The First Facility Management Blog

UGL Unicco has extended its UGL Unicco GreenClean® initiative to encompass energy, water, operations & maintenance, and several other categories where the company has expertise to share with customers. Launched in October 2004, UGL Unicco GreenClean is a comprehensive sustainability program that fundamentally changed the way the company purchases equipment and supplies, manages worksites, and measures results.

With its recent announcement UGL Unicco GreenClean now addresses sustainability on more levels through a broader portfolio of services. The company also has several U.S. Green Building Council LEED AP experts who are available to guide facility managers through the certification process.

The expanded program takes a more comprehensive approach to many core functions. For instance, the effects of cleaning operations on energy usage are considered, and have resulted in new site level policies and procedures to reduce energy usage on a case-by-case basis. Additionally, to meet the needs of customers in the U.S. and Canada, the list of approved cleaning supplies now includes Green Seal-certified products, as well as products approved by Environmental Choice.

The UGL Unicco GreenClean program now also supports a wider range of services that are relevant to LEED for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance guidelines in order to help customers achieve certification and to retain the status going forward. It also helps others that have not gone through the formal process but want to follow a best practices approach to sustainability.

Specifically, UGL Unicco GreenClean addresses several LEED Registered Building Checklist categories including:

• Sustainable Sites: In addition to core indoor and outdoor facilities services, UGL Unicco helps customers improve sustainable transportation options, as well as reduce light pollution.
• Water Efficiency: The company brings its expertise to bear on water metering, as well as efficient indoor and landscaping water uses.
• Energy & Atmosphere: UGL Unicco introduces customers to energy & atmosphere best practices, and monitors and manages renewable energy, refrigerants and other operations that affect indoor air quality (IAQ).
• Materials & Resources: The company continues its sustainable purchasing and waste management practices and extends these services to customers for use with their internal systems.
• Indoor Environmental Quality: In addition to continuous progress in cleaning operations, UGL Unicco offers HVAC services including thermal monitoring, filter maintenance and other services that improve IAQ metrics.

Green building is expected to grow six to 10 percent this year, yet the path to get there is long process requiring research to determine if products contribute toward the coveted LEED certification.

The Mohawk Group is helping to shorten the environmental product specification process with its new LEED PLUS calculator. Powered by ecoScorecard from Viridity Inc., the LEED PLUS calculator is a web based tool that allows users to search building products and calculate the USGBC’s LEED points, along with several other industry environmental ratings, in minutes.

ecoScorecard is an environmental software company that helps architects, designers and builders build green more efficiently. Using web based tools, ecoScorecard lets manufacturers efficiently provide information and documentation to the architects and designers that specify their products. ecoScorecard is provided as a free service to architects and designers, and is provided via license to manufacturers.

“We understand the design community has a plethora of green building product options, but finding the right one that fits within an installation can be a challenge, particularly when you’re trying to meet an environmental standard or certification,” said Al Kabus, president, The Mohawk Group. “As a company committed to ‘sustainability that works,’ we’re going beyond just offering sustainable carpet. We are working with our customers to provide the tools and information necessary to make their jobs easier and less time intensive.”

“Mohawk is providing its customers with a virtual green building consultant. In effect, they’re helping to make green building easier,” said Paul Shahriari, CEO, ecoScorecard. Mohawk customers can access the LEED PLUS calculator evaluation tool by logging onto The Mohawk Group’s web site or one of its brand sites—Bigelow, Lees, Karastan, or Durkan (coming soon). Simply select a product and then choose which system to rate it against—LEED, CHPS (Collaborative For High Performance Schools), GGHC (Green Guide For Healthcare), LABS21 (Laboratories For The 21st Century)—or check compliance for prevalent third party certifications. Results are delivered in minutes via a PDF report. For added convenience, users can save their reports and use them as supplemental product documentation to be included along with LEED or equivalent certification submissions.

“On average, an architecture firm can spend anywhere from 100 to 200 hours gathering and evaluating data for LEED projects with the majority of this time spent on product specification,” said Lewis Perkins, director of sustainable strategies, The Mohawk Group. “With the LEED PLUS calculator we’ve done all the legwork. Days, weeks, and even months spent evaluating products are reduced to mere moments so that users can focus on what’s truly important—achieving a high quality project on time and on budget.”
 
Balancing the Sustainable Equation
Prior to launching its LEED PLUS calculator, The Mohawk Group worked with Viridity to provide relevant environmental information about each of its products. The Viridity team of green building experts evaluated and documented these products against the various rating systems. Now, when users perform a search, the information is delivered using software with embedded algorithms.

