Keller Wins Green Building Award

Keller was awarded ABC's Project of Distinction Award in the Green Building Category for Trolley Square in Appleton (pictured above).  The project, built on a Brown field site, features unique storm water drainage systems and was constructed on a pile driven foundation. 

How To Build Green

by Curtis Schroeder,
Architect, Keller, Inc.
cschroeder@kellerbuilds.com

I'm sure you've heard it - all the talk of "Green Building".  With the new emphasis on green, we as a design/build company should at least understand the basics.

First, one must understand the difference between building a Green or Sustainable building versus a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Certified Building. The first goal of Green / Sustainable design is to minimize the impact of natural resources during the design and construction phases.  This can be accomplished through site and material sections and steps taken in the building process.  The second goal is to have a building that minimizes the impact of natural resources during the life of the building. For example, low, energy-consuming light fixtures to low-flow toilets and highly-efficient HVAC systems are just a few examples of hundreds of ways to reduce natural resources/energy. 

A Green / Sustainable building doesn't necessarily mean that the building will be a LEED Certified building. LEED is a certification process that allocates points to different sustainable building details.  The more points (of a possible 69 points), the higher LEED Certification a building receives.  Of the certification levels, Platinum (52+ points) is the highest, followed by gold (39-51 points), silver (33-38 points) and finally LEED certified (26-32 points). 

As the levels of green climb into the levels of LEED Certification, typically, so does the cost.  When you hear a client express interest in green or question our green capabilities, know that we utilize green practices in almost all of our projects.  Green can mean using biofilters on a contaminated site like we experienced at Trolley Square, or it can mean adding a workout facility and showers for employee health like Baileigh Industrial.  Solar panels such as those used at Avis are green, as well as the geothermal heating system we used at Faith United Lutheran Church in Gillet.