Green color of choice in commercial construction

EATING LIGHT: The common area outside the cafateria has high-efficiency windows and LED lighting. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO
EATING LIGHT: The common area outside the cafateria has high-efficiency windows and LED lighting. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO

Green-building techniques have become so common in commercial construction that they almost are an expectation for companies who relocate or expand into new offices.

Executives at several companies operating in Rhode Island said the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification of a building mattered, reflecting company principles about sustainable development. But there are different degrees of green.

The highest rating under the LEED system is platinum. It remains exceptionally rare in Rhode Island. Only one commercial building in the Ocean State has been certified as LEED Platinum in the past decade, according to the U.S. Green Building Council.

The structure is the Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. building in Warwick.

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Far more common are buildings certified as either LEED Gold or Silver, the next most-stringent levels in the hierarchy, in part because the costs associated with the construction and certification process can be more quickly recouped.

The LEED rating system is an independent corroboration that the building construction and design followed standards for sustainability, set by the U.S. Green Building Council. The process for certification requires follow-up reporting by the building owner to document performance on measured objectives, including energy consumption and water conservation.

In Rhode Island, 52 buildings are certified under the standards as LEED Gold, while 19 are certified as LEED Silver, according to a spokeswoman for the Rhode Island chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council.

More than 100 more projects are registered and pursuing an official designation, according to the council.

Among the projects in the pipeline for LEED Gold certification is Northwoods, a nearly 340,000-square-foot office building in Johnston designed for multiple tenants. The building is expected to be certified as LEED Gold, once the documentation is completed, according to Kevin Casey, first vice president for leasing and construction with Hobbs Brook Management LLC.

That certification process can be 12 months or more, he explained, because a building owner has to track data to support the construction assumptions, on matters such as energy efficiency and water consumption.

For most companies, he said, the cost savings associated with leasing a workspace that is environmentally efficient is secondary to the stewardship issue, wanting to be a good caretaker of the environment.

“People are wanting to do the right thing,” Casey said. “It’s just good practice.”

In the renovation of Northwoods, the LEED Gold standards influenced several hundred decisions, he said.

It affected the selection of interior décor. All of the soft goods inside, from carpeting to seat coverings, have low emissions and high durability. The landscaping will have minimal impact, using native plantings and rain gardens to filter the roof runoff.

The parking lot materials allow water to penetrate the pavement, and the lot’s design features islands of trees and bushes, to reduce runoff. The interior lighting systems are timed to activate after typical work hours only on movement, according to Casey.

So, for example, when an employee enters the locker room of the fitness center, the lights automatically come on, then shut off when she leaves. The windows are highly efficient and designed to cut down solar glare and heat.

Such efficiencies can result in 40 percent savings in electrical costs.

Over the past decade, as the LEED standards have really taken hold in commercial construction, the cost to implement the standards has come down, primarily because of increased competition among vendors to supply the components, Casey said. He estimated the LEED standards added 7-8 percent more to construction costs.

The payback can take 20 to 40 years, but the buildings are designed for use for up to 50 years, he said. The standards also become a marketing distinction.

The anticipated LEED Gold status of the Northwoods project was one of the elements two of its tenants confirmed to Providence Business News were part of the attraction.

One was New York Life Insurance Co., which recently moved about 100 employees into 25,000 square feet in the building. The other was Dassault Systemes, a French software company based in Waltham, Mass., which in November 2014 began moving 345 employees and contractors into leased space at the facility. •

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