“The path to sustainability is ongoing, and the rules and regulations are always changing,” added Perkins. “This calculator gives us the ability to anticipate customers’ future needs and prepare for changes yet to come.”

As The Mohawk Group releases more offerings, additional products can easily be added and rated at any time. The calculator is updated to the environmental rating systems within 48 hours of every change. In fact, Mohawk and Viridity are already working to rate the products by the new provisions of LEED 2009.

LEED PLUS calculator is the latest in a series of solutions The Mohawk Group has introduced within the last few months designed with the customer in mind to streamline the specification process. In June, the company introduced Drag and Fly—a first of its kind “drag and place” software for carpeting images. The easy to use web based application provides architects and designers with an array of high resolution images allowing for on the spot and accurately scaled placement of modular carpeting images into 3D renderings or computer aided drawings (CAD). 

Photo by: Timothy Hursley—The Arkansas Office

Architect Kyu Sung Woo has designed a new graduate housing complex for Harvard University in Cambridge, MA. The 115,000 square foot project is a part of the university’s ongoing effort to house 50% of its graduate, professional, and doctoral students, further supporting a strong residential campus community and helping to alleviate pressure on the local housing market. The scheme houses 215 beds in over 30 different suite types, and includes a faculty director’s suite, a fitness room, study lounge spaces, a multipurpose room, and a garage that extends under the building, its courtyard, and a new public open space along Memorial Dr.


The 10 Akron St. project occupies a prominent location on the Charles River, at the corner of Memorial Dr. and Akron St., and is one of a series of new residences for Harvard affiliates as well as low and moderate income units built for local residents. Adjacent is Peabody Terrace Housing by Jose Luis Sert, with whom Woo studied and worked. Visible from across the Charles River, the design composition is a seamless extension of the campus, recalling the scale, massing, and textures of Harvard’s traditional brick river houses and wood frame neighborhood context, with references to Sert. 

From the river side, the six story brick block with glassy bay windows, is appropriately scaled to active Memorial Dr. and the river. Along Banks St., the siding on the low rise, wood clad building refers to adjacent three story wood frame houses and Peabody Terrace’s vertical concrete formwork. The massing composition of these two building elements forms a courtyard open toward the public open space Harvard provided to the City of Cambridge. Together, the courtyard gesture and the park establish a contemporary gateway to campus. The entry portal at 10 Akron St. frames an axial view of the Sert complex through the courtyard and the park, and a section of the building cantilevers over the outdoor deck to preserve sightlines from the community to the river at street level. Projecting bay windows create shade and shadow, animating the façades, and capture remarkable views of Charles River and Boston beyond. 

At the individual scale, architectural detail, material selection, and color palette create familiar, yet contemporary textures and surfaces. Double height curtain wall windows at the corners reveal two story study lounges. Internally, to foster a sense of community, studies and other public spaces distributed throughout the floors and the extra wide open stairs are opportunities for spontaneous encounters. Subtle changes in material and the use of localized intense colors at unit entries punctuate corridors that end with striking views of the outdoors. Apartments are designed for maximum flexibility in furnishing and partitioning, made more spacious with glazing and bay windows.

In keeping with Harvard’s university wide commitment to sustainable building and campus operations, the project was designed to achieve high level LEED certification. Green minded finishes include regionally sourced siding with recycled content; renewable bamboo flooring and wall paneling and low VOC finishes; building systems are designed and engineered to minimize energy usage. Landscape architect Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates designed a seasonal garden with groupings of trees and clumped plantings native to New England, connecting the courtyard to the riverfront terrace. In the courtyard, serrated and diagonally laid paving edged with large river smoothed rocks recall peaceful stone gardens. 

Until recently, green building litigation has been the subject of idle talk outside a handful of environmentally related claims. However, in response to the nation’s first state-level green building code adopted by the California Building Standards Commission earlier this year, developers are increasingly aware of the nature of these regulations as well as their potential legal pitfalls. The California Green Building Code targets all new construction—commercial and residential, public and private—and aims to reduce water consumption and set standards for energy efficiency, waste reduction, and environmentally sensitive construction and design.

“While California may be the first to have adopted formal, green building standards, some local governing bodies across the country have similar requirements and others are rapidly moving in the same direction,” notes Gregory McClintock, Akerman Senterfitt Shareholder and a senior environmental attorney in the firm’s Los Angeles office. “Developers nationwide will be watching to see how this new Code fares.”

Compliance with the standards set by the new Code may be difficult to determine. For instance, the Code sets forth percentage reductions for energy and water use, but does not provide guidance on how achievement of those requirements is to be measured or what type of materials and approaches are to be used to reach the reductions. “The uncertainties created by the new Code will undoubtedly lead to legal disputes over compliance, in particular litigation over the marketing of residential or commercial property that uses the term ‘green’ too loosely,” McClintock adds.

