The U.S. Green Building Council recently certified Garver's three-story corporate office in North Little Rock, Ark. as LEED Silver. The USGBC provides independent, third-party verification that a qualifying structure meets the highest green building and performance measures.
The 38,852-square-foot corporate office incorporates many "reduce-reuse-recycle" principles, including high-efficiency envelope and internal systems designs that result in an estimated 14 percent energy use reduction, 45 percent water use reduction, and $1 million savings in initial furnishing cost. The design incorporated many products containing recycled content (estimated 27 percent overall recycled content), and aggressive recycling practices during construction were expected to reduce the amount of construction waste sent to landfills by 75 percent. “Environmentally conscious construction can be an overwhelming and lengthy process,” said Garver President Brock Johnson. “As a company, it was important to develop a well-balanced vision before kicking off our LEED project.”
Prior to design, Garver produced a list of performance criteria for the new office and gave careful consideration to sustainability factors. “We weighed the benefits of green improvements against their cost,” Johnson said. “We wanted to achieve the highest quality facility while making fiscally responsible decisions, and our choices helped us reach our goals.”
Garver focused on a number of sustainability features throughout the design process:
- Orientate the building to maximize natural daylight and minimize cooling and heating loads
- Use fixtures and equipment that conserve water and energy
- Incorporate daylighting and energy-efficient lighting systems
- Ensure that the building design minimizes energy loss
- Reuse materials and produce less waste
- Improve indoor air quality
“This office provided us with an educational springboard to better develop and produce future designs that incorporate energy performance, indoor environmental quality and sustainable sites,” said Garver mechanical engineer Joel Funkhouser, PE, a LEED Accredited Professional.
Viridian, the sustainability consultant that worked with Garver throughout the project and coordinated the LEED certification process, also published a press release.
