Industry Evolution
Just a decade ago green building was still on the fringes of the A/E/C communities. Some had bought into it, but, for the most part, “sustainability” and all of its surrounding buzzwords had yet to enter the industry’s regional lexicon.
Now as it moves further and further into the mainstream, green building has markedly changed the industry as a whole and is forcing most firms to reconsider how they do business.
“In only a very few years green building has gone from a new concept that was seen as difficult and expensive to become standard and best practice,” says Michael Deane, chief sustainability officer, Turner Construction, New York. “We forget because things have changed so quickly and we have come so far as an industry.”
Clients no longer need to be sold on LEED. “Now on every RFP clients say either the project is going to be LEED or they want some components of sustainability,” says Robert Leon, vice president, Structure Tone, New York.
“We have moved through the learning curve over the last 10 years,” says Peter Gardner, sustainability manager at Torcon, Red Bank, N.J. “LEED is no longer an afterthought but an integral part of the process from the beginning.”
Turner does not start a project without at least referring to a LEED check list, Deane says. Whether a project is seeking LEED certification or not the project team discusses site impacts, energy efficiency, environmentally friendly material sourcing and ways to increase natural light and fresh air into the space. “Those were radical ideas 10 years ago,” he says.
“LEED is pushing a more integrated design process,” says Thomas Rogér, vice president, Gilbane Building Company, Providence, R.I. Architects, engineers, contractors, owners and users now start talking about green building features early in the design process to determine the best menu of options for the design team.
Rogér credits integrated design for helping project teams meet energy efficiency goals on projects such as his firm’s $1.05 billion effort to rebuild New Haven’s public schools. “We are driving the process and providing important services to help the process work well, such as energy modeling and lifecycle costs analysis.”
Design goals require buildings to operate as efficiently as it makes sense to do economically and achieve energy star ratings. This translates into buildings that consume about 55-kBTU/sq-ft per year, Rogér says. ASHRAE 90.1 2004 requires 90-kBTU/sq-ft, annually.
Gilbane’s recent project, the 78,000-sq.-ft., 4-story Metropolitan Business Academy in downtown New Haven, consumes just 45-kBTU/sq-ft per year. Incremental costs of energy efficient HVAC and lighting systems and improved insulation were $190,000, with payback in less than four years.
At 200 Fifth Avenue, a 300,000-sq.-ft. interior construction project fitting out new offices for Grey Group initially...
...targeted LEED certification. Convening all the team members during preconstruction helped the client identity sustainable strategies that are expect to earn the project Gold certification, Leon explains.
Green Thinking Green building is leading to a shift toward longer term thinking, with owners looking at lifecycle costs in addition to first costs, Deane says. Aiding the process is a new set of tools facilitating energy modeling and lifecycle analyses.
Initially, owners and developers were not keen on LEED because of the higher capital costs, says James Stawniczy, national director of sustainability at New York-based Bovis Lend Lease. Missing from consideration were lifecycle analyses. More energy efficient systems may cost more but have lower operating costs.
“Our business is changing with our traditional estimating services now taking into play the different types of equipment from a lifecycle perspective,” Stawniczy says. “We see it as a future service and are doing in-house training to gear people up for these processes.”
Gardner is seeing a real emphasis on lower lifecycle costs, which is presenting new opportunities for systems such as chilled beams and low pressure drop ductwork that wouldn’t have been considered just a few years ago.
Torcon employed low pressure drop ductwork at the 50,000-sq.-ft. warehouse for Genzyme Biosurgery in Ridgefield, N.J., seeking LEED Gold. “There might be a slight penalty in terms of ceiling space and you might need to buy a little more ductwork but owners save money in the long run,” Gardner says.
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A chilled beam system was installed at the 26,000-sq.-ft. NJEDA Biotechnology Development Centre in New Brunswick, N.J. The system employs ceiling mounted hydronic HVAC components that circulate chilled or heated water and are designed to induce room air flow to cool or heat a space. Higher first costs are offset by energy savings.
Material Selection LEED credits targeting low or no-VOC materials, recycled content and local products are changing the types of materials used during construction. Initially there were concerns that these products would not perform as well and cost too much.
“Over the years that has changed dramatically,” Leon says. The cost of these materials is now in line with conventional products. “When low-VOC paints first came out they were $5 per gallon more. Now they are not and whether clients ask for it or not, architects are specifying it.”
