Page 125 - Green Building Through Integrated Design

102 THE BUSINESS CASE FOR GREEN BUILDINGS

about 10 inches. That 10 inches came out of every floor, times five floors, eliminating
4.2 feet of the total building height. The circumference of the building (1400 square
feet) times $76 per square foot for the cost of the skin resulted in a $446,000 sav-
ings. The first cost of the underfloor air system was not only reduced, but we spent
less on our mechanical systems than a traditional overhead air-distribution system. In
addition, the Signature Centre project is located in a zoning district with a height
restriction of 75 feet. The height savings afforded by the UFAD (underfloor air deliv-
ery) design allowed us to add an extra floor to the building which provides internal
and external benefits to all interests.

PLATINUM PROJECT PROFILE

The Armory/Portland Center Stage, Portland, Oregon
Occupied by the Portland Center Stage Theater Company, the Bob and Diana
Gerding Theater at the Armory is listed on the National Register of Historic
Places. Originally built in 1889 for the Oregon National Guard, the building’s
55,000-square-feet, $36 million renovation was completed in September 2006.
Chilled beams are the primary cooling system (chilled water comes from a nearby
district cooling plant), and high-efficiency gas-fired condensing boilers provide
the building’s heating needs. The passive chilling and air-circulation features
reduce the mechanical system energy use by 40 percent. Rainwater harvesting, no
onsite irrigation, dual-flush toilets, and low-flow fixtures have reduced potable
water demand by 88 percent. Due to the building’s historic façade and existing
orientation, neither passive solar design approaches nor photovoltaics were
energy-saving options.*

Benefits That Build a Business Case

The business case for green development is based on a framework of benefits: eco-
nomic, financial, productivity, risk management, public relations and marketing, and
†
funding. Many people also describe these benefits in terms of the “Triple Bottom
Line,” with such names as “People, Planet, and Profits.” The key issue here is that the
benefits will vary by type of ownership, type of use, level of investment and similar
drivers. It’s very important, in my view, for building team members to become as artic-
ulate about the benefit side of the green building equation as they are about the cost

*Cascadia Region Green Building Council [online], http://casestudies.cascadiagbc.org/overview.cfm?
ProjectID=833, accessed April 2008.
† U.S. Green Building Council, Making the Business Case for High-Performance Green Buildings (Washington,
D.C.: U.S. Green Building Council, 2002), available at: www.usgbc.org/resources/usbgc_brochures.asp[0],
accessed March 6, 2007. See also Environmental Building News, 14, no. 4 (April 2005), available at: www.build-
inggreen.com, accessed March 6, 2007.