Overland Park ME GROUP LEED Case Study

Key Sustainability Strategies

In-Process & Future Post Occupancy Assessments

Energy Analysis

• Behavioral Measures - Baseline compared to potential transparency and competition measures.
• Plug Load / Enistic Metering Data Analysis
• Energy Model Results (Combined w/ readings from metering system)
• Comparison to peer group.
• Comparison to Energy Star

Key Sustainability Strategies

Regression Analysis, comparing the total energy (kBTU) by total square foot of the target facility (circled in red) to it's peer group (the other circles).

In-Process & Future Post Occupancy Assessments

Initial Cost Analysis

• Evaluating the premium costs of LEED Platinum.

Occupant Assessment

• Surveys, interviews and observations are conducted.
• Impacts on productivity and health are estimated.

Example - Estimated facility impacts on teacher and staff / administrator productivity in an existing high school.

Space Condition Assessment

• Measurements made with data loggers, including :
• Temperature/RH Data Loggers
• Acoustic Data Loggers
• Light Intensity Data Loggers
• Occupancy + Light On/Off Data Loggers
• IAQ Dataloggers
• Measurements made with hand held measuring devices, including:
• Light Meter
• CO2 Meter
• Temperature Gun
• Thermal Imaging Camera

Temperature / RH dataloggers

Monitor and Signage in Cafe

Key Sustainability Strategies

In context interview

Innovation

Signage in Cafe

Thermal image of a building exterior

Taking vertical footcandle readings

M.E. GROUP Overland Park, KS Office Sustainable Educational Program

Intent: To educate both M.E. GROUP employees and visitors to the office regarding the building specific sustainable features (including those recognized by LEED) incorporated into the Overland Park office tenant fitout along with the benefits they provide.

Benefits: The primary benefit is the increased awareness generated regarding sustainable building specific/LEED credit specific features - what forms they can take; how they are incorporated into a tenant fitout project; the relatively low cost for most of them; and the occupant focused, energy and other environmental benefits incurred as a result of implementing them.

Approaches/Strategies: This education program consists of:

• an in-depth case study (prezi format) of the sustainable/LEED process for M.E. GROUP's Overland Park, KS office,
• signage throughout the office that points out/explains the various LEED/sustainable features,
• a monitor in the cafe that acts as a kiosk, displaying the case study and our metering system's dashboard and
• presentations/walk-throughs conducted for our clients and business partners.

Key Sustainability Strategies

Sites

Signage on Wall Outside Conference Room

ME GROUP's Overland Park, KS office expects to achieve 21 of the 21 possible Sustainable Sites LEED credit points, plus 2 regional bonus points.

Key Sustainability Strategies

Water Efficiency

Selecting a LEED Certified Building

• To ensure that we occupied a building that was already employing best practices systems and green strategies.

ME GROUP's Overland Park office expects to achieve 11 of the 11 possible Water Efficiency LEED credit points, plus one regional bonus point.

Client / Tenant: ME GROUP

Landlord: CBRE, Inc.

Architect: bnb design

General Contractor: JE Dunn Construction Company

Electrical Design / Contractor: Capital Electric

Mechanical Design / Contractor: Environmental Mechanical Contractors, Inc.

Plumbing Design / Contractor: Enright Plumbing, Inc.

LEED Consultant / Commissioning Agent: ME GROUP

Site Maximizes Community Connectivity

• We relocated to an urban office complex with existing infrastructure to avoid disturbing or destroying existing greenfields and habitats.
• Our office building is located within ½ mile of a residential neighborhood having an average density of at least 10 units per acre net.
• It is also within ½ mile (with pedestrian access) of the following types of basic services: apartment, retail, restaurants, fitness center, parks, medical office, bank, school, senior care and convenience store.

Project Team

Water Use Reduction

• The U.S. uses far more water than it returns to the planet, reducing our global supply of usable water and excessively burdening our municipal treatment facilities. Therefore we’ve reduced our water consumption by 55% over the baseline case by using 1.0 gpm aerator on the kitchen sink faucet.

