BBG-BBGM Moving To Empire State Building, Will Pursue LEED Silver

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.

US House Tries to Make Schools Greener

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.

Trash Bags Certified Green

Webster Industries, a leading manufacturer of recycled content polyethylene trash bags, recently announced that the company’s ReClaim™ brand and private label trash bags are the first and only trash bags to achieve third party certification from Scientific Certification Systems (SCS) for state-of-the-art recycled content. Webster is the only plastic trash bag manufacturing company to receive independent certification to validate and verify the company’s recycled content product claims. SCS, originally founded in 1991, is an independent, not-for-profit organization widely considered to be one of the country’s leading third party product claim certification organizations.

ReClaim bags and Webster’s private label recycled content trash bags contain 75% recycled content, including at least 10% post-consumer material. All packaging contains 100% certified recycled paperboard, and the company long ago lead the industry in eliminating toxic inks and dye additives.

Recycling plastics provides substantial environmental benefits in terms of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, saving energy, preserving natural resources, and reducing landfill waste. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), recycling low density polyethylene (LDPE) saves about half (46%) of the greenhouse gas emissions associated with the production of virgin plastic trash bags, and recycling LDPE uses only about 10% of the energy that it takes to make a pound of virgin plastic material. Webster recycles over 30 million pounds of LDPE plastics each year that would otherwise be landfilled or incinerated.

Webster achieved independent certification from SCS after going through a rigorous evaluation and auditing process. SCS also certified Webster’s products for government procurement and green building qualification, including an Environmental Preferable Product (EPP) designation and LEED certification that qualifies the use of Webster’s trash bags for credits toward green building status.

Jack Shields, president of Webster Industries stated, “The success of our recycled content trash bags has been tremendous as a growing number of customers are using their purchasing power to reflect their strong environmental commitment and environmental stewardship. Through the SCS certification, our customers get an environmental benefit they can trust and the assurance that their purchase is truly reducing greenhouse gas emissions, reducing waste, and saving energy. And, in addition to our ReClaim brand, we are pleased to offer our private label customers a quality recycled content product with the SCS logo confirming certification for recycled content, LEED credits, and environmental preferable product (EPP) designation.”

Recognized by the green globe and green cross logo, SCS is the only recognized independent certification company verifying recycled content for polyethylene can liners. Stan Rhodes, president and CEO of SCS stated, “Webster is setting the gold standard in terms of recycled content and product innovation with environmental attributes in the plastic can liner industry. I applaud Webster’s proactive leadership to obtain SCS certification. It is important for customers to know that the products they purchase truly have the environmental benefit being claimed.”

The SCS certification for Webster’s ReClaim and private label trash bags validates the recycled content environmental claims and gives customers a guarantee that Webster’s products provide a verified, audited and meaningful environmental benefit. Given the current marketplace confusion regarding identifying truly “green” products, the SCS certification and corresponding logo on Webster’s products provides third-party proof and scientific validation that all of the products truly contain recycled content that would otherwise be landfilled or incinerated.

Shaw Industries Named as CARE’s Large Recycler of the Year

Shaw Industries was named Large Recycler of the Year by the Carpet America Recovery Effort (CARE), a joint industry-government initiative to promote carpet recycling, reuse, and waste reduction of post consumer carpet. Shaw leads the carpet industry with its cradle-to-cradle recycling program that has recycled 100 million pounds of post consumer carpet to date through its Evergreen Nylon Recycling Facility.

Shaw president Randy Merritt believes that the company’s commercial and residential carpet products embody the carpet-to-carpet design as a means to reduce landfill waste and virgin raw material usage. The company’s efforts have lead to increased amounts of recycled content available for the production of new Shaw products in the future. “Shaw has come a long way in implementing its cradle-to-cradle products,” says Merritt. “Beyond the ability to design a product for reclamation and recycling through Evergreen, we had to organize and facilitate a nationwide collections network to service our customer’s recycling needs. It is a great honor for Shaw to be recognized by CARE for its recycling successes.”

Shaw’s nationwide collection network collaborates with entrepreneurs and businesses across the U.S. in establishing recycling centers for post consumer carpet. In conjunction with these businesses, Shaw has collected 165 million pounds of carpet, keeping it from landfill.

