Building Green

Let There Be Light.....

2009-12-08T13:43:00.002-05:00

Any of you who have toured our building know that we put a lot of thought and effort into the lighting of the space. Having comfortable, appropriate levels of light is critically important to making our spaces usable. And lighting represents a significant opportunity to save energy over the long term.

To maximize the efficiency of our lighting, the design team worked closely with the folks who would install the lighting, Hirneisen Electric and with the main supplier of our electrical components, Fromm Electric. This is another example of how local companies were closely involved in the project.

This is the story of the choices we made that came together with a great result.

Our specifications for performance were pretty demanding so we used a Lutron EcoSystem, which consists primarily of five categories of products:

1. Occupancy Sensors

Lighting accounts for up to 50% of a building’s total energy usage. Many of our spaces can remain unoccupied with the lights on for 40% to 70% of daily operating hours, wasting energy and money. Occupancy sensors reduce energy consumption by automatically shutting off lights during periods of non-use. We estimate that occupancy sensors can eliminate 20% to 30% of total lighting energy costs!

2. Dimming (personal lighting control)

By enabling occupants of a work space to choose desired lighting levels, dimming technology not only saves energy, but can also increase productivity and workplace comfort. For example, personal lighting control can reduce annoying computer screen glare and reflections, thereby avoiding headaches and eyestrain. Since we know how the light will flow through the spaces, the dimmers are automatically set have the lighting at less than 100%--something you can’t do if you don’t spend some serious time thinking about lighting efficiency.

3. Daylight Harvesting

Daylight sensors automatically dim lights when available daylight is high, and brighten lights when available daylight is low, in order to maintain a consistent, pre-specified light level in the space. Daylight harvesting can save 15% to 50% of lighting energy, and studies show that workers are more productive when daylight is incorporated into their work environment.

4. High-Efficiency Ballasts

The Lutron EcoSystem Ballasts that control our compact fluorescent lights connect directly to all of our EcoSystem sensors and lighting controls. It’s like buying all of your computers, phones etc. from Apple. They all work together. By doing this decreased the required amount of materials (expensive copper & steel) and labor time in construction. Combined with energy-efficient fluorescent lamps, high-efficiency ballasts produce higher light output levels with less energy usage than traditional ballasts. And, now that we’ve got them all set right, the lights never flicker when they dim. We have workspaces that are very comfortable to work in.

We used a lot of fluorescent lights, which results in lower overall wattage, extended lamp life and improved quality of light. Fluorescent lamps decrease energy usage anywhere from 30% to 75% without compromising light levels.

Early on in the process, our team was skeptical about fluorescent lighting. It was one of our learning experiences. Gone are the days of nasty green blue light that gives you headaches. Our fluorescent lights are efficient, comfortable and attractive.

Conclusion

Without the use of the Lutron EcoSystem, our lighting system would have been more expensive and less functional. By using this system, working closely with Fromm, Hirneisen our design team, we saved between 40% and 70% of the expense of traditional technology.

New Report: Green Buildings and Improved Productivity

2009-11-30T05:39:00.001-05:00

Once when I was giving a presentation about our (then proposed) building, I noted that there was a growing body of research that employee productivity and student performance improve in green buildings. There was this grumpy guy in the group who said "I'm a CFO and I don't buy any of that improved productivity stuff."   Never really understood why being a CFO would cause you to ignore new information, but it made sense to him.

Last week, CB Richard Ellis a real estate firm and the Burnham Moore Center at the University of California at San Diego released research demonstrating again that employee productivity is higher in green buildings.

The study also noted the significantly higher rents that green buildings can attract.   The evidence continues to mount that green buildings may be the only economically rational and responsible approach to new construction.

For a copy of the study, click here. Really sorry to disappoint my "CFO friend."

Fantastic Building Photos

2009-11-10T18:23:00.002-05:00

Click here to see some fantastic photos of the architectural details of our building.

We walk all over it, but we love it.......

