Green building grows in the Ozarks

Green certification is awarded by the U.S. Green Building Council based on its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Green Building Rating System. LEED is widely recognized as the benchmark for determining a building’s “sustainability,” which the United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development has defined as development that “meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

Members of the local construction industry are finding many applications for green building and development techniques.

Brothers Dan and Mike Chiles, owners of EMDE LLC, are restoring a 131-year-old building at 309 South Ave. that they’ve renamed The Emerald Building. “Restoring an historic building is difficult enough, but this is going to be a green-certified building,” Dan Chiles said.

The structure appears on the Web site www.emeraldbuilding.com with floor plans and a list of green features that include organic, toxin-free, nonpolluting materials; reverse-osmosis-filtered water; radiant heat; and heat-recovery ventilators to filter the air and discourage mold.

“If you look at the life-cycle cost of a green building, which will be more upfront, they are more livable, they’re cleaner, they’re allergy-resistant, they’re cheaper to operate and they have a higher resale value,” Dan Chiles said. “For people who want to do their part for energy independence, this is the great all-American innovation. I believe that every building will be green in the future.”

Elise Crain, DeWitt & Associates project manager on the $4 million addition to the Discovery Center – the first Springfield building up for LEED certification – said, “If you do it right, if you plan it right, there’s no additional cost. Items that cost more upfront will be offset by savings through their life cycle.” DeWitt Project Manager Mary Beeson said a recent LEED Technical Training seminar sponsored by the local chapter of USGBC drew 42 participants.

“There is a future for green building,” she said.

Matt O’Reilly will relocate his Dynamic Earth outdoor equipment store to his Green Circle shopping center at Republic Road and National Avenue.

“We decided that LEED was the best protocol to use,” said O’Reilly of Green Circle, a $2.5 million, 24,000-square-foot shopping center set for construction in December.

“We’re going for LEED platinum … the highest possible rating,” O’Reilly added.

Green Circle will incorporate solar panels, rainwater storage, waterless urinals and geothermal ground-source heat, which O’Reilly says is “over 50 percent more efficient than conventional heating.”

O’Reilly says his mission statement is to “take green building out of the realm of novelty and into the realm of necessity.” He received a $200,000 grant from the James River Basin Partnership and the Upper White River Basin Foundation for the Green Circle project.

Ashley Burchfield, owner of Cycles Unlimited, is planning a new green building on Republic Road near the YMCA at 1901 E. Republic Road. Consultant Jason Hainline says the Cycles Unlimited project “has basically been optimized to be as energy-efficient as possible – we predict between 30 (percent) and 50 percent more energy-efficient than a standard building.”

Hainline, who also consulted on the Discovery Center and Green Circle projects, works for Washington D.C.-based Environmental Market Solutions Inc. “We’re sustainable-design and LEED consultants,” he said, “so we are involved in … helping to identify sustainable design opportunities. More and more people are recognizing the opportunity environmentally and economically.”

On the residential front, Habitat for Humanity is using green development techniques at its 18-acre Legacy Trails development near Dickerson Park Zoo.

“We could build 72 (houses), but we’re only going to build 56 so that we can develop common grounds, including a park, a savannah, walking trails and a ‘tot lot’ – a soft, grassy area for little kids to play, ” said Habitat Executive Director Jan Sederholm.

Other green buildings planned locally are a $7.6 million Watershed Center educational facility at Valley Water Mill and a $4 million Botanical Center in Nathanael Greene-Close Memorial Park.

Even with multiple green building projects under way, there is potential for growth. Green building consultant George Van Hoesen of U.S. Green Building LLC in Fremont Hills notes that some people don’t yet understand the value of green building, but he says, “Sometimes all we need is somebody to point us in the right direction. Springfield is really poised to pick this ball up and run.”

Architect Gerri Kielhofner of Butler, Rosenbury & Partners, which designed the LEED-certified Frisco Convention Center in Frisco, Texas, for John Q. Hammons, says that BR&P wants to add as many LEED-accredited professionals as possible in the next couple of years. “Our firm as a whole is really trying to step up to the plate and educate all of our professionals, including the architects, structural engineers, landscape architects and interior designers on how to incorporate sustainable elements into our design,” Kielhofner said. “Doing something that’s energy-conscientious will save (owners) money in the long run.”[[In-content Ad]]