Shaw’s nylon brands, Eco Solution Q® and Anso® nylon, service the commercial and residential markets, respectively, and are nylon 6 fibers. Any carpet made with nylon 6 fiber can be processed at the Evergreen facility, the only operating facility of its kind in the world. The Evergreen process yields caprolactam monomer, the building block for new nylon, which gives Shaw the ability to increase the amount of recycled content in its products with the addition of post consumer recycled content.

The Shaw carpet recycling network operates collection points across the United States and in most major markets. Russ Delozier, the post consumer carpet collection manager, was named the CARE Person of the Year for 2007. “Russ and his committed team have played a major role in the implementation of our collection network,” says Rick Ramirez, vice president of sustainability and environmental affairs. “I am pleased that CARE recognized him for the leadership role that he is playing in bringing carpet recycling options to our customers and communities at large.”

Shaw commercial brands The New Patcraft & Designweave, Shaw Contract Group, and Shaw Hospitality Group manufacture carpet products with Eco Solution Q nylon, a Cradle to Cradle Certified product by MBDC. This certification contributes to Innovation in Design points through the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System. Additionally, Shaw commercial brands feature EcoWorx backing technology for tile and broadloom carpet. Shaw guarantees that it will collect and recycle all EcoWorx carpet products into more EcoWorx at no charge to the customer.

Greenpeace co-founder speaks out

Greenpeace co-founder and former leader Dr. Patrick Moore recently spoke out against attempts by activist environmental groups to politicize the green building agenda.

Addressing members of the National Association of Home Builders at their recent National Green Building Conference in New Orleans, Moore said, “Greenpeace is using the US Green Building Council's LEED green building standard as a Trojan horse to deliver an activist agenda that is not in line with science or sustainability."

“Ironically, many of the positions that Greenpeace and other activist organizations advocate run contrary to a sound green building approach and will likely do more harm than good,” said Moore, Chair and Chief Scientist at consulting firm Greenspirit Strategies Ltd.

“Greenpeace is opposed to the use of hydro power, nuclear energy, widely accepted sustainable forestry standards, and vinyl products, to name but a few of the things they are opposed to," said Moore.

"How ironic since nuclear and hydro are among the most sustainable of energy sources while wood and vinyl are among the most sustainable of building materials," said Moore.

“These unscientific biases, fostered by activist groups, have found their way into the LEED standard,” said Moore.

“Healthcare is an important field where vinyl materials perform well because of their low cost and anti-bacterial qualities," said Moore.

"In my opinion, banning vinyl from healthcare—as some activist organizations would have us do in the new LEED for healthcare standard—runs contrary to everything I know about sustainability," said Moore.

"A ban on affordable vinyl products might increase healthcare costs at a time when we can least afford it," said Moore. "Such a ban might also have negative implications on hospital hygiene," Moore said.

“We need to be practical and realistic," said Moore.

"There are over six billion people on this planet, all of whom need food, energy, shelter, and materials," said Moore.

"By initiating campaigns against nuclear and hydro power, wood, and vinyl, the Greenpeace agenda would have us deny people basic needs, and that runs completely contrary to true sustainability," said Moore.

“One way to ensure LEED and other green building standards are not unduly influenced by the activist political agenda is to encourage rigorous competition among the various standards,” said Moore.

“No green building standard should have a monopoly on the market,” said Moore.

“Competition is important to ensuring high quality green building standards that are based on sound science and focused on sustainability,” said Moore.

"LEED 2009" Open For Public Comment

The U.S Green Building Council (USGBC) has put proposed improvements to the green building rating system up for comment through June 22.

LEED 2009 represents a reorganization of the existing LEED rating systems for commercial buildings, combined with a series of major technical advancements focused on improving energy efficiency, reducing carbon emissions, and addressing other environmental and human health outcomes.

“Continuing to seek the right balance between technical advancement and market transformation was a driving force behind the LEED 2009 work,” explained Scot Horst, chairman of the volunteer LEED Steering Committee, which leads the technical development of the LEED rating system. “The ‘big ideas’ we’ve proposed include transparent weightings of LEED credits so the highest priority credits achieve the most points, a new mechanism for incorporating bioregional credits, and a more nimble framework that supports rapid response to emerging environmental and human health issues.”

