Designing Eco-buildings

Primex CEO Paul Genovese wants the $6.3 million addition to the company's Concord facility to be a showcase for how to make a building both environmentally and economically sound.

That was the message given to the building's designers Lavallee/Brensinger Architects in Manchester, says David Tesser, project manager. The building will be equipped with sensors to turn lights on when people enter a room and shut them off when they leave, saving money on electricity as it won't rely on people remembering to turn lights off.

This is but one of the environmentally friendly aspects of the addition's design, which will essentially double the size of the current building.

As more companies become aware of the benefits of green, or sustainable, designing, they are asking that those concepts be incorporated into new buildings. Options range from selecting materials that don't give off toxins, or volatile organic compounds (VOCs), to making the entire building ecologically sound from the draft table to final construction, including using computer models to test the building's environmental and economic viability before it is even constructed.

Choosing materials that have low to no VOC-emissions is a basic environmental precaution that can be taken and one utilized by all the buildings featured in this article. "New building smell" is caused by toxins, or VOCs, released into the air by sealants, adhesives, carpets, and paint and can impact people's health.

The Primex building has been designed to meet LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification, a voluntary, consensus-based national standard for developing high-performance, sustainable buildings drafted by members of the U.S. Green Building Council. The Primex addition is one of the few examples of such total green design work in the state. The goals of the LEED program are to: make efficient use of resources; avoid the use of irreplaceable, scarce or endangered resources; use durable materials; create an environment that is healthy for occupants; make efficient use of energy and water; select materials that generate the least amount of pollution; and protect and preserve natural habitats.

As part of the design of the Primex addition, a spray-on foam insulation is being used in the brick shell of the building that will create an airtight barrier to dramatically reduce heat loss and regulate the building's temperature more efficiently.

The addition will also have a more efficient air conditioning and heating system than the current building, which uses baseboard heaters. The improved building envelope allowed Lavallee/Brensinger to eliminate baseboard heat in the addition and instead use a more efficient system called an economizer that uses outside air to balance the temperature in the building during appropriate seasons.

Primex's energy savings will also extend to its power bill. In addition to light sensors in rooms, there are sensors around the perimeter of the interior of the building that will shut off lights if sufficient daylight is detected. The building will be equipped with high-efficiency fluorescent lighting. There will also be an atrium to maximize the amount of daylight in the building.

So just how much of a difference can such design elements make? These statistics from the U.S. Green Building Council show that buildings account for: 36 percent of total energy use and 65 percent of electricity consumption; 30 percent of greenhouse emissions; 30 percent of raw materials; 30 percent of waste output (136 million tons annually); and 12 percent of potable water consumption.

The U.S. Green Building Council is not alone in its efforts to promote sustainable designs. On a statewide level, the Environmental Guild of NH and the NH chapter of the American Institute of Architects are holding a training session and workshop on March 21 and 22, 2003, focusing on integrated design and development.

The conference, to be held at the New England Center at the University of NH in Durham, will bring together architects, landscape architects, engineers, developers, contractors, real estate brokers, bankers and others to promote environmentally responsible development. "There's more of a demand from clients for responsible building. A majority of architects are trying to incorporate aspects of green design (in their buildings)," says David Ely, an architect with Windy Hills Associates in New Boston and an organizer of the conference.

The French Wing of the Society for the Protection of NH Forests, designed by Stuart White of Banwell Architects in Lebanon, is another NH building that is applying for LEED certification. The Society's wing has become a star example of green design in the state. Like Primex, it was designed using local materials from within a 500-mile radius, as required by LEED standards to cut down on transporting materials over large distances and to reduce the amount of fuel required to do so. The French Wing has been designed to use 60 percent less energy than comparable office buildings through a "superinsulated shell" and airtight construction, says Paul Leveille, facilities manager.

To conserve water, the building is equipped with composting toilets instead of flush ones. In addition to using no water, the composting toilets also control odors. The building's water conservation efforts have been so successful that despite the it being used by 26 employees and tenants, it only uses 16 gallons of water per day - 90 percent less than a similar-size office building.

Recycling is another key component in the building's construction - recycled carpets, recycled drywall, insulation made from recycled newspaper, decking made from recycled bottles and sawdust, and lobby tile made from recycled glass.

The 11,400-square-foot building cost $1.25 million, or approximately $109 per square foot, which is within the average cost for similar office buildings, Leveille says. "You recoup your cost over time," Leveille says, explaining the SPNHF expects to save $4,300 annually in energy and water costs. But there are more advantages to green building than energy savings. "New studies indicate people who are in buildings like this are more productive and call in sick less often," Leveille says.

There are examples of various levels of green design in the state. Public Service of NH's new corporate headquarters in Manchester, while not designed to LEED certification standards, incorporates many green design concepts.

The $12 million project (which does not include the cost of remediation work done on site to clean up toxins) was a collaboration between Lavallee/Brensinger and PSNH's inhouse architects, says Dale Doller, project manager with the Manchester firm. "We did not add any more parking than required; we reused an existing structure; we used local brick; we used materials that were recycled or recyclable. We used materials with no or low volatile organic compounds," Doller says.

A computer system monitors all temperature controls for the building, and light sensors and natural lighting also help to keep energy costs down.

The Southeastern Regional Education Service Center (SERESC) in Bedford, a $2.8 million building which opened in April, is a high-tech and sustainable design showcase. The building's price tag includes excess land that will allow the building to expand to triple its current size.

The educational training center is also a high-tech meeting facility equipped with the latest in video and telecommunications technology. SERESC hired Grubb & Ellis/Coldstream Real Estate Advisors, which also markets the Londonderry Eco-Industrial Park, as a consultant and BerardMartel Architects to create a green building.

SERESC's building was sited so that its parking lot would receive as much sunlight as possible to help melt snow and ice naturally and reduce the need for salt and chemicals. Natural materials were also used, such as stone for the lobby floor and slate for the elevator floors. Energy efficient windows are used throughout the building, and multiple, highefficiency HVAC systems allow temperatures in the various areas of the building to be controlled individually.

The Londonderry Eco-Industrial Park, owned by Sustainable Design & Development LLC and designed/engineered with the assistance of Bedford's TF Moran, has tenets that call for buildings to be both environmentalty and economically sound, says Justin Bielagus, principal of Grubb & Ellis.

Among the buildings in the eco-park are Gulf South, a distributor of medical supplies, and Buderas Hydronic Systems. Both were designed and built by Opechee Construction in Belmont. While the buildings were erected, construction debris was put into separate containers so materials could be recycled instead of everything being hauled to a landfill, says Mark Woglom, Opechee's president. Rooftop storm drainage water is used for the buildings' landscape irrigation system. "You can get a more ecologicallyftiendly building without increased cost," Woglom says.