Page 203 - The Green Building Bottom Line The Real Cost of Sustainable Building

EXISTING BUILDINGS 181

TABLE 6.3 OVERVIEW OF LEED
FOR EXISTING BUILDINGS POINTS
FOR CRESTWOOD

CATEGORY POINTS
Sustainable Sites 5
Water Efficiency 3
Energy & Atmosphere 10
Materials & Resources 10
Indoor Air Quality 3
AInnovation & Design 4
TOTAL 35

The work was completed in February 2007. Certification was awarded in October
2007 and was celebrated with a reception in January 2008, when the LEED medallion
in the lobby was ceremoniously unveiled.

What Does Green Look Like?

Perhaps the most extraordinary thing about the Crestwood is that although it performs
much better in terms of energy use than a typical office building of its age and size and
contributes in meaningful ways to the comfort and health of its tenant occupants, the
differences are subtle—perhaps even unnoticeable—to the casual observer. Let’s take
a tour of the building to see how it looks and works.

EXTERIOR IMPROVEMENTS
The numerous tall trees on the site provide shade for the window glass on two sides
of the building. The window glass on the remaining two sides was tinted to reduce
heat gain and glare, at a cost of $33,986. The heat gain reduction accomplished by the
window tinting improved the temperature balance between the exterior and interior
office spaces and significantly reduced the number of tenant complaints about comfort
—being too hot (in offices with windows where solar heat gain raised the room tem-
perature) or too cold (in interior offices without windows).
Our maintenance contractor uses a non-toxic window cleaner (which is actually a
dishwashing liquid) to clean the windows on the outside. Window cleaning thus does
not contribute volatile organic compounds or fumes to the atmosphere, harm the peo-
ple who are doing the cleaning by exposing them to toxins, or pollute the soil around
the building.