October 15, 2009
October 26, 2009
PRESS RELEASE
DATE: OCTOBER 26, 2009
For Immediate Release
Download PDF here USGBC-Chicago Press Release – Regional Green Building Case Study Project
Regional Study of Green Buildings First of Its Kind to Study Post Occupancy Results of LEED Buildings in Illinois
Illinois has been an early leader in green building construction, currently ranking sixth in the number of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) buildings built, with the City of Chicago itself having more LEED® certified buildings than any other city in the country. This leadership continues with release of a report from the U.S. Green Building Council – Chicago Chapter (USGBC-Chicago) that provides a first look at post-occupancy performance of LEED buildings on a local scale.
The Regional Green Building Case Study Project: a Post-Occupancy Study of LEED Projects in Illinois report summarizes the first year of a multi-year study to analyze the post-occupancy benefits of 25 LEED® certified projects in Illinois related to: energy use, greenhouse gas emissions, water use, construction and operating costs, cost of building green, health and productivity impacts, and occupant comfort. The study was funded by the Grand Victoria Foundation and is a collaborative endeavor between the USGBC-Chicago, U.S. EPA Region 5, the City of Chicago, Delta Institute, and the Center for Neighborhood Technology, which was the lead researcher for the project.
The study found that sustainability does not stop with building design and construction. While a building may be designed to be sustainable, it is often ongoing operational issues that affect the amount of energy, water, and other resources it consumes. Accordingly, ongoing performance evaluation is a key component of long-term sustainability.
“Sustainability must be integrated into ongoing operations and maintenance practices,” says Kathy Tholin, CEO of the Center for Neighborhood Technology, whose Chicago LEED Platinum building was a part of the study. “Constructing to LEED® Platinum was a natural choice given CNT’s long-standing commitment to sustainable development,” explains Tholin. “But our job is far from complete. Now that we’re utilizing the space, sustainability means focusing on ongoing operations and maintenance. We’re striving for continuous improvement.”
The U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System is the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction, and operation of high performance green buildings. LEED provides a roadmap for measuring and documenting success for every building type and phase of a building lifecycle.
Doug Widener, Executive Director of the U.S. Green Building Council – Chicago Chapter emphasizes that “with an understanding of operational issues, tenant behavior, and maintenance practices, building owners and managers can implement ongoing changes that lead to increased building performance and sustainability over time.” Mr. Widener adds that “this report is an important step towards achieving our mission of leading the regional transformation of the built environment to become ecologically sustainable, profitable, and healthy.”
The report compliments the U.S. Green Building Council’s recently launched Building Performance Initiative. Beginning this fall, it will analyze energy and other resource use data from LEED buildings and provide this data back to building owners to allow for ongoing sustainability improvements over time.
The study also found that resource use varies in LEED buildings. Many participating projects performed better than conventional commercial interiors and buildings, with projects that focused on energy conservation as a part of their LEED strategy performing better in relation to energy use and conservation than projects that focused on other areas of sustainability. Given that LEED is a multifaceted system that rates a building’s sustainability on a variety of factors (including site, water efficiency, energy efficiency, materials and resources, and indoor environmental quality), projects that focused on energy conservation performed better in this area than projects that did not. All buildings in the first year of the study were certified under older versions of LEED. Newer versions of the rating system mandate, as well as incent, higher levels of energy efficiency.
The results of occupant comfort in surveyed projects were very high, especially related to indoor air quality and lighting. The study also found that construction costs varied greatly, as do construction costs of conventional buildings, and that these are largely driven by programmatic issues. The average premium reported for building green was 3.8%; in line with national average.
For the second year of the study, 25 additional Illinois LEED projects will be added to its sample for a total of 50. “We are excited by this initial year of the study, but are even more excited for the second year when we will add buildings certified under newer versions of LEED to see if these newer LEED buildings perform better,” notes Widener. “We are also collecting a second year of data for our first year projects. It will be interesting to see if operational changes made as a result of the study will result in improved efficiencies in these buildings.”
For the full report and case studies please visit the Chapter web site at: http://www.usgbc-illinois.org/?page_id=2905.