2009-10-28T15:29:00.000-04:00

It's probably no surprise that we were careful about the carpet that we selected for the building. A big expense and a big choice in terms of its environmental impact, the carpet had to be functional, attractive and environmentally friendly. The carpet is made by InterfaceFlor and is a line called Entropy.

It's worth a trip to their website on environmental sustainability to learn about this company's extraordinary, industry leading practices. Among other things, the company is committed to carbon-neutrality--that's an admirable challenge.

The Entropy carpet line is between 66% and 74% recycled materials--33% of which is post-consumer and 33%-41% of the carpet is post-industrial.

Because the carpet goes down in squares rather than rolls, it will cost us less in maintenance. When a square becomes worn or damaged, we just replace that square, not the whole roll. And the squares go into the recycling stream, not the waste stream!

So when you visit the building, be sure to look down. We're proud of our carpet and the role it played in making the building more environmentally friendly.

Video

2009-10-26T15:18:00.000-04:00

We've posted a video about the building on our YouTube channel. To view it, click here.

Where to Park

2009-10-26T15:00:00.000-04:00

We love having visitors to our building and boy are we getting a lot of them! Not a day goes by without a couple of tours going through the building. The Lawrence R. Pugh/VF Corporation Community Conference Center is busy with meetings.

We'd hate to have someone's visit marred by a parking ticket. So here's some advice on where to park when you come visit. First, there's on-street parking along both Court Streets and Third Street. Plan to "feed the meter" on those spots, but they're great for a quick visit.

When we built the building, it was designed specifically to use the Chiarelli Parking Garage (pictured) which is owned by the Reading Parking Authority. We even pointed our entrance to the corner to make the walk across the street as short as possible. The rates are very reasonable.

For visitors with a handicap placard on their car, there's a spot behind our building, with an entrance on third street or the Chiarelli garage has spots. If you park behind the building, it maybe easiest to enter the building from back-side garden level entrance. Just push the buzzer next to the door.

Unfortunately, we don't have space in our small back lot for other visitors and non-employee cars parked there may be ticketed by the parking authority. The large lot next door is owned by the church and is also not available for visitors.

Our own sparkling wine!

2009-09-24T16:33:00.000-04:00

At our ribbon cutting, Ed Anewalt, the owner of Anewalt's Landscape Contractor presented all the members of The Community Foundation staff with a commemorative bottle of Brut sparkling wine from Clover Hill Winery. Ed's family owns the winery and designed a special label to commemorate the opening of the building.

I still see a lot of bottles around the office, but they're all empty!

Water Bottles

2009-09-22T16:20:00.001-04:00

According to "All about water.org" about 1.5 million tons of plastic are used bottling water. Of course, there are places where bottled water is a great way to get hydrated, but our building isn't one of them.

We placed filters on all the taps in our building and have banned water bottles from the building. It's one little step toward cutting down on the waste in our landfills and reducing energy usage in bottling and transporting water.

And we're finding that we like Reading City tap water just fine!

The plants....

2009-09-21T16:00:00.003-04:00

There's not a lot of space for landscaping around the building, but we wanted to use what space we had to create at least a small urban green space. We hired Jonathan Alderson Landscape Architects to design a landscape plan that reflected the environmental mission of the building. We think they did a great job and that the landscaping will be a nice addition to downtown. By using native plants, we reduce the amount of water that is required to maintain them. In fact, after they're established, the plants should thrive on their own.

Fortunately, we found a great local landscaping company, Anewalt's Landscape Contractors to install the landscaping and last week, it was all completed. The rainy summer we've had has continued, so the plants have needed very little watering, but of course, all the water that we would use comes from our cistern, meaning we're not using Reading Water Authority water where we don't need it.

Where do those soda bottles go?

2009-09-20T15:51:00.003-04:00

It's too bad that we had to build a fence between us and Zion Baptist Church. The church didn't want it, and neither did we, but the City of Reading requires it.