Reduced Commuting

• A new location was selected to reduce the employees' overall commuting distances by 10%.

Key Sustainability Strategies

Innovation

Exemplary Lighting Controls

• Over 95% of the lighting load in our space is controlled via occupancy sensors.

Public Transportation and Bicycling

• In addition to reducing the commuting distance, the building assists bicyclists by providing adequate racks and showers / changing facilities.

Key Sustainability Strategies

Energy & Atmosphere

ME GROUP's Overland Park office expects to achieve 26 of the 37 possible Energy & Atmosphere LEED credit points. Energy reducing measures incorporated include:

Key Sustainability Strategies

Innovation

ME GROUP's commitment to innovation and sustainability, exemplified through its mission statement "Improving Life Through a Better Built Environment", has provided its Overland Park employees with a healthy and inviting place to work, as well as lowered the firm's impact on the local and global environment.

ME GROUP

7400 College Blvd, #150

Overland Park, KS 66210

Tracking LEED Platinum

Feedback and Transparency

• Providing meaningful feedback is a powerful behavioral alignment tool. Our space provides occupants with personal knowledge of their energy consumption (via smart plug strips installed at each workstation). This combined with transparency among one’s peers creates personal accountability and peer pressure to reduce one’s individual energy consumption.

Lighting and Controls

• To reduce our lighting’s energy consumption, high efficiency lighting fixtures were installed, including this LED track lighting, reducing our LPD (lighting power density) by 33.68% compared to the ASHRAE 90.1 baseline.
• An efficient lighting system requires a combination of automated and manual control to maximize energy savings and meet occupant needs. In our case, a low voltage local lighting control system was installed consisting of low voltage switches/controllers, occupancy sensors and photocells for daylight harvesting.

Project Description

Sustainable Highlights

• The office is located within a LEED EB O&M Certified and Energy Star rated building.
• High efficiency lighting and lighting control system provide step dimming and full dimming capabilities, occupancy sensor control and daylight harvesting.
• Almost 100% of the regularly occupied areas have direct views to the exterior.
• Only low VOC (volatile organic compounds) containing adhesives, paints and finishes were used.
• A Measurement and Verification system was incorporated, taking it down to the individual workstation.

M.E. GROUP, a sustainably focused consulting engineering firm, conducted a tenant fit-out of 3,340 sq. ft. of leased space on the first floor of Lighton Plaza II, 7400 College Blvd., Overland Park, KS, a certified LEED Silver facility under LEED EBOM 2009. It is designed to provide office space for approximately 23 engineers and support personnel. With over 25 years in the Kansas City market, M.E. GROUP sees this project as an opportunity to showcase their leadership with regard to energy efficiency and occupant satisfaction. The project is targeted to achieve a LEED Platinum certification utilizing the LEED for Commercial Interiors (LEED-CI) 2009 rating system. Initial planning for this project began in late fall of 2010 with LEED Platinum certification as a goal from the beginning.

Location

HVAC

• Every solar exposure has a separate control zone.
• Interior spaces are separately zoned.
• Private offices and specialty occupancies (conference rooms, kitchens, etc.) have active controls capable of sensing space use and modulating HVAC system in response to space demand.

ME GROUP's Overland Park, KS location is located within the Lighton Plaza complex near the intersection of College Blvd. and Metcalf Ave. Nearby amenities within walking distance include shops, restaurants, banks, a bus stop and a fitness center. And the overall employee commuting distance was reduced by 10%.

Large conference room with LED track lighting (Lighting Services Inc.) and T5 fluorescent direct/indirect lighting (Light Control) both separately controlled. An occupancy sensor (Wattstopper) is depicted in the upper left corner. A graphic wall dimmer (Sensor Switch) located in the small conference room is depicted in the lower left corner.

