Existing Building Renovations

If you want to survive, it’s time to change the way you manage properties. It’s time to go green.

There are enough “brown buildings” in the world. Brown buildings have no environmental qualities. Today, people who would be renting office spaces are really looking for something special. Smart businesses are only renting green buildings because green buildings have the best bottom-lines.

Why go green?

Green buildings have unique qualities – they are good for people, they are efficient, and they are better for the environment. People who work in green spaces are more productive. Businesses in green buildings save money because energy and water costs are less than in a regular building. Since these buildings are proven to be great, they are in high demand. Renters are leaving brown buildings left and right. Today, people want to be inside green buildings.

It’s about time to bring your buildings up to speed. We will help you.

Building Commissioning

The goal of the commissioning process is to ensure that the systems that are installed in your building are operating according to design intent. This requires having an engineer come on-site to check the performance of your systems.

This quality control measure can improve energy efficiency, thermal comfort, and indoor air quality. It can also reduce your routine maintenance costs. If you are wondering whether or not your existing systems are any good, or could be better, then this is what you need to do.

Reducing day to day energy costs through gradually upgrading old systems is a good goal to have.

Facilities Management

Keeping existing facilities in good shape is as important as building new buildings intelligently.

• Organize and operate your facilities more efficiently
• Successfully implement facilities management technologies
• Collect the data you need to justify your creation of a budget for sustainable technologies
• Assess and plan capital management activities over the life of your building
• Identify deficiencies in building performance or materials that need to be replaced
• Perform due diligence evaluations to assess current and potential property values
• Inventory equipment and systems and project replacement schedules
• Develop and implement sustainability policies and procedures
• Train facilities management personnel in sustainable housekeeping

Water Management

Water is a precious resource. Easy measures such as installing low-flow aerators on your sinks or capturing rainwater can help you conserve this resource-- which also helps you conserve money.

Find out what solutions can improve your building performance the most. Measure your current water performance (including how you manage stormwater, how you heat or cool your building's water, and how much water you use for irrigation), and after you measure find water saving features that can be easily implemented in your building.

After you are there, your facilities will perform better and your conscience will feel better.

Sustainable Purchasing

A sustainable purchasing program introduces environmentally friendly products to day to day facility operations. Evaluate the routine purchases that you make for the building and find environmentally friendly alternatives.

First, look at your "ongoing consumables", which includes those items that you purchase often (i.e. toner cartridges for the printer and fax machines, copy paper, notepads, and other office supplies. Find replacements that contain recycled or rapidly renewable materials.

Next, look at "durable goods", which includes furniture, maintenance vehicles, computer CPUs, printers, fax machines, copy machines, computer screens, and/or standard maintenance equipment (i.e. landscaping equipment) that need to be replaced now or in the near future.

Last, evaluate "facility alteration materials", which include windows, doors, drywall, ceiling panels, insulation, flooring material, paints and coatings, etc. See what to favor and what to avoid when it comes time to perform routine maintenance on your facility.

Green Housekeeping

Develop a high performance cleaning program, supported by a green housekeeping policy, so that you can reduce the exposure that staff and occupants have to the hazardous chemicals that are in ordinary (non-green) cleaning supplies.

Non-green cleaning supplies negatively affect human health, air quality, and they can also deteriorate interior finishes. Some non-green cleaning supplies are so strong that they wear away grout (used to seal flooring) and they can also wear away wall and floor coatings.

If you want to use a green building, you have to use green cleaning supplies. It's fundamental.

Occupant Comfort

Do you want to retain your current occupants, make your rental spaces more attractive to potential occupants, and perhaps even charge more for your available rental spaces? If you do then it is all about occupant comfort. Provide occupants with the best amenities and they will flock to your facility.

Today, providing the best facilities means providing "green" facilities. Everything you do should be geared toward greening your facilities, to improve occupant satisfaction - so you can make your properties worthwhile investments.

One of the most basic steps to occupant comfort is to develop a survey of building occupants, to assess their comfort level and see if there are any suggestions out there for how to improve your facilities. Your occupants will feel better about being in your buildings just by virtue of you asking these questions, it means that you care and it means that you are taking steps toward improvement.

Marketability of your facilities is often the key to attracting and retaining people for your business.

LEED EBO&M Certification

If you are taking steps toward improving your facilities, why not go for LEED Certification? LEED is going to provide you with an objective, recognizable, and marketable stamp of approval that says your building meets high quality environmental standards, guaranteed.

The items we have discussed in the preceeding pages (from commissioning to occupant comfort and more) are all aspects of the LEED for Existing Buildings ("EBO&M") system. If you say that you want your existing building LEED Certified, what you are saying is that you want to let people know you have the highest quality building and you want to have that satisfaction for yourself - to know that you are doing all you can for the environment. There are also financial incentives to doing this.

What we recommend, is if you are interested in "greening" your facilities, then go all the way and go for LEED Certification. Shoot for the highest. Make your building the best it can be.