6845 Silacci Way Earns LEED Silver!

We are delighted to announce that 6845 Silacci Way in Gilroy has been awarded LEED Silver certification! The 30,000 SF project includes office space and a mechanics workshop that will be used by the State of California.  

Although security requirements dictated much of the exterior architecture, the team was able to emphasize energy efficiency and onsite renewable energy production, securing over half of the total points needed for certification in just the EA category. A flat roof was used to maximize renewable energy production via a 64kW photovoltaic system, ultimately offsetting 37% of the project’s annual energy use. One challenge was presented by the use of radiant heaters in the building’s semi-conditioned spaces, which represented almost two-thirds of the total footprint. By fine-tuning the operating schedule and controls, modeled energy use was reduced significantly.

Sustainable site measures such as large bioretention basins and drought-tolerant landscaping combined with highly efficient irrigation and indoor water fixtures reduced outdoor and indoor water use by 70% and 41% respectively.

Indoors, the project team focused on pollutant source reduction (walk off mats, ultra low-emitting materials, ventilation with filtered outside air) and natural daylighting to produce a comfortable and healthy work environment.

Congratulations to the entire team!

Architect: Jeff Krauss

Owner: Patrick Howes, Bram Investments

MEP: Kern Mechanical

Landscape: K&D Landscaping

Reducing Embodied Carbon - Concrete is First Stop!

With the growing focus on carbon emissions associated with the built environment, the concrete industry represents an important sector for lowering embodied carbon, and therefore total carbon emissions from a project. The process of manufacturing concrete, especially its main component cement, is responsible for approximately 40% of carbon emissions from buildings. By looking at your concrete specifications and working with your engineer to make some informed choices about quantities and components, concrete’s impact can be significantly reduced.

Source: NRMCA

The ingredients list, material characteristics, and testing standards for concrete in a construction project can make it feel overwhelming to start to sift through. To help designers and engineers start to adjust their mixes, the National Ready Mix Concrete Association (NRMCA) recently published its “Guide to Improving Specification for Ready Mix Concrete”. In it, you can read through a sample Cast-in-Place concrete spec and learn what the different sections mean and the role each plays in the embodied carbon of a concrete mix.

One of NRMCA recommendations involves “removing minimum cement requirements.” As a refresher, in a concrete mix, cement is the ingredient that when mixed with water, binds aggregates and hardens it all into a rocklike mass. Producing cement requires heating minerals to very high temperatures and then grinding them into a powder. This heating process is what is responsible for the high energy use. Max Pina, Plant Manager for Cemex in Santa Barbara, shares with us that traditionally, specs may place minimum requirements for cement quantity in a mix, since more cement means the required strength is met sooner. But the NRMCA found that designers may be over-specifying the amount. Instead of relying on a standard spec, they recommend revisiting it and working with your structural and civil engineers to determine what is the sufficient amount based on the specific project needs.

A second recommendation calls for “utilizing blended cement mixes”. Generally, cement mixes are classified by their ingredients and applications, with higher grades used in dams and roadways. Type I is the usual Portland Cement Mix, with its high embodied carbon footprint. But Pina shared with us that in the last year, he has seen the use of limestone in blended cement mixes becoming more popular in situations where the overall cement content cannot be greatly reduced but teams still want to see a reduction in embodied carbon. This Portland-Limestone Cement (PLC), or Type IL mix, is manufactured similarly to Portland Cement, but by adding limestone after the heating stage rather than before, the total energy used and emissions released in manufacturing concrete can be reduced. Additionally, the material can also be extracted locally to the concrete plant, further helping with transportation emissions.

There are other types of blended cements such as Portland-Pozzolan (Type IP) and Portland-Blast Furnace Slag (Type IS) that incorporate the manufacturing waste from coal power plants or other combustion sources. But Pina cautioned that on the Central Coast, the availability of these other blends is often seasonal. For example, the Pozzolan or Fly Ash additive is often sourced from coal-powered “peaker” energy plants. With energy demand changing through the seasons and their use decreasing as our grid transitions to renewable energy, these supply chains may not be as reliable as limestone.

These are just two of the many ways you can start to make incremental changes to the way you use concrete mixes in your project. With concrete being one of the most widely used materials, even small changes can make a big impact on our road to lowering carbon emissions. If you are interested in your project reducing its carbon emissions, reach out to In Balance today!

ILFI's Just Label and SLO County's Family Friendly Workplace Program Promote Equity and Employee Success

Sample Just. label from ILFI

While exploring the International Living Future Institute’s (ILFI) Living Building Challenge as a green building certification option for projects, the In Balance team took a deep dive into the Just Label, which is one of the core imperatives of the certification. What is the Just Label?

While integral to LBC certification, Just also serves as a stand alone social justice “nutrition label” for participating organizations. The goals of the program include promoting transparency, elevating discussions around workplace social justice concerns, creating common language and measurement framework, and improving H.R. policies to make life better for workers.

The social justice categories included in the Just Label cover: Diversity & Inclusion, Equity, Employee Health, Employee Benefits, Stewardship, and Purchasing & Supply Chain. For each category, there are multiple indicators measured in one to four “squares” and organizations must report information on at least 16 of the 22 specific indicators to receive the label.