Real estate blogs are also buzzing about the nation’s first green building litigation. The suit involved the construction of a $7.5 million, 23-unit condominium project in Crisfield, Maryland called The Captain’s Galley. The project was designed to comply with Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED(R)) Silver certification by the United States Green Building Council (USGBC), but did not achieve this certification.

A dispute over claimed losses in green building tax credits between the owner and contractor of The Captain’s Galley demonstrated the degree of risk involved with green building projects. A lack of clarity in the formal construction agreements resulted in a dispute concerning who was responsible for submitting the application to obtain tax credits. The case revealed the danger for contractors, owners, and design professionals who simply rely on “standard form” construction agreements when dealing with green projects.

“The Captain’s Galley case demonstrates that projects involving green building regulations require clear contract language,” says Cecelia Bonifay, Chair of Akerman’s Green and Sustainable Development Practice Group. “Otherwise, there is a real risk of exposure to unanticipated liability for everyone involved.”

The surge of green building interest and concern regarding compliance with new laws and regulations is creating demand for law firms with distinguished, accredited green building practices. Retaining counsel that understands the evolving regulatory landscape surrounding green and sustainable development and that assists stakeholders in managing associated risks, is now particularly important.

“Green building is still an emerging field and developers and building operators are looking for knowledgeable legal assistance. They appreciate that qualified green building attorneys are now just as important to a green project as an experienced architect, engineer or contractor,” Bonifay added.

To support the needs of its clients, Akerman last year launched a firm-wide initiative to build one of the nation’s largest teams of green building attorneys. The firm looked to its nationally recognized construction practice, identifying senior attorneys with extensive experience in construction litigation and dispute resolution. “We knew that our clients would need attorneys with green building knowledge as well as actual experience working on the more complex national and regional construction projects,” noted Bonifay.

Akerman also rolled out study groups, seminars and office-wide conference calls to encourage participation in accreditation programs such as the USGBC’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) examination program. “Dozens of attorneys instantly joined the effort,” said Bonifay. “We now have a team of more than 35 top-notch attorneys who are helping clients avoid the legal pitfalls associated with these new standards, and if necessary, get clients out of trouble.”

Attorneys in Akerman’s Green and Sustainable Development Practice Group are well equipped to help clients avoid potential pitfalls while also assisting in identifying and attaining green building incentives, where applicable. Akerman offers assistance with virtually every aspect of a green project including: acquisition, environmental and transactional due diligence, design, construction, contracting issues, financing, leasing and even sale of green assets. In fact, Akerman is one of the few law firms with multiple attorneys named LEED® Accredited Professionals (LEED APs) by the USGBC.

“We are very confident in the ability of our attorneys and in-house consultants to bring exceptional green building, construction, environmental, land use and general real estate knowledge to our client engagements,” adds Bonifay. “We are also thrilled by the success of our efforts to grow the number of LEED accredited attorneys in our Green and Sustainable Development Group. Expanding our green building practice is timely and necessary and provides a truly valuable service to our clients.”

Akerman’s Green and Sustainable Development attorneys are currently representing private and public sector clients, both nationally and regionally, on a range of green building matters. Clients include commercial and residential developers, real estate investment funds, and non-profit and governmental organizations.

The center's informational touchscreen kiosk helps teach visitors about LEED.

The 72,264 square foot Parrish Healthcare Center at Port St. John, a service of Parrish Medical Center in Titusville, FL, was designed to highlight the belief that health and healing are best achieved when in balance with nature.  Surrounded by a 33.5 acre campus, including a 6.1 acre nature preserve, the Parrish Healthcare Center at Port St. John is the first in Florida to be awarded the prestigious LEED Silver certification. 

Among the criteria required for LEED certification is the demonstration of a commitment to educate the public about environmental sustainability. One way the center has selected to demonstrate that commitment is through the GreenTouchscreen kiosk designed by Quality Attributes Software. 

This innovative and customized kiosk is located in the main lobby of the center. Visitors to Parrish Healthcare Center just need to touch the screen and it comes to life. From the kiosk visitors can learn about the LEED rating system and the credits that were earned in order to achieve silver certification. A LEED checklist which explains how each credit was earned along with a green features map and a list of the benefits of building green can all be found with a simple touch of the screen.      

Without the GreenTouchscreen many of the building’s green features might otherwise go unnoticed. “The kiosk is a great way for Parrish Healthcare Center to inform the public about how environmental sustainability is integrated into the healing environment,” said Chris Fox, Parrish Healthcare Center at PSJ director. “PMC has long advocated that environments play an integral role in healing. Building green is just a natural extension of that belief.”