About the U.S. Green Building Council – Chicago Chapter
The U.S. Green Building Council – Chicago Chapter’s over 1,600 members represent the entire spectrum of Illinois’ green building community, from real estate professionals, architects, engineers, designers and trade associations to contractors, product manufacturers, state and local government officials, homebuilders and homeowners. The U.S. Green Building Council – Chicago Chapter is the local affiliate of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), a national non-profit composed of leaders from every sector of the building industry working to promote buildings that are environmentally responsible, profitable and healthy places to live and work. USGBC’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System is the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction, and operation of high performance green buildings. LEED provides a roadmap for measuring and documenting success for every building type and phase of a building lifecycle. In the Chicagoland region, the Chicago Chapter furthers the work of USGBC through a variety of programs, events, education and research initiatives, advocacy campaigns, and resources for the local green building community.
Media Contact:
Doug Widener
Executive Director
312-245-8300 ext.201
dwidener@usgbc-chicago.org
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October 5, 2009
Holiday Inn Chicago Mart Plaza Earns LEED Gold
– Hotels, 9/9/2009 9:04:00 AM
CHICAGO (Wednesday, September 9) — The Holiday Inn Chicago Mart Plaza announces its LEED® Gold Certification (Existing Buildings, Operations & Maintenance) by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED-EBOM), making the hotel the first LEED Gold certified hotel in the city of Chicago. LEED® certification is the nationally accepted benchmark for design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings.
The 521-room Holiday Inn Chicago Mart Plaza is part of the 2.25 million square foot, 25-story 350 West Mart Center which has also been awarded LEED® Gold certification. The Holiday Inn Chicago Mart Plaza is operated by Hostmark Hospitality Group.
The hotel, originally built in 1977, recently underwent a $20 million redesign that included extensive ecological measures including installing solar film on many of its windows to reduce solar heat gain and thus reduce air conditioning load on the building. The installation of this solar film will also create a better thermal climate in many areas of the hotel.
The Mart Plaza also adopted a Sustainable Purchasing Policy that gives preference to LEED-qualified green products for cleaning supplies, office supplies, furniture, electronic equipment, lamps, and renovation materials. These measures reduce the environmental impacts of materials acquired for use in the ongoing operations, maintenance, and future upgrades of the hotel. In fact, 60% of facility alterations & additions (renovation) and 48% of furniture purchases met third-party LEED sustainability criteria building-wide. Purchasing highlights from the Mart Plaza’s recent redesign project include carpeting certified by the Carpet and Rug institute’s Green Label and Green Label Plus certification systems, chairs and cabinets made with Forest Stewardship Council certified sustainable wood, recycled upholstery fabric, and energy conserving guest room TVs.
Many additional initiatives such as a Solid Waste Management Policy that requires recycling or other diversion of ongoing consumables, durable goods, facility alterations and additions, and mercury-containing lamps, have been adopted at the hotel.
“We are always striving to better serve our community, our guests and the globe with efforts as aggressive as this redesign and as small as using ‘green’ cleaning products. This is a priority for the Holiday Inn Chicago Mart Plaza,” says Director of Sales and Marketing, France Langan.
October 5, 2009
Beacon Capital Partners Makes History with First Multi-Tenant Platinum LEED® Certified LEED for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance
Beacon and Jones Lang LaSalle drive process to certify 550 West Washington in downtown Chicago as the first LEED for Existing Buildings: O & M Platinum multi-tenant building
CHICAGO, September 9, 2009 — Beacon Capital Partners, LLC (“Beacon”) and Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) today announced the world’s first Platinum LEED Certified multi-tenant building under the LEED for Existing Building: Operations & Maintenance (O&M) category at 550 West Washington Street in Chicago. The 10-year old asset owned by an affiliate of Beacon makes history as the first multi-tenant building to reach Platinum status.
“550 West Washington Street was developed as a high-performance building in the late 1990s, and this initiative raises the bar on what it means to be high-performance in the 21st Century” said Fred Seigel, President and Chief Operating Officer of Beacon. “Platinum LEED certification is the ultimate proof that a building meets the most rigorous standards for energy and sustainability, and demonstrates Beacon’s commitment to sustainability throughout our portfolio.”
“With each new LEED-certified building, we get one step closer to USGBC’s vision of a sustainable built environment within a generation,” said Rick Fedrizzi, President, CEO & Founding Chair, U.S. Green Building Council. “As the newest member of the LEED family of green buildings, 550 West Washington is an important addition to the growing strength of the green building movement.”
In the second quarter of 2008, JLL and Beacon conducted an analysis of 550 West Washington’s current energy efficiency and sustainable features, as well as steps necessary to achieve LEED certification. Achieving Platinum certification, the highest possible level, requires 68 LEED credits in areas such as energy and water efficiency, indoor air quality, use of sustainable building materials, tenant recycling and other sustainable features. The building’s extremely high ENERGY STAR score was an important step toward LEED certification, as was proximity to public transportation and other existing features, including a state-of-the-art digital HVAC control system.