Equipment and Appliances

• Plug loads can account for 20%+ of the total energy consumed in office buildings and up to 50% of the electricity consumed. To help reduce energy use, Energy Star rated appliances, TVs and computers have been purchased and installed.

Commissioning

• Fundamental and Enhanced commissioning were performed.

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Measurement & Verification

• 16 Channel Meter at the Power Panel serving our space – the total panel load is metered, along with (13) key individual circuits.
• Smart Plug strips at every workstation that meter all loads plugged into them.
• Data is fed to an on-line server via a wireless controller located in our space.
• A variety of options for tracking and analyzing the energy usage data is available via the on-line service, as well as viewing the data via the dashboard.

Dashboard: https://portal.enistic.com/dashboard/dashboard.php

Dashboard (on the left) showing office electrical energy consumption. A wireless smart plug strip (on the right) is located at each workstation. The link above provides a live look at our dashboard. Metering system by Enistic.

Key Sustainability Strategies

Materials & Resources

ME GROUP's Overland Park office expects to achieve 10 of the 14 possible Materials & Resources LEED credit points.

Key Sustainability Strategies

Innovation

To minimize underutilized square footage (and the associated impacts this has on the environment), our square footage to occupant ratio has been designed to 72% of the average found in leased office space per the General Administration (GA) and the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) International.

Key Sustainability Strategies

Recycling

• To divert office waste from the local landfill, we recycle paper, corrugated cardboard, glass, plastics and metals. Our hauler allows the commingling of materials and takes everything but glass, which we take ourselves to the nearest community recycling center.

Indoor Environmental Quality

ME GROUP's Overland Park office expects to achieve 9 of the 17 possible Indoor Environmental Quality LEED credit points.

Staying Put

• To conserve resources, reduce waste and reduce the environmental impacts of tenancy as they relate to materials, manufacturing and transport, we signed a 10 year lease.

Temperature, RH, CO2 and VOC monitor / datalogger (Tongdy).

Ventilation

• Indoor air quality impacts occupant health and productivity. CO2 dataloggers are installed in both conference rooms to monitor and trend CO2 levels, and building management has agreed to manually adjust outside air if a predetermined rate of alarms is exceeded over a selected period of time.
• All breathing zone outdoor air ventilation rates have been increased to all occupied spaces by at least 30% above the minimum rates required by ASHRAE 62.1-2007 (with errata but without addenda).

Materials

• In order to reduce the demand for virgin materials as well as reduce waste, we have reused carpet from another office space owned by our landlord. Over 20% of the building construction materials (by cost) used in our space was salvaged, refurbished or reused.
• To help reduce negative impacts resulting from the extraction and processing of virgin materials, our new systems furniture was manufactured using 15% recycled content.
• To increase demand for regional building materials / products, and reduce the use of finite raw materials and long-cycle materials, our drawing roll cabinet was manufactured using pressed wheat straw board, a local, rapidly renewable resource.
• To help reduce the use and depletion of finite raw materials and long-cycle materials, cork flooring, a rapidly renewable material, was selected for our lobby and kitchen.

All carpet in the space is reused.

Our new systems furniture is manufactured using at least 15% recycled content.

Material Emissions

• Indoor air contaminants can be irritating and harmful to both installers and occupants. To minimize this, none of the paint or coating products used in our office space exceed the allowable VOC limits established by Green Seal Standard GS-11 and the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) Rule 1113.

Occupant Thermal and Visual Comfort

• To minimize energy consumption and maximize thermal comfort, the air distribution zones and associated thermostat locations were configured to meet the human comfort requirements of ASHRAE Standard 55 and minimize the energy consumed by the building’s existing HVAC system.
• Thermal comfort surveys will be implemented and corrective actions taken if warranted.
• Providing occupants with a visual “connection” to the outdoors has a positive psychological benefit. In our space almost 100% of the regularly occupied areas have direct views to the exterior via vision glazing between 30 inches and 90 inches above the finish floor.

Exterior views available throughout office.

Cork flooring in lobby and kitchen is a rapidly renewable material.