Parrish Healthcare Center is a full service outpatient center that has earned more procedure specific accreditations by the American College of Radiology (ACR) than any other Brevard County outpatient center in the areas of mammography, breast ultrasound, ultrasound, computed tomography (CT), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). In addition to radiology services, the center includes physician offices, a sleep disorders center, outpatient rehabilitation, laboratory services, and an array of other testing such as bone density, positron emission tomography (PET), EMG/EKG, stress testing, echo-vascular testing, and holter monitoring.

Olympic athletes were prepared to don respirators and China was forced to seed clouds, idle factories and ban vehicles to temporarily lift a pollution fog that enveloped Beijing as recently as last month.

Very interesting (albeit ironic) for USGBC to award their “gold medal” for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design to a country recognized as one of the planet’s top polluters.  

Thus proving that the politics of “green” have circled the globe and that lucrative consulting proposals can be generated in multiple languages and paid in a variety of currencies…

Poor Richard

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Beijing Air Improves, Olympic Village Earns LEED Gold

BEIJING, China, August 13, 2008 - Beijing’s air quality has improved, with the sky clearly visible today after rains on Sunday and Monday reduced the air pollution, heat and mugginess that made Olympic athletes, visitors and residents uncomfortable for days. 

Weather officials measured an Air Pollution Index of 32 on Tuesday, far below the benchmark API 100 set by the Chinese authorities. An Air Pollution Index of 50 and below is considered excellent by the World Health Organization.

To read the rest of this article, courtesy of Environment News Service, click this link.

The U.S Green Building Council (USGBC) is soliciting input on the rating system during this second public comment period. LEED 2009 is a new version of the rating system that delivers against key environmental and human health impacts, and puts in place a transparent framework for weighting credits accordingly, based on the best available science.

The first public comment period for LEED 2009 ran May 19 to June 22, 2008, and received 5,800 comments. The second public comment period opened yesterday, August 19, and will be open through 5pmPT on September 2. The shorter time frame reflects the fact that only changes made in response to the first public comment period are now up for comment.

All technical comments from the first period that were within the scope of the proposed credit changes under LEED 2009 were reviewed by the LEED Technical Advisory Groups (TAGs) and are now reflected in tracked changes to the credit language. Even though a comment may have been made on only one rating system, it was applied across all rating systems to keep credits aligned where applicable. Technical comments that were outside of the LEED 2009 scope will be discussed as part of the next LEED development cycle, which will happen at regular intervals going forward. 

Following is a sampling of the revisions most frequently suggested or most technically changed, by credit category. More are listed on the USGBC site.

Sustainable Sites

Credit 2: Development Density & Community Connectivity – If the project is mixed use, it may be considered one of the ten basic services that are required to be located within ½ mile, as long as the service is open to the public.

Credit 4.3: Alternative Transportation: Low Emitting & Fuel Efficient Vehicles – The language that said one low-emitting/fuel-efficient vehicle must be provided per 8 people should have said 267 occupants.

Water Efficiency

Credit 1: Water Efficient Landscaping: Reduce by 50% – Groundwater language was moved from the Potential Technologies & Strategies to the Requirements section.

Energy & Atmosphere

Prerequisite 2 & Credit 1: Optimize Energy Performance – Additional ASHRAE Advanced Energy Design Guides are now included under the prescriptive path for compliance. Additional point thresholds have been added in EAc1.

Credit 5: Measurement & Verification (M&V) – Corrective action is now required if the results of the M&V plan indicate that energy savings are not being achieved. 

As the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) continues the development of the next version of its LEED rating system, the group announced this week the certification bodies for LEED. These entities are:
* ABS Quality Evaluations, Inc.
* BSI Management Systems America, Inc.
* Bureau Veritas North America, Inc.
* DNV Certification
* Intertek
* KEMA-Registered Quality, Inc.
* Lloyd’s Register Quality Assurance Inc.
* NSF-International Strategic Registrations
* SRI Quality System Registrar, Inc.
* Underwriters Laboratories-DQS Inc.

The USGBC notes that these entities are well known and respected for their roles in certifying organizations, processes, and products to ISO and other standards.

This evolution in the certification process is being undertaken as an integrated part of a major update to the technical rating system which will debut next January as LEED 2009. The update will also include a comprehensive technology upgrade to LEED Online aimed at improving the user experience and expanding its portfolio management capabilities.

