If green homes provide healthier, more efficient spaces that are better for the environment and a boost to your longterm investment, green commercial buildings offer all of those benefits and more on a much larger scale. According to the U.S. Green Building Council, buildings are responsible for 39 percent of CO2 emissions, 40 percent of energy consumption, 13 percent of water consumption and 15 percent of GDP annually. Those statistics reflect a significant financial and environmental opportunity for businesses and organizations that choose to go green.
One such building in Columbia is the new South Carolina Bar Conference Center, which opened in October 2010 and achieved LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Silver certification earlier this year. Located at 1501 Park Street, the 18,064-square-foot facility features two floors of conference and meeting spaces and a third floor with continuing education staff offices. One of many newly constructed buildings in the Vista, it’s the first commercial building to take advantage of the City’s Green Building Incentive Program (GBIP).
“We introduced the GBIP to safeguard the environment, enhance quality of life and encourage responsible development,” says Mary Pat Bauldauf, Sustainability Facilitator for the City of Columbia. “The program is the result of years of hard work by the City’s Climate Protection Action Campaign (CPAC), particularly a group of hardworking folks on their Building Subcommittee. We’re excited to have a hand in encouraging environmentally-friendly buildings like the S.C. Bar Conference Center and look forward to welcoming even more green buildings and residences soon.”
“The Bar is delighted with what our new conference center offers, particularly the functional spaces and technology capabilities that allow us to deliver dynamic, quality educational programming to our members,” says Immediate Past President Carl L. Solomon, who was still in office when the conference center first opened. “By keeping a concern for the environment at the forefront, we have a building that provides cost-savings in operation and maintenance in addition to enhancing the continuing legal education experience.”
The building was designed by The Boudreaux Group of Columbia, whose offices are located just down the street. Architect and President Heather Mitchell, a LEED Accredited Professional, says the firm is proud of how the project turned out.
“The S.C. Bar received several ‘Innovation in Design’ credits as part of its LEED Silver certification,” says Mitchell. “We are very proud of the amount of recycled and regional materials used in the construction, which exceeded the LEED requirements. More than 44 percent of the building materials contained high levels of recycled content, which reduces the environmental impact associated with the manufacturing of new products. Also, with over 64 percent of the materials being extracted and manufactured within a 500-mile radius, we were able to limit the impact of the transportation of materials and support the regional economy.”
Other cost-saving features include a reduction in the amount of water used, achieved through dual-flush toilets that use 43 percent less water and a drip irrigation system that uses 72 percent less water than a sprinkler head system. Cost-savings are also achieved through the reduced amount of energy needed for the building’s daily operations. This was done by using natural daylight for illumination and by improving the building’s thermal envelope, installing demand control ventilation and improved efficiency HVAC systems.
“Daylight is present in 100 percent of the regularly occupied spaces, helping to make the conference center an energizing and invigorating space to work and learn,” says Mitchell. “Hopefully, the sustainable features [will] inspire the statewide legal community to employ sustainable strategies in their own offices and in those of their clients.” To that end, Mitchell reflects on some of the greatest rewards and challenges of green commercial design.
“On a national scale, knowing what a huge impact buildings have on our overall energy consumption, the greatest reward of green design is knowing that, building by building, we as architects can positively reduce our society’s energy consumption,” says Mitchell. “Smart decisions made during the design process will impact the energy-use patterns of a building for 20, 30, or even 50 years into the future.”
“The challenges come mainly in the administrative aspects of the certification process. The LEED certification process is an ongoing and very collaborative effort between the design team, owner and contractor. LEED and USGBC (U.S. Green Building Council) are always evolving and improving, but it is not a perfect system. Acceptable strategies for achieving credits and the required backup data may vary slightly from project to project depending on the reviewers. When new versions of the rating system are released, there is a re-learning process relative to the redefinition of credits.”
Although The Boudreaux Group serves clients throughout the state and beyond, Mitchell hopes to see a continued increase in local demand for green commercial design.
“State government projects, such as university projects, are well ahead in their commitment to sustainable design since it is now mandated by law,” says Mitchell. “We do see a continued interest and understanding of sustainable design on the private side. However, this often translates into following green principles without actually taking the extra step and administrative expense of certifying the building. Churches will often fall into this category because environmental stewardship is such an integral part of their faith. But this approach rarely obtains the level of sustainability and savings in operating costs achieved by a project that is fully committed to the certification process.”
“As long as energy costs are low and water is relatively abundant, as it is in South Carolina compared to other parts of the country, the financial incentive to make sure your building uses less of both [will not be] as strong as it is [elsewhere]. More municipal and county governments need to step out as leaders and require or incentivize construction in their jurisdictions that follows LEED or other sustainable building codes that are now coming into existence.”
To qualify for Columbia’s Green Building Incentive Program, projects built within city limits must be completed and third-party-verified before December 2012. Commercial projects must be built to LEED certification, and one- or two-family projects must achieve certification from Build Green Greater Columbia, USGBC LEED for Homes, EarthCraft House, HealthyBuilt Homes or ICC 700 National Green Building Standard.
For more information, visit
www.columbia.sc.gov, or contact Plans Examiner Robert Harkins at (803) 545-3427.