Building with an eye toward sustainability and energy conservation
By Matt Lail
When
Raleigh's new convention center is completed later this year, it will be Leadership
in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certified, which means, according
to the U.S. Green Building council, that it “ encourages and accelerates global
adoption of sustainable green building and development pr
actices”
and promotes a “ a whole-building approach to sustainability by recognizing
performance in five key areas of human and environmental health: sustainable
site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection and
indoor environmental quality.”
Raleigh's convention center is not alone. The construction of city's proposed new public safety building will shoot for a “ high LEED standard,” according to Julian Prosser, assistant city manager.
These types of projects reflect a trend statewide for cities and towns to build “green,” or using long-term sustainable features that are energy efficient or conserves water.
“What's driving it is a general public mindset in certain parts of the state that sustainability matters,” said Dr. Bill Hunt, an associate professor and extension specialist with North Carolina State University.
Hunt, a stormwater specialist, cites the town of Huntersville as being the “preeminent” example of a community that has approached development with an eye for long-term sustainability, though he points to others – Chapel Hill, Carrboro, Durham, Raleigh and Wilmington, for example – that have embraced green building in one degree or another.
Cities have heard the message from their constituents, loud and clear. And many of these local governments are trying to lead the way in their communities and regions by showing how it's done before asking others to do it.
“We want to get our own house in order and understand the implications before we ask anyone else to do it,” said Prosser. “We're educating ourselves as to the implications of these [sustainability] standards.”
Show me don't tell me
When the Town Operations Center was completed in the summer of 2007 in Chapel Hill, town leaders were thrilled at the sustainability features it contained: daylighting, rainwater collection, solar water heating and a geothermal heat pumps, among others.
“The site design reflects careful consideration toward the natural vegetation
and the town's efforts to preserve the forested areas,” said John Richardson,
Chapel Hill's long range/sustainability planner.
“The town of Chapel Hill's energy-conservation ordinance requires that all town-owned buildings be designed to achieve a goal of achieving a Silver level [LEED] certification,” said Catherine Lazorko, Chapel Hill's public information officer. “In order to be selected to design a town building, an architectural firm must have at least one LEED-accredited professional on the design team. For new construction and building additions required to achieve LEED certification under this ordinance, the town requires either the project architect or engineer to monitor the energy performance of the building and to assist the building's staff in optimizing energy use of the building during the first year.”
Chapel Hill has put policy in place with regards to green building that states that any new or expanded/renovated town buildings must – at a minimum – be done to LEED-NC (new construction) standards.
“Chapel Hill has always had this reputation of being environmentally conscious and socially aware,” said Richardson. “It is my sense that the council, as the community representatives, certainly listened to this community very intently.”
In the works in Chapel Hill is a library expansion where LEED Silver certification is the target; the town is working with Ram Development Co., on a mixed-use project that would be designed and constructed in a manner consisted with LEED certification requirements as well.
Lana Hygh, the town of Cary's assistant to the town manager, stated that while her town does not specifically have a green building program, “we do approach all of our projects with a view toward stewardship of our natural resources in a cost-effective way.”
She cited the town hall expansion as an example. Energy and water-saving features include high efficiency lighting, sensors that turn off lights in conference rooms, work rooms and break rooms when unoccupied for a period of time, low-flow faucets and waterless urinals. Another example is the use of passive solar heating for the administration building at the North Cary Water Reclamation Facility.
The Asheville city council has policy in place for green building, even if the city has not yet taken on any green building projects of its own. And the policy is a lofty one. New city buildings with 5,000 square feet or more will be LEED-Gold certified; less than 5,000 square feet will be LEED-Silver.
“Even a concession stand at a park” would have to meet this criteria, said Maggie Ullman, Asheville's energy coordinator.
Future projects in Asheville that will be subject to these standards will be a new fire station (several years down the road) and possibly the city's civic center renovation.
“We're looking at the civic center and assessing to see if redoing it if it could bear the load of a green roof,” Ullman said. “That's just something we're exploring. We'd love to put some breathing plants up there on that dead space.”
The city council's resolution adopting LEED standards admits that by 2035 it is projected that “three-quarters of the built environment in the United States will be either new or renovated, thus creating an immediate opportunity to implement sustainable building practices via high performance buildings.”
And several buildings that are nearing completion in Raleigh may wind up being “green,” even if that wasn't the initial plan.
“We've built some in the past year or two that haven't initially intended to be LEED-certified, but we are going back as they are nearing completion and looking at retrofitting them,” said Prosser. Two of these facilities are a training facility at the city's wastewater treatment plant (to be completed in next four months) and a new water treatment plant (which could be completed in 18-24 months).