We made the best of it, and like all things tried to make it as green as possible. The fence is made of a product called "Trex," which is made of post-consumer plastic and can be used to replace wood. It's virtually indestructible, and keeps the plastics out of the landfill. Amity Fence Company from Reading installed the fence.

Trex is also used in the bike rack we installed. So far, we've had two events in the building and the bike rack was used both times!!

Some national attention

2009-09-18T15:27:00.001-04:00

The Funders' Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities recently released a publication by Catharine Porter highlighting our building project as an example of leadership by community foundations on climate change. Click here to download a copy.

We also presented this work on a conference call with about 100 foundation executives from around the country, also sponsored by The Funders' Network.

Moving for peanuts

2009-09-17T15:03:00.001-04:00

One of the advantages to our new location is our proximity to Reading's great restaurants. The oldest and most famous of these is Jimmie Kramer's Peanut Bar. Our good friends Harold and Michael Leifer who own the Peanut Bar invited our entire staff to a lunch in the private room called "Harold's Hideaway." They even had a special "Welcome To The Neighborhood" menu for us!

One time, when we were searching for a location, one of the realtors helping us asked me to define what an acceptable location was. "Well," I said, "I guess we want to be downtown, which would mean any place within walking distance of the Peanut Bar." I think it always amused Michael that we had such scientific site selection criteria.

But our lunch was a welcome respite from the unpacking frenzy and we're grateful to our friends at the Peanut Bar for their kind welcome.

We're In.....

2009-09-15T08:41:00.002-04:00

We held our official ribbon cutting ceremony yesterday and are now open for business at 237 Court Street. The hectic events of the past two weeks have kept me away from the blog, but there will be much to come as we report on the move and more of the cool features of our new digs.

WFMZ, our next door neighbors, did a great story on the ribbon cutting, it's available here: http://wfmz.img.entriq.net/htm/PopUpPlayer-v3.htm?articleID=1266727

A green move?

2009-09-16T16:00:00.001-04:00

This photo shows some of our moving crew, from L&J Transportation unloading what we lovingly came to call "Tyga Boxes." These plastic boxes, which are made from recycled material, replace the old corrugated cardboard boxes, which would have been discarded (while putting them into the recycling stream is better than not......it's better still to reuse).

Members of our team loaded all of their office belongings into Tyga boxes, labeled them and stacked them four high on a cart. The L&J team loaded them onto an eighteen wheel truck along with our furniture and a few hours later, the whole job was complete. We completed the move in one day rather than the scheduled two days thanks to L&J's hard work and by August 28, we were able to begin unpacking some of the boxes.

The Tyga boxes were cool and very functional. But the folks from L&J told me that they're doing other things to go green, including adding governors to the engines of their trucks to limit speeds and improve fuel economy.

The Long Awaited Third Countertop Posting......

2009-08-25T15:35:00.006-04:00

Okay, maybe this isn't like the third secret of Fatima or anything, but more than one of you has asked what the "surprise" countertop is. After all, how much surprise can a countertop deliver.

Well, first of all, Vivi's desk (she's our extrarodinarily able Executive Assistant and any of you who call here know her voice) is made of an environmentally sustainable product. In fact, through using this product, we divert post-consumer waste from landfills.

And we think Vivi's countertop is also reflective of our mission. That was important. It needed to fit in.

The product is made by All Paper Recycling, Inc. in Le Center MN. They make countertops of shredded newspapers and shredded cardboard boxes. And they made Vivi's countertop out of......shredded money.

That's right, genuine U.S. currency. And on your tour of the building, if you look real closely, you'll see words like "Federal", "Ten" and "U.S." on some of the fragments.

ShetkaStone (the name of the product) is an environmentally friendly countertop like IceStone. But frankly, we just did it because it was way too cool to pass up.

Reading Eagle Story

2009-08-25T05:11:00.001-04:00

Darrin Youker and Lauren Little of the Reading Eagle visited our building yesterday and did a feature story that appears in today's Reading Eagle. Click here.

