Ryan Collier
by Ryan Collier
Sustainable design has evolved over the past few decades from a simple notion of doing better for the environment to a movement toward a more ecologically minded future. Groups like USGBC, ASHRAE, and Green Globes have codified various strategies in an effort to make sustainable design more appealing and to perpetuate a dialogue surrounding green design. Yet, sustainable design as a strategy is not a buffet-style checklist that can be applied to projects independent of design, as is often perceived with rating systems. Good sustainable design permeates all facets of a project, improving overall building performance through integration across systems, reducing capex and/or opex expenses, and reinforcing the overall aesthetics.
Each strategy should promote multiple systems to the project. To simply state that you want to save water is too broad. However, if you want to develop a water strategy which utilizes water reuse from one system to serve another, then you’re heading in the right direction. Recently, Integrated Design Group implemented a water concept for a client that uses constant temperature water from within the earth to provide all the cooling to the people spaces and pre-cooling to production areas, reducing the mechanical demand. After being used for cooling, it was then reused for irrigation and toilet water supply. Additionally, part of the irrigation served a vegetated roof, further reducing the mechanical load while providing camouflage from the street and aerial photography. Even with regional landscaping and low-flow water fixtures, the concept reduced water consumption on the project by almost over 24,000 gallons per year.
A more visible trend is the move toward photovoltaic panels as a source of onsite renewable energy. Recently, a client requested 100 kW PV array for a facility. Because of site constraints, the array could not go on the roof as is traditionally done, but would be placed in the front of the building near the entry. Therefore, we distributed the array throughout the landscape mosaic, reinforcing the overall design while providing a series of shading canopies for people and cars — a much-needed respite from Texas’s 100+ degree heat. By working the PVs into the landscape, they not only reinforce the design, but function as a communication tool branding the facility.
Sustainable design shouldn’t stop at the exterior of the building, however. Some of the greatest improvements can be realized in the workplace. According to ASHRAE, salaries of building users dwarf building energy costs by a factor of 50 to 100, making indoor quality central to the sustainable design narrative. Improved indoor environmental quality means healthier, happier users through improved air quality, access to the outdoors, indoor lighting, acoustics, and ergonomics. The end goal increases productivity while reducing sick days and staff turnover. Like all sustainable design, sustainable strategies must achieve multiple goals. Consider LED lighting: While having competitive pricing with traditional lighting, LED lighting has lower operating costs and generates less heat (requiring lower cooling loads). Additionally, LED lighting provides granular control over lighting color, intensity, and glare at each fixture through LED drivers and intelligent control systems, giving owners immense control over lighting within their building. Have a user that is working with small text? No problem — up the lighting levels above their desk. Receiving complaints about glaring lighting? Simply reduce the lighting output or light color. Finally, the lighting can be modified to accommodate any new use, future-proofing the lighting install against replacement.
Sustainable design is a mindset. While the industry continues to progress the sustainable movement, realize that sustainable design is a sophisticated, interdependent relationship between architectural and MEP systems that is accomplished throughout the design process. Teams looking for these win-win opportunities will better serve the buildings they design and, ultimately, their inhabitants.
Ryan Collier, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, is an architect at Integrated Design Group.
