Making a Better Environment

Projected Completion Date: Spring 2008

Owner: Great River Energy

Owner’s Representative: The Tegra Group, Inc.

Architect/Engineer: Perkins+ Will, Dunham Associates

Construction: McGough Construction Company

Building Size: 150,000 square feet

In the past 30 years, the government deregulated energy companies in the hopes of creating higher competition and lower costs. Instead, some energy companies attempt to operate as high-profit industries—yet look to the state for subsidies. Meanwhile, many companies have hesitated to make significant investments in converting from coal or nuclear power to “clean” power sources like wind.

Not so for Great River Energy of Elk River. Minnesota’s second-largest electric wholesale supplier serves approximately 590,000 co-op members. Its green power sources already include wind energy, refuse-derived fuel, and hydropower. As the company grows, it looks for ways to incorporate even more environmentally sound renewable energy sources—such as biomass, fuel cells, and clean coal—as they become available.

Great River Energy hopes that its new four-story offices in Maple Grove will become an object lesson on environmental stewardship and sound business practice. As the structure is being built, the company seeks LEED certification. “LEED standards are both transparent and measurable, which aid greatly in making them valid and widely accepted standards,” says Dick Strassburg, partner of The Tegra Group, Inc., a commercial real estate consulting firm in Minneapolis.

Early in the design process, design and construction team members met for several interactive sessions to set goals and discuss strategy. A guiding design principle—“build everything that’s needed, but nothing that’s not”—was used as a litmus test to reduce the project’s demand for energy, land, and raw materials.

Most LEED-specified aspects of the building design, such as the ability to capture and utilize rainwater for irrigation and flushing toilets, will work behind the scenes to save energy and reduce byproducts. The project will use recycled and native building materials (i.e., Minnesota limestone and granite), helping to boost the local economy and curtail the burning of fossil fuels used in shipping. “The current goal is for at least 20 percent of the building materials to be recycled and 20 percent of the materials to be locally manufactured and extracted or harvested,” Strassburg says. Wood on the project will be Forest Stewardship Council certified, which ensures that it was harvested using sustainable methods, rather than with clear cutting, which can cause permanent damage to forests.

Often, ideal building materials—i.e., locally produced, made of recycled and non-toxic materials—are not available. Sustainable design principles include balancing choices so that the best options win out. Concrete from far-away Oregon will be used for the project, but up to 60 percent of the structural concrete framing will be composed of fly ash, a postindustrial waste from coal-fired power plants that would otherwise be landfilled. (Tiny fly-ash particles fill the spaces in the concrete and reduce the amount of water required in the making of concrete, making the material much more dense and durable.)

The end result will be an efficient and healthy building. Offices and conference rooms will be equipped with motion sensors so lights will turn off automatically. The project will use low–volatile organic compound products for paints, sealants, carpet, and composite woods.

But employees may most appreciate the windows. Windows and a series of light wells (narrow atriums) provide views and working light, which, in turn, increase productivity and improve worker health. And they’re also useful for energy savings. A proposed earth-tube system—a closed-loop ventilation system that channels warm air through tubes buried deep in the cool ground—may be used to ventilate the light wells, reducing the energy required to heat and cool the space.