IceStone Part II

2009-08-19T10:52:00.004-04:00

Okay, even I didn't think I'd ever write two blog postings about countertops, but the IceStone story has some cool parts to it. And believe it or not, there will be a third (but that's another story and a whole lot of fun to look forward to.....you'll see). Most of the countertops were part of a very generous donation by Eric Jenkins, Julia Klein and their company, CHBriggs. They've been some of our biggest supporters during this building process with generous financial, technical and moral support. Their company is the region's leading distributor of interior building materials.

A few years ago, I got to know Bill McDonough through some work he did in educating foundations about green buildings, an area we were already involved in through our Metropolitan Edison Sustainable Energy Fund. We decided to bring Bill here to speak at our annual meeting and any of you who were there remember what a powerful, amazing speech he gave. Bill is clearly one of the leading thinkers in the field of environmentally sustainable design.

Bill arrived early for his speech, so Julia and Eric and I had a chance to chat with him for about an hour. At the time, CHBriggs was beginning to think about getting more heavily into the distribution of environmentally friendly products. Bill was beginning to think about creating a process to certify the environmental friendliness of products. And we were just beginning to think about what our new office space might look like. The ideas flew fast and furious at that brief meeting.

Today, one of Bill's companies, MBDC, has a process to certify products that meet the highest environmental standards. The process is known as "Cradle to Cradle" and IceStone is the first and only durable surface to meet MBDC's rigorous testing standards. Bill and his company have made it possible for end-users like Berks County Community Foundation to make informed judgments about what materials are actually environmentally (and people) friendly. And that helps make it easier to build green.

Likewise, the increased availability of these products through companies like CHBriggs makes it easier to acquire those materials. One of the reasons that green buildings actually did cost more in the past (though they don't now) is that it was hard to get environmentally sustainable products. With regional companies like CHBriggs getting heavily into the distribution of those products, that problem has gone away, along with the additional cost.

So, in many ways, our building was made possible by Bill McDonough and the folks at CHBriggs.

IceStone Part I

2009-08-18T10:32:00.003-04:00

I'm not sure this picture does it justice, but this is one of the products you'll see heavily used in our building. It's a countertop (okay, the industry calls them "durable surfaces") called IceStone and it's another example of how everything can be more environmentally friendly, even countertops.

First, we get bonus points for the fact that it's produced nearby in Brooklyn (for green building purposes, "regional" usually means a 500-mile radius).

The product contains no VOCs so it doesn't degrade the air quality within the building. About 75% of the product (by weight) is recycled material, much of it broken glass that gives the countertops a really interesting appearance. In fact, one of our donors was excited that she could get IceStone for her house with glass from her favorite blue Vodka bottles (Skyy Vodka). At the Community Foundation, we stuck to more neutral colors. I'm not sure our team could agree on a favorite liquor!

My wife and I have survived one kitchen renovation together, and have sworn never to do another (though I'm sure we will). But if I did another, I think I might use Icestone for the countertops. It's a really beautiful, and environmentally friendly, product. There's a whole lot of information about IceStone available here on the web.

More on IceStone in the next post.

Someday they'll wonder what this is............

2009-08-17T11:56:00.002-04:00

This is the concrete floor in the multipurpose room in the community conference center. While it will be covered with carpet, we're all amused by the prospect that some day, some carpet installer is going to pull the carpet up, see this and say, "Hey, what's that all about?"

We used the floor of the multipurpose room to test concrete stain colors for the lobby and other high traffic areas. Early on in the process of designing the building we decided that some of those areas would not get carpet.

Because of the volume of people we expect to come through the building (mostly to use the community conference center), we'd have to replace the carpet in those areas every two to three years. Not only is that expensive, it's not very environmentally responsible. I'll do a post on carpet later, but even fully recycled and fully recyclable carpet requires a lot of energy to produce, recycle and replace. And it's expensive.

So, after some arm twisting by the design team (I was a skeptic about the aesthetics) we decided to go with stained concrete. To be honest, I remained skeptical, but figured we could always cover it with carpet.