With Beacon’s decision to seek certification, the team registered the property on the USGBC web site and implemented a program to improve and optimize the building’s efficiencies. Over the course of the next year and with minimal capital investment, they were able to rework building policies to ensure sustainable procedures, coordinate green activities with vendors and tenants, and conduct a full retro-commissioning of building systems to obtain a Platinum-eligible submission for LEED for Existing Buildings: O&M status. Among the benefits of these efforts are reduced utility costs and improvements in tenant comfort.
Tenant involvement was an important element of Beacon and JLL’s efforts. Many of 550 West Washington’s tenants, including anchor tenant CME Group, regularly make sustainable decisions with respect to the construction of their tenant improvements and procurement of supplies. These decisions were critical in helping the building to achieve Platinum Certification.
“CME Group is pleased to have supported 550 West Washington’s efforts to achieve LEED-EB O&M Platinum Certification as these efforts are in alignment with the company’s own sustainability goals and occupancy cost reduction efforts,” stated Kevin Lennon, Managing Director of Real Estate at CME Group.
“Beacon has proven that it is an environmentally responsible owner,” said Dan Probst, Chairman of Jones Lang LaSalle’s Energy & Sustainability Services group. “550 West Washington is 95 percent occupied with long-term tenants. Beacon sought certification because it was the right thing to do.”
To gain Platinum LEED for Existing Buildings: O&M certification, the Beacon/JLL team developed and implemented a strategy that included:
• Retro-commissioning the building systems to enhance energy performance
• Sustainable purchases for more than 40% of the building supplies and materials, as well as 60% of the building cleaning products
• Increasing use of sustainable maintenance products
• Implementing green housekeeping, green landscaping, and integrated pest management programs
• Implementing battery and electronic waste programs
• Creating and delivering tenant education programs
• Improved recycling rate from 32% over 70% diversion from landfill
About LEED
The U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED green building certification system is the foremost program for the design, construction and operation of green buildings. The U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED rating system is the preeminent program for the design, construction and operation of green buildings. 35,000 projects are currently participating in the LEED system, comprising over 5.6 billion square feet of construction space in all 50 states and 114 countries.
By using less energy, LEED-certified buildings save money for families, businesses and taxpayers; reduce greenhouse gas emissions; and contribute to a healthier environment for residents, workers and the larger community.
USGBC was co-founded by current President and CEO Rick Fedrizzi, who spent 25 years as a Fortune 500 executive. Under his 15-year leadership, the organization has become the preeminent green building, membership, policy, standards, influential, education and research organization in the nation.
About ENERGY STAR
ENERGY STAR is a joint program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy helping us all save money and protect the environment through energy efficient products and practices. EPA provides an innovative energy performance rating system which businesses have already used for more than 62,000 buildings across the country. EPA also recognizes top performing buildings with the ENERGY STAR. For more information please visit
www.energystar.gov.
About Jones Lang LaSalle
Jones Lang LaSalle (NYSE:JLL) is a financial and professional services firm specializing in real estate. The firm offers integrated services delivered by expert teams worldwide to clients seeking increased value by owning, occupying or investing in real estate. With 2008 global revenue of $2.7 billion, Jones Lang LaSalle serves clients in 60 countries from 750 locations worldwide, including 180 corporate offices. The firm is an industry leader in property and corporate facility management services, with a portfolio of approximately 1.3 billion square feet worldwide. LaSalle Investment Management, the company’s investment management business, is one of the world’s largest and most diverse in real estate with more than $36 billion of assets under management. For further information, please visit our Web site,
www.joneslanglasalle.com.
October 5, 2009
September 23, 2009
DePaul’s McGowan Science Building Receives Gold LEED® Certification
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From industrial-strength ventilation systems to huge water ionization tanks, buildings dedicated to scientific research and training—by their very nature—are tremendous consumers of energy and other resources.
That is why the Gold LEED® rating recently bestowed on DePaul University’s new Monsignor Andrew J. McGowan Environmental Science and Chemistry Building is truly remarkable. The designation, by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), is the first for university science buildings in Illinois. The 130,000-square-foot facility opened in January 2009 and represents a major leap forward in DePaul’s efforts to prepare more students for careers in the sciences—especially women and students of color.