The four squares mark varying thresholds of achievement. For example, the levels under Gender Diversity are awarded as follows:

·       Level One: Organization has a written policy that documents commitment to a gender diverse workforce

·       Level Two: Meets Level One plus Women constitute at least 30% of the overall workforce; Women constitute at least 25% of the senior leadership team

·       Level Three: Meets Level Two plus Women constitute at least 40% of the overall workforce; Women constitute at least 30% of the senior leadership team

·       Level Four: Meets Level Three plus Women constitute at least 50% of the overall workforce; Women constitute at least 35% of the senior leadership team

Check out the ILFI Just Label website to learn more about the program!

As we were working on our own Just Label, In Balance wanted to explore other programs aligning with improving workplace policies and employee quality of life. We were thrilled to discover the San Luis Obispo County Chamber of Commerce’s Family-Friendly Workplace (FFWP) Accelerator Program. The program aims to measure how family-friendly an organization is by assessing existing policies and providing an opportunity to explore additional family-friendly policies to implement.

The assessment is broken down into 5 categories: Employer-Sponsored Child Care, Flexible Work & Scheduling, Paid & Unpaid Leave, Health Benefits & Flex Spending, and Parent Accommodations & Support. Award levels range from Bronze to Blue Diamond and are based on how many family-friendly policies are met in each category.

In Balance Green Consulting is proud to have been recognized by the SLO Chamber of Commerce on July 27th as a Diamond “Distinguished Champion” Family-Friendly Workplace through the program.

Visit the San Luis Obispo County Family-Friendly Workplaces website for more information on the program and to take the free assessment!

Both ILFI’s Just Label and San Luis Obispo (SLO) County Family-Friendly Workplaces program include policies addressing employee health care, physical health and well-being, family and medical leave, and flexible work arrangements, such as work from home. They are accessible to organizations of any size, from small firms, like In Balance Green Consulting with 6 employees, to larger organizations with thousands of employees. Both programs are excellent tools for organizations to assess current employee policies and benefits and find areas that could use improvement to create more equitable workplace environments and promote employee success.

New 2023 Requirements for HVAC Refrigerants

California has been on a path to reduce manufactured chemicals that contribute to air pollution, water pollution, ozone depletion and global warming.  One classification of chemicals used throughout the building industry that the California Air Resources Board (CARB) regulates is hydrofluorocarbons (HFC). HFCs are used as refrigerants in stationary refrigerator systems, stationary air-conditioners, chillers, and other end uses such as foam blowing agents. The most recent step in the phase down of HFCs took effect Jan 1, 2023, and more will follow in 2024, 2025 and 2026.

As architects and design professionals, we do not have direct control over a particular manufacturer, but we do have a collective interest in providing our clients with the most current industry and regulatory information, including discussion of refrigerants. By giving clients the opportunity to future-proof their development and meaningfully participate in project development, we can help reduce the building’s contribution to global warming emissions and pollution.

For some of the more common heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) end-uses, CARB has opted to regulate the refrigerants used in the manufacture of new equipment sold in California via an upper global warming potential (GWP) rating. Here’s a look at the current schedule for implementation.

Source: California Air Resources Board excerpt from California Code of Regulations, Title 17, Division 3, Chapter 1, Subchapter 10 Climate Change, Article 4 -Final Regulation Order

The acronyms are many. As a quick reference guide:

·       GWP – Global warming potential, refers to a substance’s ability to hold heat in the atmosphere and contribute to the greenhouse effect. CO2 is the baseline with a GWP of 1; all others are measured against CO2.

·       PTAC – Packaged terminal air conditioners

·       PTHP – Packaged terminal heat pumps

·       VRF – Variable refrigerant flow

Practically speaking, many of us as design professionals may not have noticed the change that took effect in January of this year, but you may begin to notice more manufacturers and supply houses advertising units with R-32 refrigerants (GWP 675) as a California-compliant option versus the common R-410a refrigerant seen throughout the room AC and PTAC industry; R-410a has a GWP of 2,087 – well outside the new limits. An added bonus is that the HVAC units with R-32 refrigerant will have higher efficiency ratings.

(Note that the number assigned to a refrigerant (R-410a, R-32, R-290 etc.) is related to the chemical composition of the substance and is totally unrelated to the GWP.)

As the phase out of R-410a and other high GWP refrigerants continue, keep an eye out for manufacturers advertising equipment with natural refrigerants, such as propane (R-290, GWP=4), ammonia (R-717, GWP <1), and carbon dioxide (R-744, GWP=1). To keep up on product lines and manufacturers that use natural refrigerants, subscribe to – or get your consultants to subscribe to – industry resources focusing on natural refrigerants. Hydrocarbon21.com, Ammonia21.com, and R744.com are three related sites promoting natural refrigerants and the manufacturers that use them.

Going forward, we can serve our clients well by keeping abreast of the current regulations and policy trends while pointing out opportunities to incorporate manufacturers and product lines that are striving to reduce the adverse environmental impacts of HVAC systems through the use of low and very-low GWP refrigerants.

Have questions? Reach out!

For more information about California policy, regulation, and CARB’s R4 program visit the links below:

CARB’s Website on Air-conditioning Equipment

High-GWP Refrigerants

California’s Regulatory Language