Archive for MR
Metal Roofing for LEED 2009 Credits
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Metal roofing is an often-overlooked product to help (i) attain LEED credits and (ii) produce a more sustainable building. While the material can’t be used in every circumstance, it does greatly assist when it can.
Specifically Applicable LEED 2009 Credits:
SS 7.2 Heat Island Effect: Roof - High albedo metal roofing can significantly contribute to the 75 requirement of this credit.
MR 4.1/4.2 Recycled Content: 10%/20% - Metal roofing can contain a high percentage of recycled content, assisting in total RC totals.
MR 2.1/2.2 Construction Waste Management: Divert 50%/75% from Disposal - Any excess material is easily recycled, elevating the percentage of recycled construction waste.
MR 5.2/5.2 Regional Materials: 10% / 20% - Properly purchased metal materials assists in the regional materials credit.
MR 1.1 Building Reuse: Maintain Existing Walls, Floors and Roof - Depending on age, it may be possible to reuse the actual roofing material but, given the longer useful life of a properly maintained metal roof vs. a traditional roof, the roof decking may be in better condition.
Other Sustainable Benefits:
There are also some benefits that, while not directly related to LEED, should be considered from a sustainability perspective. First, length of service. Metal roofing materials generally also have a longer warranty (up to 50 years) and, again, useful life than a traditional roof system.  Secondly, at the end of this longer useful life, the roofing materials are more easily recycled than traditional materials. Today, the materials can, in many cases, be hauled off for free.
Special thanks to Adam from GreenIsGlobal.net for the post idea. Be sure to check out his metal and solar laminate roofing blog.
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Campus Square Building: Yesterday Meets Tomorrow
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Present Day
A careful integration of the historic facade, renewable energy, and stringent green building practices gave birth to The Campus Square Building in Midtown Harrisburg, Pa. Campus Square is a landmark mixed-use facility in the community and plans to become the first LEED® Gold Core and Shell Building in Harrisburg, Pa. This building is part of a major revitalization by the city which, in Midtown, has been spearheaded by GreenWorks Development. Their plan is to build/renovate over 1 million square feet within the 10 block radius of Midtown and do it all in an environmentally responsible manner.
Anchoring the Green Building Design was forty-six (46) geothermal wells (located under the footprint of the building) and a 220 Panel Solar PV System (42 kW) on the roof. The Energy Harvest Grant which will fund the Solar Equipment was the first stimulus dollars awarded in the state of Pa. In addition to the ground source heat pumps and solar PV system, here are some of the various green aspects of Campus Square Building: fly ash used in every yard of concrete, white roofing material, high efficiency glazing, completely automated building management system (Wireless ATC, Security, Lighting & Solar), regional materials, IAQ plan during construction, low VOC materials, high recycled content in the finishes, low flow water closets and waterless urinals.
Circa 1964
From the early conceptual stages of the project, LEED was a priority. With the Architect (Ganflec Architects), Construction Manager (Wohlsen Construction) and an MEP Design Build Team all working closely together through budgeting and design to come up with the ultimate balance of cost, green aspects, efficiency and quality. The end result is a well thought out, socially and environmentally responsible project which will house the new Green Center of Central Pa and several other tenants. Hopefully the students of the new Green Center will be able to learn first hand from the green building aspects of Campus Square and assist in the continual growth of the industry.
LEEDBlogger.com guest author William Sutton was named Wohlsen Construction Companies‘ Green Liason in 2008 and works day to day as a Project Manager on their LEED and Green Building Projects. To date, he has worked on 6 LEED projects in various phases of construction and is working with several owners currently to determine and establish green building goals. William is on several green building committees throughout Central Pa and also volunteers at local schools and colleges to give informative talks about Green and LEED. Follow William on Twitter via @LEED_Resource.If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
The Impact of Office Recycling: Actual Numbers
Posted by: | CommentsProbably the most basic (and often easiest to achieve) LEED prerequisite is Storage & Collection of Recyclables under the MR division. It’s exactly this simplistic nature that can cause it to be overlooked as a major contributor towards reducing the environmental impact of a building.
