GO GREEN!

Green Building Practices

Diamond Construction, Inc. (DCI), with its vast knowledge of the LEED Certification requirements, from the recently completed Veteran’s Affairs Administrative Building Project, will put forth the effort to complete the construction of this facility keeping the LEED goals in mind.  DCI provides the following knowledge and background on the LEED Certification program as well as the recently completed VA Regional Administrative Office Project, as certified LEED Building.

LEED

For this City of Bozeman Fire Hall/Gallatin County 911 Call Center, LEED Certification with the US Green Building Council (USGBC) is a potential goal.  Recently this type of requirement is becoming more common in the building industry.  The National Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System™ is a voluntary, consensus-based national standard for developing high-performance, sustainable site and building designs.  The “green” or sustainable design process effectively minimizes the negative impacts related with building construction through requiring materials, means, and methods of design and construction.  Focused sustainable design requires recycled content materials and energy efficiency, while broad sustainable topics consider balancing environmental responsiveness, resource efficiency, and cultural and community sensitivity.

The LEED rating system is organized into five environmental categories of:

1) Sustainable Sites

2) Water Efficiency

3) Energy & Atmosphere

4) Materials & Resources

5) Indoor Environmental Quality 

6) Innovation and Design Processes  

Each category has related requirements and credits or points for meeting the requirements. There are four possible LEED certification levels that require a greater number of points for each level. These levels are:

Certified (26 to 32 points)

Silver (33 to 38 points)

Gold (39 to 51 points)

Platinum (52 or more points). 

Each level requires greater capitol cost, design, and construction effort to attain.  

Below is the approach DCI used to obtain the LEED certification on this building.

This project focused on finding simple and cost effective LEED Credits.  The process of choosing the final credits required significant input and coordination with the VA.  The basic initial assumptions are briefly described below for each LEED category at the Veteran’s Administration.

Sustainable Sites category, DCI planned for eight (8) credits and the prerequisite requirement for erosion and sediment control.  The credits include site selection, alternative transportation, reduced site disturbance, heat island effect and light pollution reduction.  The fairly simple alternative transportation credit required shower space in the building to facilitate and promote employees riding bicycles to work.  Although this amenity influenced the building layout and square footage, it could additionally be considered an employee benefit for those who exercise near the office. 

Water Efficiency category, DCI envisioned three (3) credits to be cost effectively attainable.  These credits involved water efficient landscaping, innovative landscaping technologies, and water use reduction measures.  Waterless urinals are a good example of the type of technology required to attain credits. 

Energy & Atmosphere category, DCI aimed for three (3) credits in addition to the three (3) prerequisites required.  These included fundamental and additional building commissioning, minimum and optimized energy performance, and CFC reductions in equipment. 

Materials & Resources category, DCI planned to obtain two (2) credits for local / regional materials being manufactured and extracted locally.  DCI designed and constructed for the LEED prerequisite of providing a dedicated location in the building for storage and collection of recyclables.  This prerequisite did have affects on building layout and square footage. 

Indoor Environmental Quality category, DCI had two (2) prerequisites of meeting minimum indoor air quality and prohibiting smoking.  We submitted eleven (11) credits for this category and they involved carbon dioxide monitoring, installing low emitting materials, controlling indoor chemicals and pollutant sources, providing a high degree of controllability of HVAC systems, complying with ASHRAE providing permanent air quality monitoring, and designing for daylight views in 75% of the office space. 

Innovation and Design Processes category, DCI included the credit involving the inclusion of our LEED Accredited Professional in the building design, construction, and LEED application process.

2009 ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN

U.S Green Building Council certifies that Department of Veterans Affairs, Veterans Benefits Administration, Regional Office Building of Helena Montana has successfully met the green building standards required for the following level of certification under the leadership in energy and environmental design (LEED) Green Building Rating System.