Subcontractors and tradesmen have also become more educated about the materials, such as adhesives and sealants. “Now they want to use it for their own health.” Leon says.
IBEX construction is providing construction data and analyses to its client the Nordstrom Organization related to low-VOC interior finishes and carpeting, recycling and reusing materials and replacing standard lighting with LEDs.
The LED analysis showed the client spending huge amounts of money on the purchase, operation and maintenance of traditional lighting. Five years ago LEDs were too expensive and did not generate the right colored light, explains Andy Frankl, IBEX president. But now the client is able to find LED bulbs at the right costs and color and will be doing their first store using LEDs.
Construction Processes For many large contractors LEED is no longer seen as an extra step. It’s become...
...integrated into the business. At Turner, the data management required to track and document LEED credits is part of the standard document submittal and approval process. Bovis’ project management system also now incorporates controls to ensure submittal logging includes LEED information.
Meanwhile, sustainable construction practices are creating cleaner, healthier and more energy efficient construction sites.
“When we first started recycling construction wastes, everything was a struggle,” says Charles Whitney, Turner project executive. “Transfer stations were not that sophisticated and waste haulers did not know what they were doing.”
Initially Whitney’s projects achieved 40 % recycling rates. His current project, Columbia University’s 14-story, 188,000-sq-ft Northwest Corner building at Broadway and West 120th Street, is recycling more than 80% of its waste.
Bovis’ recycling rate has gone from 20% four years ago to over 86 percent, Stawniczy says. At Barnard College, the 110,000-sq-ft Nexus Building project on Broadway and 117th Street, achieved a 97% recycling rate.
The pursuit of LEED indoor air quality credits is leading to cleaner and healthier construction sites. “Dust control systems not only deliver a cleaner building but also make it a little more environmentally friendly for construction workers,” Whitney explains.
At the World Trade Center Memorial project in lower Manhattan, Bovis established a pollution prevention plan requiring subcontractors to use ultralow sulfur fuel for their equipment, tarp over stockpiles of soil, wet down soil and control the dust from cutting tile and brick.
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Turner is currently testing alternatives to temporary lighting systems on construction sites, typically composed of strings of 100-watt incandescent bulbs. “The lights do not last long, they break and maintenance costs are high,” Deane says. “CFLs last ten times as long and use half the energy. LEDs last for five years and use just 10 percent of the energy.”
At the Columbia University site, Turner setup three contiguous floors with identical footprints and different temporary lighting systems. One floor is using incandescent bulbs, the second CFLs and the third LEDs.
Preliminary results indicated that LED’s make sense for jobs lasting three or more years, Whitney says. CFLs are more cost effective for jobs under one-year. Exactly where LEDs become more cost-effective than CFLs is still under investigation.
Energy efficient lighting is one of the new rules and regulations proposed by the New York City Green Codes Task Force Construction Practices Committee, says Whitney, who co-chaired the committee.
New Opportunities As green building matures, companies are expanding their service offerings and bringing skills in-house that were previously outsourced. Gilbane now hires energy modelers with extensive experience in mechanical and electrical design. In-house engineering staff provides input into the integrated design process and undertakes peer reviews of outside engineers for owners, Rogér says.
On the New Haven project Gilbane is providing operational support on the completed buildings. “We are able to work with the operators to see if the buildings are really meeting efficiency goals and if not we can figure out why,” Rogér says.
Traditionally retro-greening work was controlled by ESCO companies and not a market of interest to large contractors, Stawniczy says. “Now there is a big push by large general contractors to get in.”
Turner is focusing on commissioning, real time data management services and retrofits of existing buildings. “Five years ago you would never hear anyone talk about this stuff,” Deane says. “Now we are actively promoting it as the right thing to do as well as where the market is at.”
Turner recently completed a retrofit of the 2.2-million-sq.-ft. Morgan Mail Processing Facility on West 28th Street between 9th and 10th Avenues. The work included installation of a 2.5-acre green roof, replacement of 2,000 windows and upgrades to mechanical systems.
Skills & Training Most large firms require or encourage employees to become LEED APs or learn about sustainable building practices. Turner and Bovis both have in-house LEED AP training programs. “In some ways every job has sustainable features and we are trying to make it more the norm than the exception,” Deane says.
“It has become part of the culture, not just because of global warming but because it is the right way to do it,” Leon says. “It makes economic and business sense.”