It being Earth Day, I would like to offer some evidence that is often the little things that make a big difference. In our relatively small 4,500 square foot office in Chicago, our paper recycling program has had the following effect in the past 12 months:
- Paper Recycled:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 7,406 pounds
- Trees Saved:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 63 trees
- Water Conserved:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 25,919 gallons
- Pollutants Unreleased:Â Â Â Â Â Â 222 pounds
- Landfill Preserved:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 19 cubic yards
Consider what these numbers would be in a larger office or an entire office building - these numbers can grow to a staggering level.
If you have any statistics for your office or workplace, please share them with us.
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Video: Prototype LEED-Certified Office Depot Opens
Posted by: | CommentsOffice Depot is opening it’s first LEED-certified prototype store in Austin, TX. What makes this store so significant is that the prototype that has been approved by the USGBC to be replicated in order to streamline future LEED-certified locations.
The model location features, among other items, 52 skylights for EQ, solar panels providing 10% of energy needed to operate the store for EA, native low-irrigation landscaping for WE, a high-albedo roof and preferred parking for EEV’s towards SS and high recycled content concrete and parking curbs for MR.
Kudos to Office Depot - learn more about their environmental stewardship program here.
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Icynene Insulation and a Green Cheese Factory
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Photo Credit: Icynene
Ontario, Canada-based Icynene has developed an expanding, spray foam insulation and air barrier product derived from castor oil. The product exceeds ASTM standards for bio-based materials, is 100% water-blown and insulates and seals in one step.
For those that don’t know, as I didn’t until I conducted some research, the castor plant is an incredibly sustainable and non-toxic crop. Castor beans don’t require irrigation (in normal conditions), do not need to be treated with pesticides or fungicides and yield more than twice the oil of soybeans by weight. In addition to the oil’s other modern usage in beauty products, it has been used as an ingested folk remedy for at least 4,000 years. Yes, 4,000 years - castor beans found in Egyptian tombs have been carbon dated.
An example of the Icynene product in action is the LEED Platinum Fifth Town Artisan Cheese factory (seen above) in Prince Edward County, Ontario. Given the factory’s unique interior environmental conditions required to cultivate cheese, it was critically important to create a high R-value building envelope that maintains conditions in all seasons and prevents condensation and mold growth.  The Icynene product was additionally used in the interior walls to create a thermal and vapor barrier between the administrative/retail areas and the production areas.
Other features of owner, chef, and eco-entrepreneur Petra Cooper’s factory are a subterranean, earth-cooled cheese cave, a geothermal heating system and solar PV. They targeted, but I couldn’t confirm, 13 out of 13 for SS (the 20 acre site is a natural habitat for deer, beaver and native bird) and achieved a large number of MR points with local materials, recycled content and landfill diversion.
And, it’s a pretty good looking cheese factory, right?
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Featured Video: LEED Silver High School in Colorado
Posted by: | CommentsThis video is brief walk-through of the huge, 300,000 square foot Fossil Ridge High School in Fort Collins Colorado. It earned LEED for Schools Silver certification and utilizes over 70% recycled material, solar panels and heavy daylighting. The best part of the video is that is is primarily narrated by students of the school.
A great statistic in this video is that the estimated $100,000 in energy savings each year translates into 2 new teachers on staff. Thinking back to my high school days, it seems that facilities have come a long, long way.
Please let us know of any other LEED for Schools projects that you would like us to share.
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Quick and Easy LEED Calculators
Posted by: | CommentsThe most robust online calculators for LEED are within LEED Online, but here are a few ‘public access’ resources that you could consider pointing out to clients for research.
- Concrete and aggregate supplier Holcim Ltd has a LEED calculator for ALL of the credits in every LEED rating system. It’s not for reliance purposes, but a great interactive educational resource for those interested in LEED certification.