Prosser stated that the advisory board and city council are really looking at having a more formal policy for buildings of a certain size or character.
“We're reviewing what other cities are doing now,” he said. “We're trying to vette that carefully before we make a recommendation to council.”
A gentle nudging
Some cities are encouraging builders and developers in their communities to build green, even if the municipalities themselves either don't have the capabilities or just simply haven't had to take on new or renovated construction. In many cases, it's up to the cities and towns to get the ball rolling regardless.
Asheville offers a building permit fee waiver that waives fees for building permits and plan reviews for “certain renewable energy technologies and green building certifications for homes and mixed-use commercial buildings,” according to the N.C. Solar Center. Waivers may apply to Energy Star Rating, Geothermal heat pumps, solar-energy systems, wind turbines, gray water collection and more.
According to Moira Quinn, senior vice president of communications and chief operating officer of Charlotte Center City Partners, every office tower going up in Uptown Charlotte, plus the Ritz Carlton Hotel, are going for LEED certification.
“A contractor I spoke to not long ago tells me every upfit he's doing is also up to LEED standards,” Quinn said.
It has been 25 years since Raleigh's comprehensive plan was updated; the process for updating is going on currently. According to Prosser, there is a “pretty high emphasis from the community” on sustainability issues.
“There are things being raised in those conversations for us to consider incentives for LEED or high-performance buildings.”
Currently, there are incentives in the building code that allow for higher density, water catchment, and other features.
Les Everett, the city of Greenville's chief planner, serves as an advisor to the Greenville/Pitt County Home Builders Association board. He said he has stressed the importance of forming a Green Building Council with the association.
“Currently a committee is being established in hopes of educating our area on the green building aspects and to help promote green building standards,” he said. “My hopes are to serve on this council to bridge the gap between building concepts and requirements as they relate to our inspections process. As it stands now, green building is an option for the building community and not required by our codes.”
Chapel Hill updated its Renewable Energy Planning Resolution last year. This states that the council has “an expectation that for developers that are coming in for projects for conditional rezoning, that they incorporate energy-efficiency elements into the project to result in 20-percent reductions in energy,” said Richardson.
Cary's Hygh added that the town is looking at the possibility of “implementing the authority granted by the General Assembly to provide reductions or partial rebates in building permit fees to encourage sustainable, energy-efficient construction.”
Like many green initiatives, green building is one that has long had a stigma of high expense. But that is no longer the case, according to N.C. State's Hunt. In fact, in many cases today, towns are finding that it makes more sense in the long run to spend the money up front for sustainable features.
“There's enough evidence out there now that indicates that not every time you do something innovative to protect the environment it is going to be too expensive,” said Hunt.
Hunt described a development in a coastal North Carolina town that featured a collection pond. The development was then retrofitted with green infrastructure technologies, such as bio retention (rain gardens), impervious pavement, swale design (grass waterways) and cisterns. These changes essentially eliminated the pond. These innovative technologies are able to absorb more water on the landscape (to help with flooding due to named storms).
“It cost more to distribute the technologies across the site,” Hunt said. “But by doing that you gained an additional property where the pond had been. All of a sudden the site became more profitable.
“Developers are catching on.”
This article originally appeared in the March 2008 issue of Southern City.
***
More energy Savings in the News
-Cities and towns find ways to go green, Southern City, March 2008
-Raleigh inspectors to check for low-flow devices , WRAL.com, March 4, 2008
- Gov. Easley announces plans for plug-in hybrid plant in N.C., NBC 17, February 13, 2008
- Port City planning to make roads safer for walkers, bikers , Wilmington Star-News , February 6, 2008
- Fayetteville city council approves recycling rollouts , Fayetteville Observer, January 29, 2008
- Group's goal is to put less in landfills , Winston-Salem Journal, January 22, 2008
- Auditing energy use to find ways to save money and resources , Southern City , January 2008
- Slow but steady gains in Raleigh's 'green' goals, Raleigh News & Observer, January 22, 2008
- Basnight has bright idea, Raleigh News & Observer, January 7, 2008
- For fuel, N.C. looks homeward, Charlotte Observer, December 27, 2007
- Chapel Hill greens its fleets, Town of Chapel Hill, October 25, 2007
- Cities save some 'green' while being green, Southern City, December 2007
-Don't flush those toilets, council woman says, Raleigh News & Observer, December 17, 2007
-Port City adds hybrids, Wilmington Star-News, November 28, 2007
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