September 15, 2005

Alumna Eliza Jane Whitman Brings Home the Platinum

In 2004 the IEAU headquarters complex received a platinum rating, the highest LEED rating given by the U.S. Green Building Council. Eliza Jane Whitman and Neil Clifton (far right) attended the plaque ceremony. (Photo: Gregory Mancuso, Mancuso Photography; courtesy of IEUA)

“Costs will be prohibitive.” “No contractors will bid.” “Paints will peel.” “Storm water won’t perk.” “The gophers will eat the drip irrigation.”

These were just a few of the concerns that alumna Eliza Jane Whitman (BSCE ’89, MSCE ’91) heard while she was project manager for the “green building” design and construction of the Inland Empire Utilities Agency’s (IEAU) administrative headquarters.

The IEUA in Chino, California, is a municipal water district that distributes imported water and provides municipal and industrial wastewater collection and treatment services to 750,000 residents just east of Los Angeles in San Bernardino County. Its administrative headquarters is a handsome complex made up of two 33,000-square-foot buildings designed to meet standards established by the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®).

	The IEAU administrative headquarters meets standards established by the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®). (Photo: Gregory Mancuso, Mancuso Photography; courtesy of IEUA)

With the square footage of 40 houses, the complex consumes the same energy as four and will soon produce 100 percent of its energy needs through a combination of energy conservation, solar panels on the roof and the power and waste heat from internal combustion engines using methane gas generated at the adjacent wastewater treatment plant. Its use of recycled water to meet toilet and exterior water demands and efficient plumbing fixtures reduces water consumption by 73 percent.

Recycled materials are used throughout the complex, including a foundation made of crushed toilets, fly ash in the concrete mix, bathroom tiles made of windshields and parking stops made of milk cartons. Even parking and landscaping reflect “green thinking” with features such as permeable pavements and swales for storm water drainage, reclaimed water for drip irrigation and native plants for reducing irrigation demands. In 2004 these features and many more earned IEUA a LEED platinum 2.0 rating, the U.S. Green Building Council’s highest LEED rating.

Whitman, along with her supervisor, Neil Clifton, spurred IEUA’s decision to go with a LEED integrated approach to design, construction and operation of buildings.

In 2001 Whitman was made project manager for the design and construction of the new IEUA headquarters. Shortly afterwards, she attended an energy conference, which gave her the idea of using green design criteria for the new facilities.

The first person she had to convince was her supervisor, Neil Clifton, who had also attended the energy conference. He told her, “If you are so convinced that this is a good idea, prove to me that it makes economic sense.”

Whitman says she took “an engineering economic approach.” She evaluated, among other things, typical building costs across the country and compared them to what she was expecting to pay with a LEED design. She calculated lifecycle costs and payback for all building elements. She researched and quantified productivity and benefits of healthy work environments that use, for example, natural light and materials with low-emitting volatile organic compounds.

According to Whitman, because her supervisor made her do her homework, they had a solid plan to take to executive management and then to the IEUA’s board of directors.

Both groups enthusiastically backed the idea.

The end result was an environmental showcase. The IEUA was the first public agency — and largest building — to receive a LEED platinum 2.0 rating. In addition, IEUA received a Governor’s Environmental and Economic Leadership Award in December 2003 and an Environmental Achievement Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 9, in April 2005. They were recently nominated for a storm water best management practice (BMP) award from the California Stormwater Quality Association because BMP measures at the site have decreased concentrations of suspended solids by 89 percent, phosphorus by 40 percent and coliform by 95 percent in storm water entering a nearby creek.

Whitman explained that the project was a success for many reasons. For example, they got buy-in from everyone in the predesign stage, including IEUA executive management and board and Chino city managers and engineers. They held a storm water charrette with experts to address technical issues.

Whitman also credits the agency’s construction manager, Dave Wall, for holding down construction costs. They chose inexpensive tilt-up construction enhanced with metal and columns, off-the-shelf construction items in standard sizes, the most economical building envelope and a panelized building system.

Whitman admits that construction methods are different using a LEED design. “You don’t do anything at the construction site to contaminate the facility, such as smoking,” Whitman said. “LEED makes you verify that the work adheres to the design. They check invoices and photographs at certain stages.”

Despite the differences, the project demonstrated that platinum certification does not add time to the contract. Nor does it cost more than similar facilities. The cost of construction was below industry standard ($280/sf) at $160 per square foot. Even more striking, the project saved IEUA over $1.4 million on storm water infrastructure and hundreds of thousands of dollars on energy costs. In terms of lifecycle costs, the payback period is 3.3 years.

IEUA is not finished thinking green. A second phase of the project includes a 22-acre public park adjacent to the headquarters, which will feature a wetland, an educational program for first through twelfth graders, native landscaping and state-of-the-art storm water management. The Chino Creek Park will be completed in 2007.

Whitman notes that green thinking is a global concern. Germany, for example, requires that all new buildings be self-sufficient. “You must think about the impact of building a new facility and how the impact on utilities can be minimized. That summarizes what we have tried to do.”

Recycled materials are used throughout the complex, including bathroom tiles made from windshields. (Photo: Gregory Mancuso, Mancuso Photography; courtesy of IEUA)				Native plants reduce irrigation demands. (Photo: Gregory Mancuso, Mancuso Photography; courtesy of IEUA)

— mcblief —

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