Easier being green

Colstor director reacts to eco-friendly building bill

MOSES LAKE — Gov. Christine Gregoire could make history.

If she passes Senate Bill 5509, Washington would be the first state in the nation to require schools, universities and other public buildings in the state to be built to meet energy efficiency, water conservation and other environmental standards.

Introduced in 2000 by the U.S. Green Building Council in Washington, D.C., Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards include using recycled materials, ensuring better ventilation in buildings and reducing water and energy use.

LEED certification assigns a point system to such areas as sustainable sites, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, materials and resources, innovation and design process and indoor environmental quality. A building would receive one point for ventilation and effectiveness, for low-emitting carpet materials or for recycled content, as just a few examples.

The bill, which passed in the House of Representatives last week on a 78-19 vote, would use LEED standards and a separate school design protocol to be developed by state school officials. The bill passed the Senate earlier in March, 32-16.

In November 2003, Columbia Colstor broke ground in Moses Lake for its new office building, which will likely be the first in Moses Lake to achieve LEED standards. The office, located at 2730 W. Marina Drive, opened its doors in August 2004.

Mike Bolander, director of administrative services at Columbia Colstor, said that the Senate bill appears to be a fairly simple piece of legislation, adapted to apply only to facilities ranging in size from 5,000 square feet to 25,000 square feet.

Some lawmakers argued that the requirements add additional costs without a proven benefit. Bolander said it would be impossible to determine if there was a cost increase in building the Columbia Colstor building, as the company did not specifically set out to isolate costs during construction that could be exclusively assigned to LEED certification.

He noted that the building has not achieved its certification yet, and the process is still under way.

The Columbia Colstor building is expected to be LEED certified at the silver level, achieving 33 to 38 points, which is what would be required by the bill. The certified level of LEED certification would require 26 to 32 points, while gold requires 39 to 51 and platinum 52 to 69 points.

Support for the bill came from a number of architectural organizations, while opposition seemed to come from members of the forest products industry.

Sen. Joyce Mulliken, R-Ephrata; Rep. Bill Hinkle, R-Cle Elum and Rep. Janea Holmquist, R-Moses Lake, all opposed the bill, Bolander noted.

"I think that's fine; we chose to build to the LEED standard because it was something we wanted to do," Bolander said. He noted that in general, his perspective is that it's a good thing to do, "but I don't like the idea of necessarily forcing it, because it may not be practical in all circumstances."

One consideration for Columbia Colstor was the fact that energy costs are relatively low in this part of the state.

"The investment to meet LEED certification has a much longer payback in this part of the state than it might in other parts where energy costs are higher," Bolander said. "That's what makes it difficult with any legislation, is they try to write a law to apply to all circumstances, and it works a whole lot better in some situations than others."

The challenge with legislating LEED certification is that there may be situations where necessary construction could be postponed or prevented by the additional challenge of meeting the standard.

Bolander said that construction of the building was a learning process for the company and for Zeck Butler, the architectural firm based in Spokane that designed it. It was Zeck Butler's first effort at LEED-certified design.

"We had great cooperation between the architect [Bill Froemke], the contractors that did the actual construction [Scott McCornack, general contractor on the project and owner of McCornack Construction] and Joel Sandberg, who's our engineer here, to coordinate the effort," Bolander said. "So we were able to overcome some of those challenges as far as availability of materials, and those kinds of things."

The first thing visitors notice in the building is the increased visibility, as one of the LEED objectives is to provide daylight or external views to a large percentage of floor space, he said. The same holds true for employees.

"We still haven't gotten used to the idea of being able to look out from just about anywhere, see what's going on in the world," he said. Moreover, before the staff could move in, the commissioning process of the building required ensuring that all air systems were in balance.

"There was not that recognizable new carpet smell that other people might have expected," he chuckled. "I guess the success is the absence of noticing any issues."

While happy with the building, Bolander said that the company is not tracking every kilowatt or gallon of water used. The legislation also talks about how adhering to LEED certification improves worker productivity and attendance, which hasn't exactly happened at Columbia Colstor, he said.

"We didn't have any problem with attendance when we were in a non-green building," Bolander said with a laugh. "I don't know that we can point to a huge gain there either."

Bolander said he could not think of any negatives to building for LEED certification.

"It was just another standard to try and incorporate into the design, as well as cost, timing and all those other things," he said. "We're happy to be in the building and with the way it turned out."