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GOING GREEN
By Linda F. Jarrett
“Going Green” has hit the
St. Louis region and if you want proof, look at the new turbine high atop Alberici Constructors Inc. new offices at Page and I-170.
Motorists cannot help but notice the white turbines towering above the landscape. The 3-blade rotor spanning 52-feet in diameter sits atop a pole rising 124 feet in the air. The turbine’s maximum capacity is 65 kilowatts, which
is what it will generate with
maximum wind power. The
annual wind kilowatt-hours
generated by the turbine is 92,000 kilowatt hours–hours Alberici is not buying off the power grid.
Alberici estimates that almost 20 percent of its energy will come from renewable energy sources. Besides the turbine, a solar system is used to heat water delivered throughout the building.
 Bob McCoole, president,
Alberici Constructors Inc. |
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When Alberici decided to build their new corporate headquarters at 8800 Page Ave., it went “green” following the U.S. Green Building Council and their LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environment Design) criteria.
Dan Sammartano, Alberici vice president, says President Bob McCoole had been to a conference held by Ford Motor Co., where he heard a presentation about what Ford had been doing in the sustainability field. “Then, I went to a USGBC-sponsored LEED training work shop and was really energized by it.”
To earn LEED certification, the applicant project must satisfy all of the prerequisites and a minimum number of points to attain a LEED rating level. Alberici is aiming to achieve Platinum LEED certification. Currently, there are only a few of these buildings in the world.
The seven prerequisites are:
• Whole building cleaning and maintenance issues including chemical use
• Ongoing indoor air quality
• Energy efficiency
• Water efficiency
• Recycling programs and facilities systems upgrades to meet green building energy, water, indoor air standards
• Exterior maintenance programs
• Systems upgrades to meet green building energy, water, indoor air quality and lighting performance standards
Sammartano says, “We had a unique opportunity in that we are the developers and owner and we had the ability to be design builder, general contractor and
occupant. It’s very rare that a team will be involved in every aspect of a project.”
Gary Schaeffer, president of GECO Engineering who was the electrical design-builder, says, “I don’t think any of us had done any LEEDS project up to that point. We really didn’t know what was involved, so it was a process of self-training in getting all the manuals and requirements for LEEDS and educating ourselves.
“Alberici went for the ultimate and they actually had enough points to go beyond,” Schaeffer says. “But if any points, got
challenged, they wanted to make sure they had enough.”
| HOK’s environmentally-friendly office interiors on the seventh floor of One Metropolitan Square, brings a loft feel to one of downtown’s classic high rises. |
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HOK has been embracing the “Going Green” concept for many years. When they announced that they would be relocating their headquarters to the seventh floor of One Metropolitan Square, they pursued LEEDs certification for commercial interiors.
Gadis says that HOK has been involved in sustainability efforts since 1992. “This was started by individuals who came out of architectural school with a certain desire to work with the environment. Some are ‘baby boomers,’ maybe the ‘hippie generation,’ so definitely some of the impetus came from them.
| Tim Gadis, senior associate, HOK |
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“HOK is a recognized leader in sustainability in the architectural design-build field and,” Senior Associate Tim Gadis says. “Firm wide, we have an initiative to design our offices to meet LEED criteria when we renew our leases.
“With green buildings,” Gadis says, “you don’t make them more complex, you make them more primitive. Use daylight instead of artificial lighting. Ventilate a building naturally instead of sealing it up tight. Sustainability asks project teams to review all of the opportunities before
making a decision or going in with
prejudged approaches.”
Nidus, a plant and life sciences incubator on the Monsanto campus was in the pilot program of the LEEDS criteria when the building was completed in 1999.
Bob Calcaterra, president and chief operating officer of Nidus, says laboratory buildings are more difficult to build because of the environmental issues associated with them. “This is a Monsanto building and when they first started the discussion of doing the building, Monsanto wanted to do something that was unique and environmentally superior, since one of their goals is to help the environment.”
The building is the first designed for the climate indigenous to Missouri and much of Oklahoma, Kansas and Arkansas with their temperatures, humidity and wind velocity.
KRJ President David Kromm says their firm is doing more buildings using the “green” concept, like “taking foundations down deep for continuous insulation so we don’t lose energy in the foundations. We have water harvesting on the roof. The site work will be sustainable with water draining into and percolating back into the soil.”
He adds that materials for green buildings come from within a 500-mile radius, a strong sustainability request for green buildings.
While costs of building green are high at the start, they are offset within a few years by utility savings.
“There is a premium in cost,” Kromm says, “and this one is different from most other green buildings in that it’s totally self-sufficient in energy, whereas other buildings may use more conventional, good efficient mechanical systems. Ours is revolutionary in that we will use purely hot water solar panels, geothermal sources, and ground water. We also have a windmill similar to Alberici’s.”
Sammartano says, “We looked at what the total energy savings was going to be in the building because of the efficiency of the system, and we multiplied that by the amount we would normally spend on electric, gas and water. We came up with an annual savings of $540,930 which equates at 7.7 year payback.”
One of the things about sustainability that’s important,” Gadis says, “is that its ultimate goal is quality of life improvement.”
At one time, people thought the earth’s resources were limitless. We now know that’s not true. Fortunately, forward-thinking businessmen such as these are doing their best to improve the future of this planet.
A New Breed
of Attorney
By Linda F. Jarrett
With the push for environmental correctness, a new breed of attorney has surfaced. Brent Gilhousen and Joseph Nassif, of the Environmental and Regulatory Practice Group at Husch & Eppenberger LLC discovered the demand early on when they were both involved in Superfund issues and other environmental litigation. They also realized that many law firms were downsizing, letting bright young attorneys go, and outsourcing much of their environmental cases.
Nassif says, “You had a bunch of talented lawyers out there in their prime, so we formed our own environmental group with attorneys, engineers, chemists, and in doing so, have created one of the largest environmental groups in the company with a broad base of expertise.”
Their projects go beyond the “Going Green” concept. Many of their cases involve recovering property once thought unusable.
“The bigger issues facing the United States are beyond construction going green,” Nassif says. “Much is being rethought about what is waste. Brett is one of the foremost experts in reclassifying what is and what is not waste.”
Nassif says what they do is “high profile strategy problem solving.” By letting development happen in an environmentally sound way, they not only find the problem, but also help you assess it.
“It’s not just finding, it’s evaluating so the business person can make a determination of whether or not the investment he or she is going to make is worthwhile, and that’s the expertise we’ve added,” Nassif says, adding, “It’s a wonderful ride and we’re
continuing to grow.”
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