Sustainable-building practices hot despite a cool economy

By Janet Rorholm
From Edge Business Magazine

Flooding may have damaged Stamats’ 75-year-old headquarters last June, but the company knew it would rebuild and, in doing so, would embrace the green trend.

“It was time to practice what we preach,” said Guy Wendler, president and CEO of Stamats.

Stamats was familiar with green building practices from its business-to-business publications, Buildings, Interiors & Sources and Archi-Tech.

Employees were in favor of the idea and “it just made economical sense,” Wendler said.

So the company changed its lighting and included more natural light, installed water-efficient faucets and toilets, installed all recyclable carpet and used environmentally-friendly paint. It also insulated the drafty building with soy-based biofoam.

Wendler said going green cost the company about 10 percent more, but he expects the payout to be worth it through reduced costs in the long run.

Stamats isn’t alone in thinking green. Environmentally friendly building design and remodels are quickly becoming the norm across the country, and especially in the Corridor. As of early March, there were 128 projects seeking Leadership Energy and Environmental Design certification across the state, 32 of which are located in the Corridor. Stamats is one of those projects.

Developed by the U.S. Green Building Council in 2000, LEED is a third-party certification program and the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high-performance green buildings. To certify as LEED, projects must satisfy certain prerequisites and earn points in six categories: sustainable sites; water efficiency; energy and atmosphere; materials and resources; indoor environmental quality; and innovation in design. The number of points the project earns determines the level of LEED certification the project receives. LEED certification is available in four progressive levels: certified, silver, gold and platinum.

The economic downturn hasn’t slowed down the number of green projects, overall.

“It’s kind of independent of that,” said Kevin Monson, president of Neumann Monson Architects in Iowa City. “People have a much more heightened awareness of their carbon footprint than they ever have before. Part of that comes from the spike in energy costs that we’ve seen.”

This long-term thinking has created a demand for buildings that are as cost-efficient as they can be, especially since the cost of energy is only expected to increase.

“That means more than ever it is important, in light of these economic times, to make sure that fixed costs like power and energy are at the lowest they can possibly be,” Monson said.

In the United States alone, buildings account for:
– 72 percent of electricity consumption
– 39 percent of energy use
– 38 percent of all carbon dioxide emissions
– 40 percent of raw materials use
– 30 percent of waste output (136 million tons annually)
– 14 percent of potable water consumption

Dan Thies, principal and LEED certified architect at OPN Architects in Cedar Rapids, agrees that the number of companies and residents interested in sustainable-building practices will increase.

“Far more people are interested in this, and I think over time we will only see that number continue to grow,” Thies said.

Soon, sustainable-building practices could become second nature, just like the American with Disabilities Act.
“When the ADA came out, there was a lot of discussion and concern about how to incorporate all of these standards into a building. Now it’s not even a conversation anymore. It’s just how you design a building. In my view, soon people won’t ask anymore about efficiency and sustainability, they are just going to expect it … It won’t be a buzz concept. It will be the baseline,” Thies said.

Thies said OPN now has 50 percent of its staff LEED accredited. It hopes for that number to be 100 percent soon.

“We want 100 percent of our staff to be LEED accredited, we think it’s that important,” he said.

Thies said often the first question clients ask is, “How much more will it take to make the building green?”
Today, the answer is often minimal.

“All of these elements of building (green) are now mainstream and so many of the premiums have evaporated,” he said.

Monson said national estimates suggest that sustainable building practices account for about 2 percent of additional construction costs today.

“Many times that is quickly paid back through increased productivity, energy-cost savings and the increased value of the building,” he said. “LEED-certified buildings tend to receive higher rental rates … That’s just making it good financial sense as well.”

Rockwell Collins’ gold certification LEED building at 131 Rockwell Dr. NE proves going green doesn’t have to be costly. That building was constructed at less than $100 a square foot, Thies said.

The United Way of East Central Iowa also is thinking green with its proposed $15 million human services building in downtown Cedar Rapids.

“When, or if, we (build), we feel we have an important obligation to do things as economically and environmentally friendly as we can,” said Terry Bergen, director of marketing for the United Way of East Central Iowa.

Bergen said United Way is working with OPN architects to make sure it can incorporate as many green aspects to the building as it can within its budget.

“The money you spend comes back to you. It will be returned over time in energy savings, but the other aspect of this is being a good citizen of the community. We want a building that will have benefit to our community,” Bergen said.

Clients are able to build a sustainable building regardless of their budget, Thies said.

“The beauty of sustainable buildings and design is that there are all different kinds of ways you can approach the various strategies … so clients have choices,” Thies said.

Today’s sustainable buildings include energy efficiencies such as natural daylight to reduce the use of lighting and positioning buildings to best use natural daylight from the north and shading on the south and west side that will protect the building from direct sunlight, therefore reducing the cooling load. Other features include dimmer switches and occupancy sensors that turn off lights when no one is around, water use reduction features, water-efficient landscaping and using renewable energy.

©2009, Gazette Communications