Green Building Services

This time last year, the Green Building World was nursing their collective GreenBuild 08 Boston hangovers and preparing for what looked to be a tough 2009 for our collective economy and our own commercial real estate industry.

GBS tightened our belts and made sure that our existing clients remained happy and sought out new opportunities; A/E firms designing beautiful sustainable buildings as well as a number of building owners leveraging green retrofits as a way to stay competitive, attract tenants and lower costs.

Some Highlights:

LEED 2009 Reference Guides: As green building professionals we all get to know these guides intimately.  GBS was part of the team who the USGBC contracted to develop the LEED 2009 Reference Guides.  As long time LEED project reviewers, we worked closely with the USGBC on this effort and continue to receive thanks for this work.

Existing Buildings: Our existing building world took center stage as the number of non-government new construction projects abated.  Elaine Aye’s Building Management Solutions (BMS group is managing a number of great projects focused on improving our existing buildings’ efficiency of operations and reduced energy use, water, carbon, etc.  The Oregonian did a front cover piece on Elaine’s efforts.  Give it a read.  In addition we underwent a great project with Kennedy Associates out of Seattle who are pursuing certification under the Volume program with the USGBC for LEED-EB:O&M.  Great project and a great client!

Advanced Climate Solutions: GBS expanded our technical offerings by forming our Advanced Climate Solutions (ACS) group.  With the added emphasis on Carbon, energy efficiency and the built environment’s impact on the natural environment, our ACS group augments our consulting practice. For example, A/E firms leverage their technical solutions to confirm optimal building performance based on design decisions.  Our ACS team has been very active helping form the dialogue around these issues in our building community as well as with our new and existing clients.

Commissioning & Energy Audits: GBS has always been known for our Green Building insight, LEED Consulting and project management work but we have continued to provide commissioning services and energy audits to a number of clients…whether they are pursuing LEED or not.  Our highly experienced team has a number of very happy clients who see commissioning as one of the best things anyone could do in a down economy to improve building performance and value.

LEED Certification: We certified our 100^th and 150^th buildings using the USGBSC’s LEED framework in the past year.  This client-served number continues to tick upwards as we successfully finish projects.  We have over 300 projects in the hopper at different stages of certification.

LEED 2009 Study Guides: In addition to the Reference Guide work mentioned above, we were thrilled to work with the USGBC again on their development of their first official LEED AP study guides.  So when you are out there studying with your official Study Guide from the USGBC for your LEED GA, or any of the different LEED AP designations…remember GBS and their Verification and Program Development (VPD) team.

Going Global: GBS formed a strategic partnership with ECADI.  ECADI is a professional provider for comprehensive design services including architectural design; structural and mechanical engineering; interior and landscape design; and urban planning. GBS will provide consulting services to support ECADI’s sustainable design, research and training efforts throughout China and across the globe.   We are currently working on two projects in China, Peru, Mexico, Vietnam, Japan and others(more to come on these soon).

EverGreen Development: GBS formed partnership with Evergreen Development (out of Phoenix) to improve our overall product by combining our best in class services to deliver fully integrated green building service to our mutual clients.

Historic Restoration: Ralph’s work with the National Trust in DC and our organization’s dedication to the reuse of our existing buildings has led to an internal and external emphasis of discovering projects that focus on historic restoration.  One example was that our Texas office had the opportunity to do an assessment on the the Moody Mansion in Galveston Texas, and we were proud to work with Mercy Corp on their new world HQ in a partially restored downtown Portland facility in Old Town.

GreenBuild Phoenix: The GBS team was in full swing down in the heat in Phoenix.  Not just there for Vitamin D, Elaine, Ralph, Alan, Ted all gave well attended presentations while all of our principals engaged with our great friends at the USGBC. 

There are many more that didn’t make this list, but that is a nice selection of some of the things we are very proud of here at GBS from 2009.

As usual the real credit goes to our employees who continue to put our clients first.  As green building consultants we are always striving to support, guide and occasionally push the most environmentally and economically sound decisions for our clients.  Here is to a great 2010 and we will see everyone in Chicago for GreenBuild next November.

- Andrew

Mercy Corps’ new global headquarters in Portland, Ore. reflects the charitable organization’s mission to create more secure, productive, and just communities in a unique and tangible way. GBS was honored to partner on this LEED Platinum-certified project that embodies the interconnected core concepts of sustainability the environmental integrity, social equity and economic stability.

The headquarters are a physical reflection of the organization in multiple ways. Set in Old Town, Mercy Corps’ decision to consolidate several offices and locate in this part of the city catalyzes redevelopment momentum and revitalizes this re-emerging neighborhood. Directly adjacent to downtown, the urban locale leverages existing infrastructure, offers employees an array of alternative transportation options and concentrates development to protect agricultural and natural habitats in the outlying areas while infusing the adjacent district with long-term investment and ownership.

