Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Local area committed to green building
Several recent projects demonstrate the area’s commitment to sustainable construction techniques, Green Building Council says
While the political climate for green buildings isn’t great, the market in the region is holding firm.
That’s the assessment of Alex Dews, executive director of the Delaware Valley Green Building Council.
The council recently held its Seventh Annual Sustainability Symposium to discuss industry-best practices.
“The federal government has always been an important partner,” said Dews, who has spent the past 10 years working on green building and urban sustainability in Philadelphia. “They helped in a lot of the programs in the last decade at the local level.”
With a change in leadership, the federal and state governments are less supportive of “green” programs, Dews acknowledged, but said that in a way has galvanized believers in the goals of green building.
“It’s serving as a motivation, in some way,” Dews said in a recent interview. “There had been a plateau under LEED standards. But there’s a lot of opportunity out there now, and the building sector is taking it seriously.”
Dews noted several recent suburban projects have incorporated green building prac-
With a change in leadership, the federal and state governments are less supportive of “green” programs.
tices, the most notable of which is St. Gobain-Certainteed’s U.S. headquarters near Malvern, which was unveiled using many of the energy efficiency products the company sells. In September, the building received two LEED Platinum certifications.
(LEED – Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design – is an ecologyoriented building certification program run under the auspices of the U.S. Green Building Council, or USGBC. Projects can qualify for four LEED levels: Certified, Silver, Gold and Platinum.)
Other recent examples cited by Dews:
• West Chester University’s Business and Public Management Building, which earned LEED Gold Certification.
The building “stands out for its water efficiency, materials and resources, and indoor environmental quality,” the council noted. Water efficient landscaping was installed during the construction process to ensure that irrigation would not be needed. More than 15 percent of the materials used to construct the building are from recycled content, and the building uses individual temperature controls and energy efficient lighting to save costs throughout the building.
It is the third LEEDcertified building on West Chester’s campus: Mitchell Hall and the School of Music and Performing Arts Center are both LEED Silver.
• The Boeing H47 Focused Factory renovations work done in Ridley Township, Delaware County. In 2009, spurred by increasing demand for the H47 Chinook heavylift military helicopter, Boeing initiated major renovations to various support structures, including an extensive upgrade of the historic H47 main production line located in the 361 building.
STV was the construction manager and owner’s representative, charged with completing complex construction work while increasing production rates with minimal disruption to operations, within the building envelope. The firm was responsible for 14 major capital renovation projects over the course of the planned five-year construction schedule, the Delaware Valley Green Building
The Boeing H47 Focused Factory renovations work done in Ridley Park, Delaware County, is one of the projects cited by the Delaware Valley Green Building Council as a good example of smart building practices.
Council noted.
The project has been LEED certified, the first time the USGBC awarded certification on renovations to existing industrial structures in a particular classification for older buildings.
• Doylestown Health, whose Doylestown Hospital “continues to embrace the ‘green’ movement,” the council said.
In early 2016, Doylestown Health installed a 1.6-megawatt generator powerful enough to meet about 75 percent of Doylestown Hospital’s daily electricity needs. By using the combined heat and power gas turbine (also known as cogeneration system) Doylestown Hospital expects to save more than 13,000 kilowatts hours of energy each year, which is equivalent to the same amount of energy used by 1,500 average homes.
Health care has become a major market for the smart
energy industry, Dews said, with more than 200 hospitals nationwide operating cogeneration systems.
Health care projects often focus on improving air quality to stop the spread of germs. Hospitals – and many companies – are looking at such work as ways to keep the people in their buildings healthier, Dews said.
The other major trend in the smart building market is automation – putting systems on timers and, when possible, tying them together. Apartment buildings are increasingly adopting smart building practices as well, Dews said.
According to the council, buildings account for nearly 40 percent of CO2 emissions in the United States. While suburban office parks present challenges for retrofitting to make the buildings more efficient, some are doing so successfully. In Chester County, for instance, the
Hankin Group and Vanguard have smart energy buildings, Dews said.
In Philadelphia, meanwhile, the Comcast Tower is setting new standards for what is possible in the field, Dews said.
DVGBC also is leading the formation of a 2030 District in Philadelphia, one of a number of such efforts in major markets across the nation. The goal, Dews said, is to reduce CO2 emissions from buildings by 50 percent by 2030, with 2003 used as the base level.
“Not at all,” Dews replied when asked if the change in political leadership means an end to the smart building movement. “There are a lot of people still committed to it. I would say we’ve seen a recommitment.”