The LEED Green Building Rating System was developed by USGBC to drive market transformation in the building industry by defining a consensus metric for leadership in green building that forms a basis for continuous improvement. The evolution of LEED is based on technical, scientific, and market-based advancements.

“When it was introduced in 2000, the LEED Green Building Rating System helped to spark a revolution that is changing the way we build and operate our offices, schools, hospitals and homes,” said Rick Fedrizzi, president, CEO & founding chair, USGBC. “LEED 2009 resets the bar for green building leadership because the urgency of our mission has challenged the industry to move faster and reach further.”

LEED 2009 is the product of thousands of hours of volunteer time and expertise provided by representatives from all areas of the building industry who serve on the USGBC member committees and oversee the development of LEED. LEED 2009, coupled with an expanded third-party certification program and enhancements to LEED Online, make up a multifaceted initiative referred to as LEED Version 3.0.

Detailed information about specific proposed technical changes to the rating system can be found in the number of background documents that accompany the public comment forms on USGBC’s Web site. Further information about the expansion of the certification process and improvements to LEED Online as well as future technical improvements, including the integration of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) into LEED, will be forthcoming in late summer.

About the Public Comment Period
The public comment period is a critical part of the consensus process by which LEED is developed. During public comment, all stakeholders are invited to review all proposed improvements and offer technical or market oriented perspectives through USGBC’s Web site on the slate of changes represented by LEED 2009. All public comments are reviewed by the USGBC volunteer committees that oversee the LEED rating system. USGBC will respond to all comments and post the comments and responses (without commenter names or organizations) to the USGBC Web site. If changes to the LEED system are made as a result of comments, a 15-day second public comment period will be undertaken. The resulting draft will be sent to all USGBC member organizations for ballot prior to release.

The public comment period will be open for 30 days, from May 19 through June 22, 2008, at 5 PM Pacific Time.

Willow School Promotes Sustainable Design with Help from Local Dealer

Dancker, Sellew & Douglas, a commercial interiors firm specializing in environmentally responsible approaches to workspace design, recently hosted an open house at The Willow School in Gladstone, NJ to promote the methods and benefits for incorporating sustainable concepts into commercial environments and corporate daily activities.


During the course of the event, Steve Lang, vice president and general manager at DS&D, also awarded a $2,500 donation to The Willow School, which was founded in 2000 to combine academic excellence and the wonders of the natural world for students ranging from kindergarten through the eighth grade. Since then, the independent day school has become a model for sustainable design while earning certification from the United States Green Building Council in the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program.

"We are proud to be working with The Willow School to promote the latest philosophies and applications of sustainable design," said Lang. "Green building is becoming increasingly important to the corporate world for reducing energy costs, conserving resources and sustaining the environment."

"Our goal is to create a model of excellence," added Mark Biedron, co-founder of The Willow School. "We are committed to combining academic excellence and the joy of learning with an environment that promotes the wonder, beauty, pleasure, and richness of nature. This is achieved by dedicating ourselves to the mastery of the English language, science, and the arts in surroundings that fully embrace and preserve the area's natural beauty."

Located on a 34 acre campus, The Willow School is currently comprised of a recently constructed 13,500-square-foot classroom building, an administrative building that was the original farmhouse, and additional classroom facilities based in the site's refurbished barn. At the heart of each building is the use of sustainable materials that range from stones from the barn's original foundation to ceramic tiles, floorboards, and lumber retrieved and recycled from the demise of numerous other corporate structures and buildings. Even infrastructure items such as glue, wiring, and piping were painstakingly researched and selected based on their bio-friendliness and ability to foster the school's sustainable design concept.

As for the grounds themselves, each classroom within The Willow School features numerous skylights and windows specifically positioned to harvest sunlight throughout the day and reduce the dependence on lighting fixtures and electricity at all times. Rainwater is also collected on site and used for numerous activities including within restrooms. Garbage is turned to compost to nurture the school's many natural meadows, butterfly gardens, flowers, and foliage. In addition, high-efficiency gas heating is supplemented by solar panels, while the ground's wetlands are used for the filtration and treatment of wastewater, which then returns clean water to the school's groundwater system.

"The Willow School has already become recognized as one of the top five LEED facilities in the nation," further explains Lang. "It has provided an excellent example in how we all can work together to use our natural resources and create a greener, safer environment for all future generations."