Durham a leader in 'green' building

 

Jul 16 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Monica Chen The Herald-Sun, Durham, N.C.

Durham is a leader in eco-friendly building in North Carolina.

Over the past several years, the Bull City quietly has moved to the forefront of the state's green building movement on a mix of private initiative and public commitment.

Eight buildings -- three built by the county, five by Duke University -- are LEED-certified in Durham, according to the U.S. Green Building Council. Twenty-two other buildings are registered with the organization to become certified, making Durham a leader in the state.

Charlotte has three LEED-certified buildings. Chapel Hill has one, and Raleigh and Greensboro have none, according to the organization's Web site.

LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, a nationally recognized benchmark assessing the energy-saving measures in building designs. The standard was set in 1998 by the U.S. Green Building Council, a non-profit group of building industry leaders.

Even local officials who have supported green building policies were surprised to hear about Durham's success.

"Wow," said Ellen Reckhow, chairwoman of the County Commissioners.

The county and the Durham school system committed to building by LEED standards five years ago, Reckhow said. The county's Triangle Wastewater Treatment Plant on N.C. 55, after completing a $28.3 million expansion in 2005, became the first in the country to have a LEED-certified administration building.

"We are committed to this. We're planning for all of our new projects to be LEED-certified," Reckhow said.

New library branches in the eastern and northern parts of the county also are LEED certified. They use solar panels, low-flow plumbing fixtures and recycled materials, county engineers said. The men's restrooms use waterless urinals, and landscaping was designed for less irrigation.

Four other government buildings are in the LEED certification pipeline.

"I think it's important for government to show leadership," Reckhow said. "It's more appropriate for the government to ask the private sector to do something when we're already leading the way and showing we're able to step up."

According to county engineers, green building components add 5 to 10 percent to the total cost when figured into the design from the start of the planning process.

The county expects a 40 percent reduction in energy use in those buildings, said engineer Glen Whisler. The county doesn't have comparative data on energy savings in the existing certified buildings, Whisler said.

Although the state and the Durham city and county governments don't provide incentives for LEED certification, that isn't deterring private investors from reaching for those standards anyway.

Private builders in Durham say the consumers and a matter of principle are driving the move toward certification.

"Young couples are moving into these great historic homes. There's huge financial incentives to build and rehab," said Aaron Lubeck, president of Trinity Design/Build. "They want a unique lifestyle and they buy into the green building principle. So there's this great, natural overlap."

Lubeck's company is planning a new office at 209 N. Gregson St. that's registered to become LEED-certified. Because it's a historic building, federal and state incentives will pay for 40 percent of the total rehabilitation cost, Lubeck said.

That money will go toward green building components such as solar panels and cisterns that collect rainwater for use in the toilets.

Duke's environmental sustainability coordinator, Tavey McDaniel, said in an e-mail this week that the campus master plan always had included elements of sustainable design.

In 2003, Duke adopted the policy that all new construction and renovations on campus would be LEED-certified.

"Constructing buildings that use less resources while providing quality learning environments just makes sense," McDaniel said.

Duke's new Fitzpatrick Center for Interdisciplinary Engineering earned the LEED silver certification. A dozen more campus projects are registered to become certified.

To earn LEED certification, a building project must earn "credits" through meeting performance benchmarks in five areas: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection, and indoor environmental quality.

Projects are awarded certifications ranging from "certified" to "platinum," depending on the number of credits they receive.

The Durham county and city governments are looking at ways to encourage green building.

The local governments and the Durham-Chapel Hill-Carrboro Metropolitan Planning Organization recently embarked on a Greenhouse Gas Action Plan. The goal is to curb the area's greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent by 2030, and the local government's emissions by 50 percent, according to city documents.

A $5,000 item to establish green incentives in the 2007-2008 budget was removed, but the city has set aside $50,000 for a sustainability officer.

Peri Manns, a project manager for the county, said the commissioners have been pushing the staff to do more LEED-certified buildings.

"Green building is the new wave going through the country," he said.