- EcoScoreCard powers the environmental calculators for quite a few building material manufacturers. Rather than list each site individually, you can visit this site and click to them all. Excellent for MR reference.
- Walkscore.com is great for estimating community connectivity within the SS division. The limit is that it only has data for the 40 largest cities in the US but, come on, it’s free.
Are there any sites that you think are noteworthy, please share them.
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LEED Certified Parking Structure: A Model for Sustainability
Posted by: | CommentsGenerally speaking, the LEED certification system frowns on automobile transportation. But, this suburban Detroit Blue Cross Blue Shield parking structure is an interesting solution to what is, in many cases, a necessary evil.
The largest contributing factors in this project are in the MR division. Pre-cast concrete, a high percentage of regional materials and other recycled products greatly helped with LEED certification. Additionally, the SS division credits were boosted by a high-density building and site reuse. The owners were able to put more than 1000 parking spaces in the footprint of what was 125 spaces previously.
What’s most notable to me is that this building serves as an excellent model for future parking structure development in both the urban and suburban environment. Parking structures will continue to be built and necessary in the foreseeable future - a commitment to responsibly addressing their design is a remarkable step forward.
Please share your comments and feedback.
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IDI for LEED Certified Industrial Buildings
Posted by: | CommentsAtlanta-based industrial real estate developer IDI prides itself on cutting edge facilities and the latest buliding technology.  Their commitment to green building and LEED certication is proof that they deliver what they promise.
A USGBC member since 2006, IDI has completed four LEED certified properties and has sixteen additional properties under development (totalling 5.5 million square feet) that are seeking certification.
“Companies realize that occupying LEED buildings is not only good for the environment but also good for business since these facilities, with their enhanced work environments, help attract and retain employees,” said Jay Mitchell, senior vice president and regional development officer in IDI’s Atlanta development office.
Most recently, IDI earned LEED silver certification on two industrial facilities in Georgia, 744k sf and 502k sf, respectively. Among other credits, these facilities earned points in the following divisions:
- SS: High-albedo roofing and hardscape
- WR:Â A 50% reduction in water usage, with a large amount of savings derived from efficient landscaping and irrigation
- EQ/EA: Strategic use of skylighting to reduce the need for artificial light and more effectively daylight interior spaces
- MR: A consistent focus on regional and high recycled content materials
The additional rent needed by IDI to recoup the additional cost of a LEED certified facility is negligible. The company estimates this amount to be a mere $0.03 per square foot.
“Building a more sustainable and efficient building is the right and responsible thing to do. Coupled with our tenant clients, their employees, and our investor clients now being more interested in sustainability, it’s an easy decision,” said Mitchell.
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Agrifiber for Structural Building Elements
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The obvious benefits of of traditional structural insulated panels include faster build time (3-4 time faster than traditional wood and metal framing), off-site fabrication and potential cost reduction. But, by using agrifiber-based SIPs, these benefits are augmented by contributing towards the following LEED NC 2.2 credits:
EA 1 - Optimize Energy Performance:Â Agrifiber SIPs generally have a very high R-value and produce a building envelope that up to 5-7 times tighter than traditional wood construction.
MR 5.1 & 5.2 - 10% / 20% Harvested within 500 miles: Obviously this requires proper purchasing but, given the typical amount of structural material relative to overall material, the volume goes a long way.
MR 6.0 - 2.5% Rapidly Renewable Materials: It’s possible to satisfy your entire MR 6.0 requirement with one building component.
EQ 4.4 - Low-Emitting Materials: Most agrifiber SIPs exceed ASTM standards and some use a soy-based adhesive resin.
Additionally, there’s a potential for two Innovation & Design points:
ID 1.1Â - Minimize Construction Waste: SIPs are manufactured off-site to exact specifications, including most openings, which can result in vitually no waste.
ID 1.2 - Regionally Harvested Materials: Exceeding 20% of the total materials.
If you’ve had any experiences with agrifiber SIPs, please comment. We would love to hear from you.
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