After looking at the samples above, the team picked a color (hard to see on this photo, but it's the darkest one). The lobby floor is stained and then a sealer is applied. The process is friendly to the building's air quality as there are no VOCs in the liquids. I'm told that about every decade or so, we might want to put another coat of the sealer (very inexpensive) down. I've seen the lobby and when you see it, I think you'll agree it's quite beautiful. I'm no longer a skeptic.

This is just one more example of how thoughtful design and materials selection is not only environmentally, but also economically, friendly.

Now on Twitter.

2009-08-15T19:09:00.001-04:00

You can now get this blog fed on Twitter. Sign up to follow kevinatbccf

New updates will automatically feed to your Twitter account.

Green Roofs

2009-08-15T07:14:00.002-04:00

This is the view from one of the third floor windows of the building. Yesterday, the folks from David Brothers Landscape Services finished putting the plants on the roof. Yep, those are plants on the roof.

On top of the roof surface, David Brothers put about 4-6 inches of soil and rock to create a bed for planting. Then they planted a variety of grasses and a low-growing plant called Sedum. The combination makes what is called a "green roof."

We included green roofs on a small part of the building primarily because we think they're so cool to look at and they give a great teaching opportunity. We made a decision to dedicate the bulk of the roof to capturing rainwater for the toilets and irrigation. But we thought a small nod to green roofs was really needed given the unique nature of the community. The benefits to us and the community we serve of a green roof are:

An estimated 30 percent reduction in the amount of cooling needed to keep the space underneath comfortable in summer months. Our green roofs are too small for this to make a big difference, but every little bit helps.
There will be almost no stormwater runoff from the green roofs. The soil and the vegetation should absorb virtually all of the rain that falls on them. Stormwater runoff is a major source of pollution in the Schuylkill River watershed (because of the "stuff" that the stormwater picks up on the way to the river).
No one really knows how much this extends the life of the roof membranes. If you think about it, what causes the rubber roofs to deteriorate is mostly the exposure to sunlight. These roofs will never see any sunlight.
The roofs lower the "heat island" effect that buildings cause in cities. That refers to the fact that the black roofs in cities get very hot. That hot air rises. It's a very inhospitable environment for birds. We won't be surprised to see a bird's nest (or two even) on our small roofs.

So, for a lot of good reasons, both environmental and economic, green roofs frequently are a better choice. And you have to admit....that's a nice view.

It's not any of the things you think it is........

2009-08-14T12:13:00.005-04:00

Our new building is located in a surprisingly busy spot. It's not that lots of people hang out at Third and Court, although they should--we have great hot dogs.

While not a lot of people hang out, there is a lot of hustle and bustle. It's busy because savvy downtown drivers know that a turn on Third off of Penn Street and then a turn on Court is a lot easier than turning onto Fifth from Penn. So a lot of people go by.

Those folks have noticed that one of the large glass windows in front is shattered. There's a perfectly good explanation for that.

First, it's not a "green building feature."

Secondly, it's not a "design feature".....although it looks pretty cool.

Third, it's not the result of vandalism.

The far less prosaic explanation is that a construction ladder fell against the window just the right (or wrong) way and shattered the glass. It'll be fixed in the next couple of days by our friends at B&G glass who are doing all the glass work for the building.

Seriously, we won't hug them......

2009-07-30T15:44:00.001-04:00

Before we started this process, I wouldn't have thought of trees as "part of the building." Scott Kelly of Re:Vision taught me I was wrong about that on our first visit to the site. When Scott, Bill Vitale (of DesignWorks) and I first visited the site, I asked Scott if the site would be good for a green building. Scott pulled out a solar path finder (which is like a half-sphere reflecting globe) and began talking excitedly about how the sun would move across the site.

Almost immediately, he pointed to the length of Court Street on the site and said, "We'll plant trees along here"(remember, we hadn't even decided to buy the property yet). Scott explained to me that deciduous trees along the southern side of the building would provide shade during the summer months that would help reduce the cooling requirement of the building, the size of the air conditioner we would need, and our overall energy costs.

