Green Renovation of Miller Hall Under Way

BELLINGHAM

The 134,000 sq ft renovation, which began this month with an expected completion date of December 2011, will seek a minimum of a LEED ™ silver certification. Total cost for the project, funded by the Washington State legislature, is $60.4 million.

The project marks the first time the university has used a general construction/construction manager (GCCM), in this case Dawson Construction. The project team also includes Coughlin Porter Lundeen, civil and structural engineers; CDI Engineers, mechanical; Sparling, electrical and Berger Partnership, landscape architects.

New exterior steps and a sloped walkway, a restored main lobby, a stand-alone, single-story, glass-walled pavilion and new stairs, elevators and entry lobbies will be included.

Bovis to Help With Electric Car Infrastructure

CHICAGO, ILL.

David MacDonald, senior vice president, Bovis Lend Lease Multi-Site Group and Electric Transportation Engineering were recently awarded $99.8 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy to implement the electric car program in Oregon, Washington, California, Arizona and Tenesse. The overall project is valued at approximately $200 million.

The Minit-Charge technology, which will be used for the system, can provide a safe and meaningful charge for an electric vehicle in approximately 15 minutes.

WWU Receives Grant for Biomethane

BELLINGHAM

Western Washington University’s Vehicle Research Institute (VRI) has been awarded a $500,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to expand its Biomethane for Transportation project, turning dairy waste into clean-burning biomethane.

Part of the project’s funding will go toward placing new engines in three buses used by Bellingham’s Bellair Charters; these buses will be converted from diesel fuel to biomethane with engines from Northwest Cummins and will produce 23 times less carbon dioxide than they did previously.

The biomethane used to power the buses comes from the Northwest’s fi rst dairy digester at the Vander Haak dairy in Lynden, Wash.; the farm’s cows supply the manure put into an anaerobic digester on the farm, which separates the solids from the gases. The gases are then run through a “scrubber,” which removes the hydrogen sulfide and other contaminants from the methane and makes it clean and ready to burn in a combustion engine.

WWU’s $500,000 was only a portion of a larger $15 million grant from the Department of Energy to the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency.

Conservation Not New Power Plants, Council Decides

PORTLAND

Over the next fi ve years almost 60% of future energy needs in the Pacific Northwest will come from conservation, if a draft plan released by the Northwest Power and Conservation Council Friday is adopted. Over the next 20 years, that figures jumps to 85 %.

The council, which advises the Bonneville Power Administration on how to supply adequate energy without harming fish and wildlife, consists of Montana, Idaho, Washington and Oregon. It devises a new plan every five years which guides the BPA and the 147 utilities it serves.

The new plan predicts that demand for electricity will grow by 2,058 MW between 2010 and 2014. The plan suggests that 1,200 MW could come from conservation including smart-grid energy management, and powerstorage improvements, the use of Energy Star appliances, fluorescent lights and sustainable building construction.

The plan predicts that demand for electricity will grow by about 1.2 percent per year over the next 20 years and identifies 5,800 MW of new energy efficiency to meet 85 percent of that demand. The average cost of the efficiency is half the cost of new power plants.

New power would come from wind and natural gas or other alternative energy sources. The plan anticipates no new coal fired power plants over the 20-year planning horizon.

Olive 8 Receives LEED Silver Certification

SEATTLE

Miller Hall at Western Washington University in Bellingham, will be remodeled to become more efficient. (Image courtesy of Mahlum)

The Olive 8 building, a 39-story hotel/ condominium building located in downtown Seattle, has officially received LEED Silver by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), a first for hotel/condominium buildings in the Seattle area. The cornerstone Hyatt at Olive 8 hotel located within the Olive 8 building is now also one of only 20 hotels in the US to be officially designated “green” by the USGBC.

Olive 8 was planned and developed by R.C. Hedreen Company, Bellevue.

Featuring a 100% glass exterior, it has an expected energy savings of 23% more than a conventional building of similar size and occupancy and water savings of about 36% or approximately 2.4 million gallons each year. Key design elements that contribute to the energy-saving and eco-friendly nature of the building include:

• Low-flow plumbing fixtures, • Dual-flush toilets that use 29% less water per flush
• A low-chemical mechanical water system that uses less potable water
• Landscaping maintenance that uses minimal city water. A super-efficient results in a 99% savings from typical irrigation programs – an approximate savings of 24,000 gallons of water per year (in addition to the 2.4 million gallons saved in the building).

In total, more than 95% of construction debris was diverted from landfill disposal by redirecting materials to be reused and recycled.

Expedia Headquarters Rates LEED Gold

BELLEVUE, WASH.

Bellevue’s Hines Expedia Tower has received LEED Gold Core & Shell. The 20-story office building was designed by LMN, Seattle.

Located in the heart of Bellevue’s central business district, the Hines Expedia Tower is home to Expedia’s corporate office, which moved there at the end of 2008.

The contractor contributed to the certification by recycling 89% of construction waste, as well as in the procurement of recycled building materials. The building also has a green product housekeeping program and its energy supply is through Puget Sound Energy’s green power contract.

Earlier this year, the Hines Expedia Tower earned the “Designed to Earn EnergyStar” mark, a new EnergyStar program to encourage buildings in the design phase to exceed a benchmark energy performance threshold. And in early 2006, the project received the first LEED-CS (Core and Shell) pre-certification on the West Coast.

Optimum Wins Award for HVAC Monitoring System

SEATTLE

Optimum Energy, provider of high performance HVAC software announced that it has been chosen by Always On as one of the Going Green Top 100 winners. Inclusion in the Going Green 100 signifies major developments in the creation of new business opportunities in the green technology industries. Optimum Energy was selected based on a set of five criteria: innovation, market potential, commercialization, stakeholder value and media buzz.

Optimum Energy is the first company to use a scalable software approach to deliver advanced HVAC control technologies that reduce HVAC energy consumption up to 60 percent without sacrificing occupant comfort. As a result, Optimum Energy customers benefit from reduced operating expenses, water use and greenhouse gas emissions. Optimum Energy’s software solutions are employed in a wide range of buildings.