Building with the environment in mind is on increase

(This article originally appeared in the Colorado Springs Business Journal, Colorado Springs, CO, another Dolan Media publication).

Editor's note: This article is part one of a two-part series on LEED certification. The second article in the series will appear next Friday, Feb. 25.

Someday, people all over the country will be able to bike to work and shower right at the office. They will reap the benefits of operable windows and cleaner air in the workplace. Someday, offices, hospitals and schools will have less of an impact on the environment.

With the development of standards for green building and sustainable design, more companies and property owners are taking their effect on the greater community to heart.

In 1998, the U.S. Green Building Council tested a set of guidelines for a voluntary national standard known as Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED. The purpose of the guidelines was to create a system by which developers, architects, contractors and property owners could work together to create sustainable, energy efficient buildings, if the owner so chose. The guidelines were not released to the public until 2000, but since then, the number of companies building with the environment in mind has increased.

There are currently 171 LEED certified buildings in the United States, said Taryn Holowka, communications manager for the U.S. Green Building Council. What this means is 171 buildings were designed according to LEED standards and subject to grading on the LEED scorecard. Though 171 may seem like a small number, many more buildings are well on their way to becoming LEED certified. We've got 1,750 that are registered, Holowka said. The registered buildings are either wrapping up construction or are finished and awaiting approval from the council.

Denver-based general contractor Gerald H. Phipps Inc. has been involved in a number of green building projects in the state, including the LEED certified Boulder Community Foothills Hospital, the Russell T. Tutt Science Center on the Colorado College Campus and the Colorado Spring Utilities Laboratory building. The latter two projects are seeking LEED-certification.

The LEED scorecard divides certification into four categories: certified, silver, gold and platinum. At the most basic level, certification begins with 26 of a possible 69 points. The team working on the utilities building is looking to receive silver certification (33 to 38 points), said Mike Hester of Gerald Phipps, project manager for the utilities project and the Tutt Science Center. So where do the certification points come from?

Building owners who wish to have their properties LEED certified must meet a set of prerequisites before their buildings can be considered. The prerequisites include on-site recycling, erosion and sedimentation control, and environmental tobacco smoke control. Buildings are then judged on criteria for building on sustainable sites and planning to maintain sustainable sites, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, materials and resources, indoor environmental quality, and the innovation and design process. All of these points are not made up, Holowka said. They are all based on standards that other organizations have come up with. Such organizations include the Environmental Protection Agency and American Farmland Trust, she said.

LEED certification points are given for light pollution reduction, water use reduction, the use of renewable energy, the use of certified wood (wood not containing additives such as formaldehyde), the use of local materials and the amount of natural light in a building. There are about 19,000 LEED-accredited professionals in the United States, Holowka said. These professionals have been trained and are able to advise design and construction teams on building green and how to plan for guaranteeing points.

A lab and a hospital are probably the hardest to get points, Hester said. On the Tutt Science Center, Hester and his Gerald Phipps team, Colorado College, the architectural team led by the firm Bennett Wagner and Grody and the rest of the project team did run into a few snags with the science center. Every member of the team is responsible for the points, he said. All who are involved must know, at all times, which points are being pursued.

The science center project got under way on the Colorado College campus in January 2000 and was completed in August 2003.

Martha Bennett, a principal at Bennett Wagner and Grody, is still impressed by the green design elements of the building. We looked at everything recycled and recycled content and the distance [of materials] from Colorado Springs, Bennett said. The closer materials are to a site, the better, as the impact on the environment is lessened due to decreased road travel for delivery. If you use less fuel to transport materials to the site, you're helping the environment, Hester said.

To cut down on the amount of heat and indoor glare in the science center's atrium, fritted glass windows were installed. Fritted glass windows are covered with small black dots, a feature that is not noticeable at a distance. The heat you would normally get in the third floor atrium, which is primarily glass, is directed out, Bennett said.

It's some of the best glass you can buy, said Carl Brandenburg, campus architect for Colorado College. The college is in the process of pursuing basic level LEED certification for the building. Low emitting materials were used, including sealants, paints and carpeting. The project team worked to not use materials containing volatile organic compounds or VOCs during construction, said Jeff Noblett, a geology professor. It never, from the day it opened, smelled like a new building, Noblett said. It just smelled clean, fresh and beautiful.

Noblett teaches a course in the new building and said it is remarkable even upon entry. The architects did a good job with bringing in light in the building, he said. There are spaces outside for electric cars and light sensors in the classrooms, he said. As the sun gets brighter, the lights dim, and when the sun is on the other side of the building, the lights get brighter. Such a feature helps the college save a great deal in electric costs and helps increase energy efficiency within the building.

To prevent the building's air conditioning and heating from running unnecessarily, the operable windows are equipped with sensors. Because of the individual controls in each room, when a window is left open, the heat or air conditioning is shut off for that room. It's a great way to control it so we're not heating the great outdoors, Bennett said.

Gerald Phipps is currently working on the Colorado Springs Utilities Laboratory building, and construction is expected to be complete by March 28, Hester said. The LEED certification process requires that buildings be left to air out for about two weeks before the occupants can fully move in. Two architects, RNL Design and Colorado Architectural Partnership, are working on the project, Hester said. The LEED accredited professional on the team is from RMH Group. You have to have somebody accredited on the design team to get that point, he said.

There are four dumpsters at the construction site, Hester said, one each for trash, wood, metal and cardboard. People have to use those right, he said. If someone throws something away in the wrong one, you can't recycle it. While care is always taken to clear debris at the end of construction, the team must do a lot of cleaning and sweeping during a LEED project, Hester said. The working conditions for a LEED building are a whole lot better than a regular building. This is due in large part to better air quality created by the use of materials containing little or no volatile organic compounds.

If a product smells bad, it probably has VOCs in it, Hester said. Spray paint, for example, cannot be used during the construction of LEED building, he said. Paints containing low VOC levels may be used for metal surfaces in a LEED building, as long as the percentage of non-VOC paints used on the walls is significantly greater.

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