Page 186 - The Green Building Bottom Line The Real Cost of Sustainable Building

164 CHAPTER 5

Figure 5.9 Randy Peacock and Tommy Linstroth with a group of fourth graders
at Abercorn Common.

People like the people who built this shopping center are bound to make a
difference somewhere. —Elizabeth

I hope they build more LEED certified shopping centers. I really enjoyed
the field trip to Abercorn Common. —Preston
In writing this chapter, I’ve had the chance to take my own field trip to Abercorn
Common and reflect upon the decisions we made along the way. That trip back into
the past brings up questions about lessons learned: If we had to do Abercorn Common
all over again from the start, what would we consider doing differently? While not
exhaustive, the following list serves as a litany of things I wish we had done:

■ Taking a systems-wide approach to our energy management strategy, specifically
by designing a central cooling tower for the various buildings rather than various
stand-alone rooftop units for each retail space.
■ Working more proactively (and assertively) with our tenants to determine their
actual lighting needs from the user’s standpoint and then developing custom light-
ing packages for tenants. Fifty percent of overall energy usage at Abercorn
Common is from lighting, and we feel we could have reduced this significantly.