Green Shamrock, Green Building Design

"Green" Buildings/Building "Green": Environmentally Sound Design and Construction Practices and how they apply to Cleary Building Corp. Business Practices and Cleary Buildings.

"Green design" components can fall into several different categories: one proposed set includes 1) Design 2) Land Use and Site Issues, 3) Materials 4) Equipment 5) Business practices. These different components contribute to "green building practices" in different ways for any one individual project. The intent of this paper is to point out some of the inherent "green design" principles in the Cleary building design. Several of the categories rely on design, (either by the Client or the Sales Specialist) in order to achieve optimum "green design practices" for a specific building project.

Design:

1. Design an energy efficient building: Use high levels of insulation, high performance windows, and tight construction. (1)
   Cleary Post Frame Buildings: The Cleary Energy Miser and Commercial lines of Buildings provide an opportunity to fill 8' wide wall cavities with 6" fiberglass batt insulation. Use of a steel ceiling attached to the bottom chord of the trusses as support allows high R-Values of insulation to be blown into the attic area providing uniform and tight insulation coverage compared to insulation installed between roof purlins.
   Cleary Post Frame Buildings: Metal roofing's reflectivity can help reduce air conditioning loads to save energy by reflecting heat away from the building when light colors are used in the building design.(3)
2. Optimize Material Use: Avoid waste from structural over design (use optimum value engineering/advanced framing). Simplify building geometry. (1)
   Cleary Post Frame Buildings: The basic post frame building design concept incorporates simplified building geometry with a minimum of materials used to put a given clearspan volume of building under cover. The use of steel roofing, due to its light weight per unit area, results in structural material savings when compared to using heavier, non-metal, roofing alternatives.
3. Design for future reuse and adaptability: Make the structure adaptable to other uses, and choose materials that can be reused or recycled. (1)
   Cleary Post Frame Buildings: The inherent clearspan design of post frame buildings naturally creates a structure which can be adapted to multiple uses. Without the requirement of interior support walls, interior room locations and division walls can be changed without requiring structural revision to support the roof system. When the initial building design incorporates design provisions for attic ventilation and the support of future ceilings, the unheated warehouse can be easily modified into a heated business, factory, or manufacturing facility.

Materials:

1. Use durable products and materials: Because manufacturing is very energy- intensive, a product that lasts longer or requires less maintenance usually saves energy. Durable products also contribute less to our solid waste problems. (1)
   Cleary Post Frame Buildings: Steel roofing is a more durable product with lower life-cycle costs than most other roofing systems available. The use of steel roofing reduces the amount of shingles and other roofing system materials going into our landfills. When used as a reroofing option, steel can often be installed over the original roof, saving removal and disposal costs. Steel roofing and siding is also recyclable at the end of its useful life. (3)
2. Choose low-maintenance building materials: Where possible, select building materials that require little maintenance (painting, retreatment, waterproofing, etc). (1)
   Cleary Post frame Buildings typically use steel trim and siding requiring little or low maintenance. When used as an interior finish on walls and ceilings steel provides a durable, low maintenance finish for commercial, industrial and agricultural applications.
3. Use building products made from recycled materials: Building products made from recycled materials reduce solid waste problems, cut energy consumption in manufacturing, and save on natural resource use.(1)
   Cleary Post Frame Buildings predominantly use Fabral Grand Rib III Plus steel for exterior siding and roofing materials as well as interior steel ceiling and wall liners in applicable situations. "Steel is the world's most recycled material. In the United States alone, nearly 70 million tons of steel were recycled in 2000. Every ton of steel that is recycled saves 2500 pounds of iron ore, 1400 pounds of coal and 120 pounds of limestone. New steel made with recycled content uses as little as 26% of the amount of energy that would be required to make steel from raw materials extracted from nature(2)". Per Bill Croucher, P.E. Director-Engineering of Fabral/Euramax, "The steel we buy from the mills is made by the Basic Oxygen Furnace process so it has an average recycled content of 31.7% which is 20.4% Post-Consumer recycled material and 9.6% Post-Industrial."(4)
4. Seek responsible wood supplies: Use lumber from independently certified well-managed forests. Avoid lumber products produced from old-growth timber unless they are certified. (1)
   Cleary Post Frame Buildings use renewable resource Southern Pine and Spruce-Pine- Fir lumber as the primary structural framework throughout the building. Lumber from sustainable and renewable forestry resources provide a more environmentally friendly source of constructions materials than old growth timber resources.
   "Sustainable forestry means managing timberlands and their various resources to meet the needs of present generations without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs. It also means following a land stewardship ethic that integrates timber harvesting for useful products with conservation of soil, air, and maintenance of water quality and wildlife and fish habitat"(5) Although it is difficult to verify which forests all purchased lumber comes from due to the purchasing of large quantities of lumber from multiple brokers who in turn purchase from various lumber mills, lumber used in Cleary buildings is certified in part to various forestry management standards such as the Sustainable Forestry Initiative Standard (SFIS), the Forest Stewardship Council Standard (FSC) , and ISO 14001 environmental management system certification.

Business Practices:

1. Minimize job-site waste: (1)
   Cleary Building Corp orders steel roof and side panels precut to the nearest inch and other materials specified to the exact number of items required for each individual building in order to minimize waste. Where economically feasible, material assemblies are constructed at the plants and shipped to the jobsite in order to reduce on-site cutting waste.
2. Make your business operations more environmentally responsible: Plan transportation to be as efficient as possible, purchase energy efficient vehicles, arrange carpools to jobsites, and schedule site visits (and visits to prospective clients) to minimize driving. (1)
   Cleary Building Corp provides their construction crews the option of carpooling to the jobsite direct from each branch office. Cleary Management directs personnel to schedule visits to sites and clients in such a manner as to minimize driving.

References:

1. Environmental Building News' "Check list for Environmentally Responsible Design and Construction"
2. Technical Bulletin : Draft #3 "Recycled Content of Metal Roofing and Siding panels" ( information developed by Bill Croucher, P.E. Director-Engineering Fabral/Euramax)
3. www.coolmetalroofing.org referred by Bill Croucher, Fabral
4. Email communication with Bill Croucher
5. Potlatch Corporation forest management philosophy.