EBS had the pleasure of working on this project over the past year and are very happy with the results we’ve seen. This project isn’t using greenwashing like some and while some of the stats are a bit skewed in terms of actual energy offset, the first year’s data will tell all.
They have a robust Measurement & Verification process in place to ensure they meet their targeted Power Usage Effectiveness (“PUE”) which I believe to be below 1.05 – impressive to say the least!
EBS services included energy modeling for LEED and for the Oregon Energy Trust Rebate program. We’ve experience great success working with Gensler and Logicalis on this most impressive Data Center – kudos to the team!
Environmental Building Strategies is pleased to announce the addition of two members to our team.
Justin Moresco is a licensed professional engineer with 4+ years experience in the green building and construction industries. His engineering experience has focused on existing buildings, from working on LEED certifications to the seismic evaluation of dozens of structures. Before focusing his career on green building more than two years ago, he worked for one of the country’s leading structural engineering firms. Justin is a widely published author on the topics of green building and corporate sustainability, and his articles have appeared in Sustainable Industries Magazine, Reuters.com, NYTimes.com, and BusinessWeek.com. He is currently a board member of the Northern California Chapter of the nonprofit Earthquake Engineering Research Institute.
Justin is working as a consultant to EBS on a project-by-project basis. His efforts with EBS will focus on Energy Star certifications and LEED EBOM projects, as well as other engineering services.
Justin graduated from University of California at San Diego with a bachelor’s degree in structural engineering and received his master’s in civil engineering from University of California at Berkeley. He also completed a post-graduate diploma in journalism from the London School of Journalism. Justin first became interested in green building and sustainability while he was living in Ghana, West Africa.
Igor Barer is a Mechanical Engineer with a professional background in estimating and managing design-build projects for new construction and energy retrofits for existing buildings. He brings 11+ years experience in the construction industry to the EBS team. His diverse expertise includes biomedical and research facilities, medical facilities, educational facilities, data centers, museums, and commercial buildings. As a LEED Accredited Professional, Igor’s consulting knowledge includes Indoor Air Quality Management/Testing as well as both Fundamental and Enhanced Commissioning. Igor is a member of ASHRAE (Americans Society of Heating, Refrigeration, and Air Conditioning Engineers) and the Building Commissioning Association.
Igor is heading up the commissioning division at EBS and is also working with Justin to expand the engineering services we provide. He hopes to expand his role to included MEP coordination and construction management in the near future.
Igor is a graduate of Moscow State University of Food Industry with a degree in mechanical engineering.
With these two additions to the team we have established ourselves as a one-stop-shop for anything related to green building.
Contractors and bidders need to know what they are up against throughout the entire building process. By putting the requirements of commissioning and information about LEED Documentation in the bid packages, owners or project managers will get a much better understanding of what is entailed. It will also separate those who have experience with LEED from those who don’t – in general if a party has had good experience with LEED and is ready for its implementation then their bid should reflect that experience.
Make sure the requirements are in the drawings – this should prevent any mis-communications and avoid having to re-do or correct mistakes. In addition these mistakes will add costs and scheduling issues to the project. Unfortunately this is becoming more and more important as our litigious society continues to sue people for everything. Integrated Project Delivery is a new field that is emerging and becoming a strong idea. The concept that everyone is responsible for seeing the project until the end and must work as a team through its completion holds all accountable and provides a greater framework for success.
The Autodesk space in San Francisco used DPR construction and was one of the first LEED Platinum CI projects here. That team used IPD and they realized huge successes as a result.
The new version of LEED has some new and improved features and I wanted to discuss this idea of “weighting credits” that the USGBC has mentioned since GreenBuild.
To start with the new book is 674 pages – ridiculously big so plan on paying more for it than you did.
Secondly, they have decided to organize all Building Design and Construction into one book so CS, Schools and NC are organized under one structure. This gives that “bookshelf” type feel we’ve heard about. As far as ID+C I don’t know much and have no information about Homes (although I suspect there won’t be drastic improvements – except hopefully the cost issue).
Extra weight has been give to credits that matter towards Carbon Reduction and Global Warming. For instance high density and urban environments are given more credit through reduction in Single Occupancy Vehicle (SOV) reductions.
Also extra credits are assigned to the EQ 4 section. I am not exactly sure of the intent here except that if you know anything about what we breathe in buildings you know it’s an important issue.
Lastly the scale is 1-100. 40 is now the new benchmark to which we need to achieve in order to be minimum certified. Still necessary are skills like Energy Modeling and Commissioning so be sure that have those skills on board early in your project.
There is lots more to tell but I’ll wait till they roll it out to the public. Should be a couple weeks.
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