or large retaining walls. The pressure of the earth behind the walls is not adequately supported.
A case study can be found here and another one here.
Pin Foundations:
Initially designed as a way to avoid disturbing the groundwater, pin foundations are a clever and oft-overlooked method of connecting a building to the ground. Steel piers are screwed into the ground using portable rotary augering equipment, eliminating the need for any excavation or concrete. These caps act as the loading points, creating a crawl space below the building.
Q: What are some good sources to identify the best products to place into specifications for Green Buildings?
A: Time and again, the biggest complaint people will make in regard to green building is not knowing where to find this information, especially products. Be sure to read my previous column on finding green products.
Your question also raises a more important issue, Green Specifications. Green Specs do exist, and more are being developed.
Without a doubt, the best site for Green Specifications and Products is the GreenSpec product from BuildingGreen. Over 2000 environmentally preferable products are listed, and the online version cross links these to articles, case studies and other products. It is an invaluable tool we use on a daily basis. You can search by the typical CSI division, by specific LEED credit or even through a list of Homebuilder categories.
As you are preparing your specs, be sure to include Section 01350: Special Environmental Requirements Specification. Although prepared by the California Integrated Waste Management Board, Section 01350 contains language on environmental and public health considerations for any building project. It covers guidelines for energy, materials, and water efficiency, indoor air quality (IAQ), nontoxic performance standards for cleaning and maintenance products, and sustainable site planning and landscaping considerations, among other measures.
MasterSpec(the specification writing tool from the AIA (www.aia.org) has a new spec section on LEED. This does not get into specific products, but if you already work with MasterSpec, this might be an interesting addition.
Some manufacturers will even provide you with their own green spec. For example, Antron has one for it’s green carpets.
Eric Corey Freed is principal of organicARCHITECT and teaches Sustainable Design at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco and University of California Berkeley. He is on the boards of Architects, Designers & Planners for Social Responsibility (ADPSR), Green Home Guide and West Coast Green. This article has been excerpted from his upcoming book, The Inevitable Architect: A Phase by Phase Guide to Green Building.