ECO Design – Milliken Contract Showroom NYC – LEED Gold Certified

Floor covering manufacturer Milliken Contract new showroom in New York receives LEED Gold Certified.

The site was selected with LEED criteria in mind, the space offers an abundance of natural light and views of Manhattan. The design team includes design firm Q Studio; architect of record Mancini-Duffy; and LEED administrators Catalyst Partners. To earn LEED-CI certification, special attention is paid to lighting design, the HVAC system, and location (access to public transportation). Bathrooms will be refitted and flooring will consist of adhesive-free Milliken carpet.

Sustainable features include low-energy ceramic metal halide lamps; daylight sensors; formaldehyde-free, 100 percent recovered and recycled wood fiber MDF; and low VOC paint applied throughout. Since Milliken is the leaseholder of the building, the firm was also able to upgrade the plumbing and HVAC system.

Check out this great space at the USGBC NY chapters Spring's Quarterly Member Meeting. This event is a great opportunity to reconnect with your colleagues in the green building community, to hear an update on the Chapter's recent activities, and to see a LEED Commercial Interior up close. Open to USGBC New York current, past, and future members, so bring your friends! Drinks and light snacks will be provided. It is on:

Date: Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Time: 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM

For more info check out the USGBC Calendar link.

Green Products - Lists of Indoor Enviromental Products

The GREENGUARD Certification Program is an industry-independent, third-party testing program for low-emitting products and materials. All GREENGUARD Certified products are listed in the GREENGUARD Online Product Guide, an indoor air quality (IAQ) resource that is provided at no charge.

The guide features products, which are regularly tested to ensure that their chemical and particle emissions meet acceptable IAQ pollutant guidelines and standards. GREENGUARD Certification is a valuable tool for architects, designers, product specifiers, and purchasing organizations that want to locate, specify, and purchase off-the-shelf, low-emitting products for indoor environments.

Some product categories that are listed here would be from adhesives / sealants, ceiling systems, flooring, paint, general construction materials, furniture, textiles, window treatments and so much more. You can also pick subcategories based on your original product search to help in your search. Then you can choose from different manufacturers that have low-emitting product. When you pick the product type and the manufacturer then you get the product description, Certification No. and printable Certificate for your records and contact information for the manufacturer. They also have specific products just for children and schools, if you need to narrow your search for these subjects.

For more information check out www.greenguard.org or check the my links.

Thinking Green: Existing Facilities Programs

At the Salon by the USGBC “High Performance Building Salon: Climate Change in New York” a lot of interesting topics came up; the one that I want to share is the existence of NYSERDA’s “Existing Facilities Program” and the “Flexible Technical Assistance or Flex Tech”. In the Existing Facilities program NYSERDA will work with you on auditing the following for free:

• Lighting
• HVAC
• Commercial Refrigerant & Commercial Kitchen Equipment and Washers
• Gas Efficiency
• Chillers, Motors, Interval Meters & Variable Frequency Drives

From there applicants can receive incentives ($/unit) for pre-qualified energy-efficiency and conservation measures. Projects can receive up to $30,000 through pre-qualified incentives. For national fuel gas, pre-qualified incentives are limited to a cap of $25,000. Also, the cost savings are then passed on to the client in other incentives, for example, in electricity, if all requirements are met and the client’s electric company is a Con Edison, (normal payment to Con Ed is $0.19 kWh), $0.16 would be covered by the incentive and the client would pay the rest, these would create great cost savings for the facility.

For more information cut and paste this link or go to my links:
http://www.nyserda.org/programs/Existing_facilities/default.html

The Flex Tech program is for Customers with electric utility bills less than $75,000 annually that may be eligible for the energy Audit Program which provides low-cost, walk-through energy audits. This program is for New York State (NYS) industrial and commercial facilities, State and local governments, not-for-profit and private institutions, public and private K-12 schools, colleges and universities, and health care facilities.

For more info on this program go to: www.nyserda.org/programs/flextech.asp

If your client is in LIPA territory you might have better options. LIPA is paying 100% for the energy model, 50% of commissioning and up to 25K for getting LEED points. It is good to look at what your electric company will cover for energy savings as well as it depends on you location and who is your provider.


I encourage more involvement in the USGBC salons as you can get great information like this.