USGBC SC Announces the 2013 Leadership Award Winners
Friday, May 24th, 2013
On Thursday, April 25th during the fifth annual SustainSC event the USGBC South Carolina Chapter held its Leadership awards luncheon. The award sponsor Duke Energy was present and their
representative Bonnie
Loomis, SC Foundation & Sports Marketing, gave a speech echoing the theme of the two-day conference – Rising Tide. The Lunch sponsor for the event was BMW Manufacturing.
At the end of the luncheon the award recipients were announced. Now in its seventh year, the leadership awards program recognizes outstanding individuals and organizations that have shown vision, leadership and commitment to the advancement of green building and construction in South Carolina. When USGBC SC first began honoring outstanding leaders, it was with the intent of honoring extraordinary efforts above and beyond offering green building services to clients – not efforts made by those of us “in the choir,” but by those who embrace “green” by choice. Those efforts should make others sit up and take notice. Thursday we honored two different categories of excellence. Leadership awards honor individuals, firms or organizations that lead by example, or have helped transform markets by providing information or education that establishes the value of green building. Exemplary Projects are characterized by unique environmental, social and economic success, as well as the ability to inspire others. They will also be judged by measurable attributes such as energy or water savings and the importance of recognizing leadership, which has brought us a long way, and will continue to do so.
The number of exceptional nominations that were received made this year’s decision very difficult.
Boeing South Carolina and Edens were the recipients of this year’s Leadership Awards.
The Boeing Company has built the state’s largest capital project to date on land that once was a phosphate mine. When they came to the state, Boeing said that all new construction and major renovation projects will be designed to a LEED Silver rating or higher and they’ve kept their word. The company’s Final Assembly and Delivery project includes six LEED certified projects – four Gold and two Silver. These buildings, totaling over 1.5 million square feet, provide Boeing the manufacturing and operational facilities for the production and delivery of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
Before the first shovel of dirt was turned, the design and construction team was charged with making the project an example of sustainability and environmentally progressive design. Many features reduce energy and water use and protect the nearby wetlands and waterways. Then the company topped the project off by installing the largest solar power array in the state’s history. Their use of green power has made them one of EPA’s top twenty-five green power users.
Boeing South Carolina has served as an example to the rest of the Boeing organization. This is the company’s first major production facility to achieve zero waste to landfill status. Boeing’s leadership will transform the way companies develop and manage facilities in the years to come.They have been truly a game changer for the state.
Edens develops, owns and operates neighborhood shopping centers in primary markets throughout the East Coast. Several years ago they embarked on an ambitious commitment to sustainability with an objective to advance their understanding of green building design and construction, and its role in cultivating sustainable communities.
Edens has made it a policy to work with other organizations that share their goal of a more sustainably built environment. They give preferential consideration to contractors and consultants that have LEED Accredited Professionals (AP) on staff, have sustainability programs in their workplaces and / or have previous ”green” project experience.
In addition, they have incorporated eco-friendly practices into Travel Guidelines, standard lease and Property Management standards and they communicate eco friendly practices to retailers and reward those who implement them.
Edens also practices what they preach: In 2010, they located their newly constructed, energy efficient, LEED Gold certified Commercial Interiors headquarters office to the high profile, urban, infill location at the corner of Main & Gervais Streets in Columbia – right in front of the State’s capital. This former asphalt parking lot was replaced with green space and an 18-story office building. The company has given countless tours of the building, and all who see it come away impressed with the attention to human needs along with environmental and economic needs – the essence of sustainability.
University of South Carolina’s Patterson Hall and MUSC’s Clyburn Research Center/Bioengineering Building were the two recipients of this year’s Exemplary Project Award.
This project consisted on the complete renovation of an existing nine-story antiquated dormitory. Four new tower additions were added to provide the seismic requirements to meet current building codes. The list of strategies used to drastically reduce the energy usage of this 187,000 SF complex (which seeks to promote sustainable lifestyle practices) is way too long to enumerate. Cool roofing, heat recovery systems and energy saving washers in the laundry facility are only a few of the building’s features.
The complex is a “Living Learning Community” which seeks to promote sustainable lifestyles for its residents. An education program has been developed to present the project’s sustainable design practices to occupants and visitors to the facility. Students receive a manual describing the project’s design features and the LEED program, and public tours are offered frequently. The facility offers interactive displays to the building’s residents and visitors which track the building’s energy performance and provides comparisons from different areas of the building and to other buildings on campus thereby fostering sustainable life-style practices. The design team pushed the project beyond its original goal of LEED Silver to attain a LEED Gold certification.
Patterson Hall presented the challenge of retrofitting a building for earthquake resistance. The Clyburn Research Center/Bioengineering Building presented a different challenge common to many universities— building laboratory space that minimizes energy and water use. Research labs, by their very nature, have complex HVAC systems (100% outside air requirement), have very intensive process loads, and require high light levels. These design requirements, among many others, create a building type that is a difficult candidate for LEED certification at any level. This makes the achievement of Gold certification especially meaningful and significant. The building uses about 25% less energy, 40% less water than would be expected. Approximately 50% of the material in the building has recycled content.
The Bioengineering Building is one of a few research labs in the country to reach this level of certification, and the team has fielded many requests for information from around the country. MUSC is committed to continuous evaluation of the building systems and operating parameters and has policies in place for this effort to continue.
An additional award is presented yearly at the Awards ceremony. The award, named after Keith Sanders, one of the founding members of the USGBC South Carolina Chapter. Several years ago, the organization chose to honor Keith with an award recognizing service to the organization by someone who is not in a named leadership position. The 2013 award recipient was Jude Peck of the USGBC SC Midlands Branch.
Jude has been volunteering for the USGBC South Carolina Chapter for five years. During that time he has held a variety of volunteer positions. His “let’s get it done” attitude is contagious. In each position he has brought passion and dedication to the work at hand and he has caused others to want to get involved. He volunteers every year at SustainSC, the Chapter’s statewide green building conference, and he has recently taken on the new position of educating people across the state in order for them to pass the LEED Green Associate exam. He lives, breathes and teaches Sustainability and cherishes the opportunity to share his passion with others.
