“Green” buildings are here, and they are here to stay — but what exactly does that mean? According to the United States Green Building Council, a green building is an environmentally responsible structure that provides a profitable and healthy place to work. Every aspect of a building and its contents, from its design to its everyday use, can be created or modified to support an “eco-friendly,” “sustainable,” or “green” objective. It’s all about environmentally friendly architecture and construction, energy and water reduction, and improving the quality of life of its occupants.
Logically, it follows that an Environmental Health & Safety Consultant is an integral part of the “greening” process. Because an Industrial Hygienist’s main goal is to keep workers, their families, and the community healthy and safe, and they play a vital part in ensuring that federal, state, and local laws and regulations are followed in the work environment, they can and should be a key player in any firm’s efforts to develop or maintain a “green building” status.
Back in 2006, Sterling & Associates, Inc. was in a uniquely qualified position to be in on the early stages of the “go green” phenomenon, by being a long-term trusted partner with Adobe and Cushman & Wakefield. Having served as Adobe’s Indoor Air Quality consultant for several years prior, Sterling & Associates was invited to participate in Adobe’s “stewardship team,” with the goal of certifying Adobe’s Towers as LEED Green. The entire team consisted of a mix of Adobe employees, representatives of key vendors, and management.
The results of that effort were widely publicized, as Adobe achieved the distinction of earning the world’s first commercial LEED-EB 2.0 Platinum Certification, for all three corporate towers! While that sounds great, what is the bottom line?? It’s good for the bottom line, too!
Besides the accolades for setting the pace for environmentally-friendly business and sustainability, Adobe enjoys the benefits of nearly $1 million in annual cost savings! Cushman & Wakefield and Adobe are proving that “going green” is definitely good business. And they did rest on their laurels once they achieved their LEED-EB 2.0 Platinum certification… they have continued the practices and procedures established during the process as the new status-quo, and constantly seek ways to raise the bar for improved efficiencies and community responsibility.
As a result of participating in this ground-breaking project, Sterling & Associates gained valuable experience in helping a major client to meet the LEED IEQ (Indoor Environmental Quality) standards as well as document their history and plans appropriately. This experience proved invaluable, and spawned an added service area for Sterling & Associates… assisting clients with the IEQ portion of LEED/Green Building certification. And of course, Sterling continues to do what it has been expert at for over two decades – evaluative, baseline and routine IAQ investigations. Sterling is performing an increasing number of “building commissioning” evaluations, as well as “due diligence” investigations, which all may contribute to the green goals of building developers, owners and managers.
If you would like more information on how Sterling & Associates can assist your firm with its green building status or LEED Certification, please contact us directly. We have been providing quality EH&S consulting services since 1989 in California and beyond.