THA Architecture and their consultant team designed a thoughtful response to programming needs through appropriately sizing the facility for its employees and reclaiming a historic structure that comprises half of the new facility. As an organization that frequently provides services in regions where there is significant resource depletion, the building’s advanced energy and water-saving measures will prudently conserve resources for decades to come. The measures – along with durable construction materials – demonstrate a commitment to financial responsibility.

Social equity is a core competency of Mercy Corps, as the organization seeks to understand how people live, relate to and are affected by their bioclimatic region. Inspiring local participation, the teams bring tools, techniques, technology and processes to partner with on-the-ground stakeholders and help them sustain themselves. The global headquarters’ embodies these principles with passive and integrated strategies and technology that addresses and interacts with the Willamette Valley’s bioclimatic conditions to lower energy and water use. Drawing upon local and regional materials helps support community manufacturers and services and lighten climate impacts from transportation of goods. The influx of employees brings economic activity to this micro-region of the city. Within the building, daylight, views, green measures and spaces for collaboration spur human interaction and staff wellbeing with a healthy, inspiring and productive work environment.

The Action Center opens its doors to our community and invites us all to see the imperatives we face across the globe, to experience the work of Mercy Corps first hand and to engage in solutions at whatever level we can.

Mercy Corps describes the people who work for them as “activists, optimists, innovators and proud partners of the people we serve.” These qualities mirror the professionals at GBS. Clearly, it’s a large part of why this project is so important to us. We have a deep affinity for the people, mission and work of Mercy Corps as it dovetails with our values. Working with building owners across the nation and in places like China and Peru, we bring insights, tools and resources to our partners. Our hallmark is a process of collective participation to motivate stakeholders toward more environmental, economic and socially sustainable outcomes. Within the built environment, we strive to assist owners, facility managers, asset managers, tenants and occupants make choices that enhance their lives and the lives of those around them to promote integrated thriving communities. We are proud that the new Mercy Corps world headquarters achieves these objectives.

By Ralph DiNola, GBS Principal, Associate AIA, LEED Faculty

During our eco-charrette for the Oregon Sustainability Center, we took some time to examine the role that people play in buildings. Apart from the energy and resources that go into constructing a building, with no one inside, a building becomes energy neutral. But once you add the human element and begin to provide for the health, safety and welfare of building occupants, environmental impacts become substantial.

The energy and resource intake and expenditures of a building are mostly around our need to control our environment. We rarely think of occupants as being part of the building, but people are actually the building’s metabolism*. Bodies generate heat and absorb it. Ventilation, heating and cooling, the materials that come into the building and the solid waste goes out all contribute to making ourselves comfortable. Our presence and actions place demands on the entire system. As an organism within the building’s metabolism, it’s vitally important to look at our function and responsibility.

Passive buildings/active people
We have made our buildings so complex and automated them to such an extent that we have removed ourselves from the process. Occupants expect a building to provide ideal temperatures, optimal light conditions, and all the water they desire without thinking about the resources captured to maintain these benefits. Moreover, the way people do interact with these systems is unpredictable, and individual actions can have large ripple effects.

It’s time to reincorporate the human element into the building function from the earliest phases of design through operations. Rather than overly automating building systems, let’s use our automation technology to give people feedback on their actions and increase accountability. Can we break down information so that what is happening within a building is understandable at the building, organization and personal levels? Facilities personnel should be provided with real-time comprehensible information about how their equipment is performing and what the ramifications are if they alter recommended settings. Occupants could learn to consume fewer resources if they had feedback mechanisms and understand what they do. Imagine a “dashboard” at the restrooms sinks that shows how much water is used if the faucet is left running, or an energy panel in individual office areas that displays the amount of electricity it takes run your personal equipment (computer, cell phone, task light, ipod, etc.) and the impact of turning these things off before you leave your desk.

It becomes important to ask ourselves, how much control over nature do we have to exert to experience comfort? Looking at building programming in new ways could also help bring the people back into the equation of building function. What if there were no specified workstations and we no longer tried to maintain a consistent temperature in all work areas during all seasons? A space conditioning allowance for each floor would let us create areas that are warmer, cooler, brighter, and darker. With a smart monitoring system, an occupant could look up the temperature and illumination (weather) of a specific area and select where they want to be rather than being forced into a general “ideal.”

The Living Building Challenge asks a building to become part of a building, like a system in nature. As the largest component in a building’s metabolism, can we do more? Can we forgo our need to control nature and, instead, work within it to become part of the solution?

*Building Metabolism™
By Ralph DiNola, GBS Principal, Associate AIA, LEED Faculty