Jan 7 2011
McGuire Engineers today announced that its office space was officially awarded LEED Platinum Status, the highest designation awarded by the U.S. Green Building Council.
Recently completed this past summer, the office was designed to showcase a wide variety of ideas that an average office can implement to lessen its carbon footprint and create a healthier, more productive environment for employees. Everything from the paint to the flooring was carefully selected including sustainable, re-used, and recycled materials, efficient lighting fixtures and controls to monitor and adjust energy usage.
"Getting awarded Platinum LEED certification is an immense honor," said Bill Stangeland, president and principal of McGuire Engineers. "At first glance, we have a typical office space. But behind the scenes, we built an environmentally conscientious space on a reasonable budget. We wanted people to walk through our space and get inspired about what they could do in their own offices."
McGuire has a strong track record overseeing successful LEED projects for clients, ranging from the PepsiCo Sustainability Center (LEED Platinum) to Norcon, Inc. (LEED Gold). The award for its own offices follows on the heels of McGuire's distinction as one of 17 companies to receive top honors in the first round of the Chicago Green Office Challenge.
"We built our office space for energy efficiency as well as employee health and comfort," added David Brooks, senior vice president and principal of McGuire Engineers. "When our clients tell us they want to 'go green' we just take a walk around our office, showing them what worked for us and what solutions might be best for their space."
LEED, which stands for Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design, is an internationally recognized green building certification system by the U.S. Green Building Council which awards points for construction projects that conserve energy, reuse materials, and are built for sustainability.
McGuire's space includes features such as:
- Energy efficient lighting. The fixtures are ultra energy-efficient, but their efficiency is extended because of their placement and control. To maximize light in the office, McGuire designed the main workspace to take advantage of as much natural light as possible from the multitude of windows. On cloudy days or evenings, employees use individual task lights which require less wattage than overhead lights. Other lights are placed near white walls to create a "mirror" effect which multiplies the brightness the lighting provides. All lighting is controlled in zones and on timers to shut off when no one is in the space. McGuire's offices use 0.78 watts per square foot, which exceeds ASHRAE's standards by 28 percent. Chicago energy code requires office spaces not to exceed 1.0 watts per square foot.
- Reused, recycled, local and sustainable materials. McGuire used as much as they could from their old office space, including the old ceiling tiles and all the filing cabinets, which were re-painted in low-VOC paint by a local vendor. All lighting and furniture was sourced locally or regionally. The carpet tiles are 100 percent recycled, and low-VOC paint covers the walls. Key focal areas, like the lobby entrance and the conference-room credenza are made from Plyboo®, a sustainable plywood made from bamboo.
- Energy monitoring and controls. To reduce energy usage, McGuire installed several systems. A high-efficiency alternative refrigerant unit cools the IT closet, which is monitored by an independent thermostat that also monitors water usage; this is a first in the building. Up to this point, the building owners were unable to measure individual office water usage and charged tenants equal amounts no matter how much they used, but McGuire's new system is serving as a test model that may be implemented for other tenants. Next to be implemented: WiFi thermostats that can be adjusted from a computer.
- Workplace quality improvements. Making the office comfortable for employees was a key goal of the McGuire team. Ventilation that exceeds standards, low- and no-VOC materials, and plenty of potted plants – at least one per person – improve air quality. Instead of creating executive offices along the perimeter of the office that typically monopolize window space, the main employee workspaces are in full view of the windows, letting in an abundance of natural light.
- Reduced paper use. For an engineering firm, going completely paperless is next to impossible. But to greatly reduce the amount of paper used, the office installed large-screen TVs to view the oversized blueprints the firm produces. In addition, all printers are set to automatically print double-sided. Of course, all discarded paper goes into the recycle bin.
Source: http://www.mepcinc.com/