George Tuhowski, the USGBC Chicago Chapter’s board vice chair, presented DePaul with a plaque designating the building’s Gold LEED certification at a ceremony on Sept. 23 held on McGowan’s rooftop.
“DePaul is certainly leading by example and demonstrating a superior commitment to excellence and sustainability,” said Tuhowski. “With a variety of energy efficient systems and environmentally sensitive materials, the building’s greatest value will be in the form of optimal productivity as well as the health and wellness of all those who use it. Chicago is the world leader in LEED projects because of partners like DePaul University who are not only advocates of sustainability, but practitioners as well.”
The green features of McGowan South, as the building is known on campus, added roughly 1.7 percent to its construction cost of $35.3 million. However, those investments are expected to make the structure 24 percent more energy efficient than a comparable building that is merely compliant with Chicago’s basic building standards. The financial savings stemming from the energy efficiencies are expected to recoup the costs of the green investments in about five years, according to Robert Janis, vice president of facility operations.
McGowan South features a wide variety of energy-efficient elements including thermal mass walls, double-pane windows, a partially green roof, high-efficiency boilers and water heaters, dual-flush toilets, low-flow sinks and showers, and room occupancy sensors and daylight-harvesting equipment to minimize lighting costs, according to Robert Janis, vice president for Facility Operations. The building also utilized locally produced and recycled building materials and native landscaping to eliminate watering needs.
“DePaul is pleased that our efforts to make the McGowan South Building a model of sustainable development have garnered recognition by the preeminent building efficiency agency in the nation,” said the Rev. Dennis H. Holtschneider, C.M., DePaul’s president. “That this building will be used to teach environmental sciences makes this designation all the more fitting. The building itself will serve as an example of environmental stewardship to all those who pass through its doors.”
The Illinois Clean Energy Foundation, a non-profit that works to improve Illinois’ environment, provided a $100,000 grant to help design the project’s environmentally friendly features.
James Montgomery, chairman of DePaul’s Environmental Science department, noted that the building has allowed DePaul to increase its academic offerings substantially. “DePaul’s science programs are known for giving undergraduate students outstanding opportunities to conduct hands-on, scientific research, and McGowan South greatly bolsters those programs,” said Montgomery. “The facility provides ready access to boats that we use frequently for field research on the nearby Chicago River.”
In addition to a green rooftop demonstration garden, McGowan South’s roof also accommodates two new greenhouses that contain expanded research projects. Several faculty members in Environmental Science, including Judy Bramble, Mark Potosnak and Sarah Richardson, and their students, have already helped to fill the greenhouses with plants that are being studied for a variety of properties that might have environmental impacts.
The facility also offers locker rooms for building occupants who commute by bicycle.
U.S. Green Building Council
The Washington, D.C.-based U.S. Green Building Council is committed to a prosperous and sustainable future for our nation through cost-efficient and energy-saving green buildings.
With a community comprising 78 local affiliates, more than 20,000 member companies and organizations, and more than 100,000 LEED Accredited Professionals, USGBC is the driving force of an industry that is projected to soar to $60 billion by 2010. The USGBC leads an unlikely diverse constituency of builders and environmentalists, corporations and nonprofit organizations, elected officials and concerned citizens, and teachers and students.
Buildings in the United States are responsible for 39% of CO2 emissions, 40% of energy consumption, 13% water consumption and 15% of GDP per year, making green building a source of significant economic and environmental opportunity. Greater building efficiency can meet 85% of future U.S. demand for energy, and a national commitment to green building has the potential to generate 2.5 million American jobs.
LEED
The U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED green building certification system is the foremost program for the design, construction and operation of green buildings. The U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED rating system is the preeminent program for the design, construction and operation of green buildings. 35,000 projects are currently participating in the LEED system, comprising over 5.6 billion square feet of construction space in all 50 states and 91 countries.
By using less energy, LEED-certified buildings save money for families, businesses and taxpayers; reduce greenhouse gas emissions; and contribute to a healthier environment for residents, workers and the larger community.
USGBC was co-founded by current President and CEO Rick Fedrizzi, who spent 25 years as a Fortune 500 executive. Under his 15-year leadership, the organization has become the preeminent green building, membership, policy, standards, influential, education and research organization in the nation.
For more information, visit www.usgbc.org.
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October 5, 2009
October 5, 2009
http://www.usgbc.org/Docs/News/Back%20to%20School%20Release_Sept%202009%20edits.pdf
October 5, 2009
http://www.usgbc.org/News/USGBCInTheNewsDetails.aspx?ID=4192
