[DJC]

[Protecting the Environment 97]

Green buildings are a growing concern

By TOM PALADINO
Paladino Consulting

Here in the Northwest, sustainable building practices continue to grow as market demand increases. The Northwest Federal Credit Union, the Port of Seattle, the Norm Thompson headquarters in Oregon, and other corporations have flagship buildings that champion a green approach.

What's going on here? Are these clients onto something the design and construction community needs to know about?

The answer is a resounding YES! Traditional concerns of time, quality and cost are expanding to include performance in energy conservation, resource efficiency and environmental quality. As the value of environmental performance increases, the industry is challenged to capture this value for clients through innovation and design excellence.

Market forces

As our bullish regional economy creates new companies, new jobs and new communities, the continued economic growth in the construction industry creates pressures that inflate the cost of new development. Supplies of raw materials are shrinking, energy pricing is uncertain and waste disposal costs are rising. Public and private efforts to preserve our natural environment and enhance our communities are adding to this pressure.

As a result, demand has grown for cost-effective, environmentally sound development and buildings. The construction service industry, ever sensitive to market direction, is reinventing itself to meet this demand. Products and services are evolving rapidly, due in part to the information explosion fueled by the Internet and the World Wide Web.

Alternative approaches to designing and building are emerging, as is the understanding that paying attention to environmental concerns can be good for the bottom line.

Planning for sustainability

Public land use and planning policies, in particular the Growth Management Act and its channeling of growth to urban areas, have created additional challenges and opportunities for the construction industry.

For a major housing development on the Sammamish Plateau, sustainable building principles have been incorporated into a three-party agreement by the City of Issaquah, King County and the developer, Grand Ridge Limited Partnership. Guiding principles have been devised to produce pedestrian-oriented, clustered communities that preserve open space and minimize individual impacts on the natural environment. The environmentally sensitive plan is designed to create a market niche for sophisticated buyers and to attract leading corporations.

In Seattle, neighborhood planning efforts have included attention to sustainable design. The Cascade Neighborhood Council for example, is creating a sustainable design handbook to be used by developers. The guidelines suggest ways to reduce traffic impact and protect waterflows through the neighborhood.

In West Seattle, the Puget Ridge Co-housing development was granted a density bonus of 20 percent, by tightly clustering duplexes and triplexes around preserved open space and providing public amenities. This helped keep development costs in line and made the units affordable for middle-income households.

Demand for green buildings

Utility providers are also encouraging green building for large-scale residential and for commercial projects. Utilities are beginning to offer incentive programs that integrate performance targets in water use, energy codes and solid waste recycling.

The Seattle School District and the City of Seattle, for instance, have partnered to create guidelines for sustainable building. With plenty of input from architects and engineers, a best management practices manual has been created for use in designing and renovating school buildings. The manual spells out for the designers what the school district considers "green" and how to achieve it.

In seeking a green approach for its 200-unit Kelkari apartment development in Issaquah, Rowley Enterprises carefully sited the buildings, linking them with neighboring development through a system of trails. The apartments, under design by Baylis Brand Wagner, will use environmentally friendly building materials, and the contruction consultant, The Rafn Co., has a good deal of experience with job-site recycling.

The new REI headquarters, and the Northwest Federal Credit Union Headquarters both included sustainable design features at the clients' request. The projects have received awards for their environmental efforts, earning the companies distinction among their industry peers.

New services and supplies

Designers, contractors, engineers and suppliers are rising to the challenge, and a new approach to building is emerging. Design firms such as the Miller Hull Partnership, NBBJ and Mithun Partners all have staff that focus on green buildings for their clients. With more clients asking for green buildings, these firms are positioning themselves to capture those projects.

The City of Bellevue has instituted the "Bellevue Build Right" program to assist design professionals in meeting the challenge of using green building materials. The City is sponsoring presentations at architectural offices that are located in Bellevue or are designing projects in the city. Firms are provided with technical assistance and publicity for their use of green building materials on upcoming projects.

The design effort is not limited to architects. McKinstry Engineering and Sparling Electric both have representatives on the City of Seattle Sustainable Building Task Force, which is figuring out ways to make it easier to do green building in Seattle. Sellen Construction has a dedicated sustainable construction manager on staff. The Turner Construction Company, and the Rafn Company also have staff experts in job-site recycling and material selection.

Material suppliers are also responding to the changing market. Re:Source Washington (formerly Landrys) is representing several lines of environmental floor coverings that are the most progressive in the industry. The Environmental Home Store is moving into commercial product lines and developing literature to help commercial specifiers order alternative products.

Many of the ideas these companies are embracing in the move toward sustainable building will be covered in a regional conference, Sustainable Building Northwest, scheduled for Oct. 27-29, in Seattle. The conference aims to encourage building and construction practices that meet economic and performance objectives while benefiting the environment.

The challenge

The market forces driving these efforts are not going away. On the contrary, all indications are that continued growth in the region can be expected.

For industry members unwilling to change the way they do business, these pressures may threaten their very existence. For others, signals of approaching limits provide compelling reason to rethink, retool and reorient their businesses. Industry leaders are rising to these challenges, demonstrating that sustainable building and profitability can go hand in hand.


Tom Paladino is the managing partner of Paladino Consulting, Seattle. The firm provides design and management assistance to building owners, developers and designers who are implementing green-building strategies on their projects.

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