Then, in the winter months when the sun sits low in the sky, the leaves would be gone. That's when you want to grab as much of the sun's heat as you can to lower the amount of heat you need to generate to warm the building. And, you guessed it, smaller heat plant = lower energy costs.

So, as soon as the building is done, trees will be planted along the southern, eastern and western sides of the building.....all carefully positioned to help naturally manage sunlight. For an interesting set of facts about the environmental benefits of trees, click here.

Urban Trees aren't new for us......

2009-07-31T15:57:00.001-04:00

Incidentally, Berks County Community Foundation isn't new to the urban tree scene. We manage endowed funds to support trees in the Borough of Boyertown and to maintain trees in Mt. Penn Borough. We've done a lot of that work with the Berks County Conservancy. If you're interested in supporting tree planting and maintanence in your Berks County town, we'd be happy to talk with you.

For information about a great organization that works all across the United States, visit the Earthnxt website. Earthnxt is run by our friend Janet Milkman, who worked with the Community Foundation team when she was CEO of 10,000 Friends of Pennsylvania.

North, South, East and West – Which Window Will Fit the Best?

2009-08-01T19:26:00.003-04:00

One of the most complex issues the design team dealt with was the selection of glass in the windows. This post is fairly technical (the original draft came from the energy modeling experts) but gives you an insight into the fact that some of the building decisions were more than "common sense," and in fact involved highly technical work.

Buildings respond to the climate and to their environment, so green building design is site-specific. Berks County’s climate, for example, has more overcast days than clear ones.

Daylight is free, so we designed our building to take advantage of all Berks County could offer. Designing to take advantage of sunlight reduces the number of lights that need to be on at any given time, thereby reducing the building’s electrical load. Since the lights won’t be on, we’re also eliminating any heat the lights would generate. This in turn lets us use a smaller air conditioning unit.

One of the ways architects ensure that daylight is put to good use is to use different types of glass depending on the direction a window faces and the climate. That’s because the sun’s intensity shifts as it moves across the building during the day and throughout the year.

Bear with me, I’m going to get a little technical here.

The basic properties of glass are visual light transmittance (VLT) and solar heat gain coefficient (SHGC).

VLT is the amount of light that can pass through the glass. Single-pane clear glass windows have about an 89% VLT. The foundation’s building has three different VLTs: 56, 60, and 70.

The solar heat gain coefficient (or SHGC,) indicates how much heat passes in and out. The SHGC of the foundation’s building ranges from 0.32 to 0.39. Any value below 0.35 is good.

VLT and SHGC can often be at odds with each other in the glass selection process. But, by selecting a window that balances both values with its position on the building, you end up with the proper amount of daylight filtering through without making the tenants feel like they’ve taken up residence in a greenhouse.

As the sun comes up in the east, it’s low in the sky which can cause glare. Solar radiation in these low rays can quickly heat up a building that is cool from being unoccupied during the night. To compensate for the sun’s position as it rises, the windows on the east side of the building have a VLT of 56 and a SHGC of .38.

As the sun moves higher as it approaches noon, its direct light and heat can be blocked with overhangs and shading devices.

The south side of the building is affected by both morning and evening sun so the VLT on the south side is 60% with an SHGC of .38. I

In the winter in Berks County, the heat from the sun helps warm the building. As the sun begins to set, it has the same low angles as the morning, but the building is already warm from being occupied all day. For this reason, the VLT of glass on the west side is 56 with a SHGC of 0.32.

The north side of the building is not impacted by the sun’s movement, so the windows there are larger with a higher VLT of 70 and SHGC of 0.39. These windows need to let as much light in and keep as much heat in as possible in the winter.

Yes, it all sounds very confusing. But the bottom line is this: by working with our environment and climate, we’ve created a window scheme on all four sides of the building that will provide more than 80% of the building’s light without ever flipping on a switch. We’re saving energy and money on our heating and cooling units by being smart about our windows. It just makes sense.