Currently, all LEED project submissions are reviewed by USGBC with the support of independently contracted reviewers. In alignment with its vision of market transformation, beginning in January 2009, the USGBC will move administration of the LEED certification process to the Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI), a non-profit organization established in 2007 with the support of USGBC. Working together with the selected certification bodies, GBCI will deliver an improved, ISO compliant certification process that will be able to grow with the green building movement.

“During the past year, the dramatic growth in the number of LEED project certifications challenged us to apply our mission of market transformation to ourselves,” commented USGBC president, CEO, and founding chairman Rick Fedrizzi. “By learning from ISO, engaging with world class certification bodies, and focusing on our mission, we’ve been able to create a solution that will expand our capacity to serve the community while letting USGBC continue to focus on improving the LEED rating system and delivering exceptional green building education.”

“Third-party certification is the hallmark of the LEED program,” added Alice Soulek, VP of LEED Development. “Moving the administration of LEED certification under GBCI will continue to support market transformation by delivering auditable third-party certification. Importantly, it also allows UGSBC to stick to the knitting of advancing the technical and scientific basis of LEED.”

GBCI currently administers the LEED Accredited Professional program, in alignment with ANSI requirements for professional certifications.

Designed to accommodate the firms’ need for more space, the move by the architectural and interior design firms BBG-BBGM will relocate their New York City headquarters to the iconic Empire State Building. Managing Partners Louis R. Hedgecock, AIA and Julia Monk, ASID, AIA made the announcement about the 15-year lease that has been signed. The firms are relocating from 515 Madison Ave., the New York office location since their founding in 1984, to a 32,000 square feet space on the entire 25th floor of the Empire State Building.

The firms are pursuing LEED Silver Certification in the Commercial Interiors category (LEED-CI). The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System™, developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), is the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of green buildings and interiors.

“As global design firms, this move is an important step in our long term strategy. We are pleased to provide our staff with an office environment that reflects our values of creativity, collaboration and commitment to sustainability,” Hedgecock said.

BBG-BBGM designed their new office space to reflect the firms’ culture, identity, commitment to sustainability, and work style. Designed to optimize natural light in a white and grey color scheme, the office features the Ahrend benching system, Humanscale ergonomic seating and desk lights, strategic use of reflective surfaces for maximum dispersal of natural light, and a partially exposed ceiling structure.

Some of the energy saving elements include lighting controls with daylight harvesting photo sensors; a daylight receptive window control system with automatic window shades and operable windows to provide ventilation; and energy efficient lighting, such as T5 high output fluorescent lamps with LEDs, to reduce the power required to 15% below ASHRAE standards. The bathroom fixtures use water and energy saving technology such as TOTO low flow and motion sensor toilets, automatic sink faucets and hand driers. Sub-metered Energy Star equipment and appliances control temperature, optimize energy performance, and measure the firms’ energy and water footprint.

Selected eco-friendly materials include low emitting VOC paints, adhesives, coatings, sealants, plastic laminates, and non-formaldehyde MDF panels; recycled content materials include certified wood floors, Interface carpet tiles and Ecophon fiberglass ceiling tiles and wall coverings; renewable materials include linoleum and substrates such as strawboard in custom millwork.

About BBG-BBGM
BBG-BBGM are internationally renowned, award winning architectural and interior design firms with extensive expertise in the design of mixed use complexes, luxury urban hotels, resorts, high end residential, retail, and corporate/office buildings. The firms have offices in New York City, Washington, DC, Scottsdale, AZ, Sydney, and Shanghai.

While the fallout from the Democrats race for the White House took center stage on Wednesday, the US House of Representatives passed a $20 billion plan to help states renovate and build schools to make them better for the environment and more energy efficient.

The 21st Century Green High-Performing Public School Facilities Act passed 250-164 but still must be taken up by the Senate. The Bush Administration has threatened a veto, citing the cost of a new federal school building program.

The bill sets aside $6.4 billion for the 2009 budget year and similar amounts in the following four years. The goal is to aid school districts in modernizing facilities to help make schools more energy efficient, promote student and employee health, and improve the learning environment.

New projects would have to meet LEED, Energy Star, or Collaborative for High Performance Schools standards. According to the Associated Press, “Requirements for meeting the green standards would be phased in, but by 2013 90% of the funds would have to be used for green projects.”

Supporters of the bill cited studies that “a green school uses 35% less energy than a conventional school, reduces carbon dioxide emissions by 40%, and uses 30% less water.”

Bill opponents called the measure a “green scheme”, warned that it could divert funds from federal programs for disabled and poor students, and saw the bill as “an intrusion into education matters normally under the jurisdiction of states and local governments.”

Under the funding plan in place, no school would receive less than $5000.