Constructing a green building doesn’t necessarily mean constructing a more expensive building, says Kevin Barber of Swaim & Associates, one of the area’s top architectural firms.

Speaking at a Metropolitan Pima Alliance breakfast forum on green building Sept. 19, Barber offered Pima County’s Jackson Employment Center as an example of a building on a low budget that will be constructed with a goal of achieving a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) silver level.

Swaim & Associates, which has already done a number of green projects, took on the task of building a new green home for the Jackson Employment Center just a  block away from the existing building at 300 E. 26th St. Through the program, the county offers a full array of employment services to the homeless who are seeking to enter the workforce. The new building, with work set to begin in about four weeks, is a project that had been anticipated for eight years.

Print this story Email this story Post a Comment The new Reid Park Zoo Conservation Learning Center is striving to become Southern Arizona’s first LEED platinum level building.Photo courtesy of Swain & Associates ADVERTISEMENT

“It was a low-budget project and we put the onus on ourselves as designers to achieve LEED silver designation,” Barber said. “When the bids came in, they were below budget.”

Working with Adolfson and Peterson, one of the country’s top green builders, Swaim & Associations just completed the new Reid Park Zoo Conservation Learning Center and the building currently is going through the process of being certified at the LEED platinum level, the highest level of green building.

According to Yves Khawam, chief building official for Pima County who also spoke at the MPA forum, the LEED rating system has four levels, with “certified” being the lowest, then silver and gold, with platinum being the ultimate in green. He said the categories are determined by a point system, with each level being a jump in points.

Builders seeking a certified or silver level may be able to focus on just one or two aspects in order to achieve those levels, while a building going for platinum probably will need to focus on all green aspects in order to earn sufficient points to get the top level. “The higher up you go, the less you can ignore,” Barber said.

According to Barber, the Zoo’s Conservation Learning Center, if certified at the platinum level, will become just the third building in Arizona to achieve that level—the first in Southern Arizona. The 10,000-square-foot building uses 80 percent less energy than the average building.

It includes  shade-rich design and orientation, recycled steel beams, polystyrene and poured concrete walls, solar panels, rammed earth construction, scrap cotton and blue-jeans insulation, clay-based, low-fume and non-toxic paints, rooftop rainwater harvesting and gray water irrigation from sink water, waterless urinals, pervious concrete (porous design allows storm water to flow through and recharge groundwater supplies), FieldTurf artificial grass, Herman Miller sustainable furniture, bamboo cabinetry and corn-based fabrics, eco-friendly carpet and recycled glass countertops.

Khawam said that Pima County has become the first U.S. public jurisdiction to certify LEED projects and at the lowest cost in the country. He said there is “no statistical difference” in costs between standard buildings and green buildings, although the larger the building, the less additional cost. He said the average home uses 19,000 kilowatt hours of electricity a year, but this can be reduced by using solar energy, insulation, more efficient mechanical and lighting systems. “If we do nothing, what will be happening to energy costs?” he said.

Khawam conceded there are some instances in which building codes conflict with LEED requirements and said municipalities need to ease up on some of them. For example, current building codes require a quantity of parking that is used perhaps two out of 52 weeks a year. Governments need to adjust that, he said, because pouring and maintaining concrete expends huge amounts of energy.

There are many reasons for builders to go green, Barber said. He pointed out that 39 percent of all energy consumption and 20 percent of all water use is for buildings. “There are some rather simple steps, ways to bring those numbers down so we can continue to prosper in this unique part of the country,” he said.

Barber said LEED began in the ‘90s with just new construction, later being expanded to existing buildings and remodeling.

 Contact reporter Ed Egger at eegger@azbiz.com or (520) 295-4238.