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Union Bankshares Corp. built its new headquarters at Carmel Church with as many 'green' materials as possible to save water and energy, cut pollution and be healthier for employees. The dogwood and other plants are native to Virginia. |
Part of an occasional series on local efforts to save energy and the environment.
By RUSTY DENNEN
When G. William "Billy" Beale strolls around Union Bankshares' new operations center, he sees lots of green.
Not only visions of dollar bills, but also the save-the-planet kind of green.
The fact that the Caroline County-based financial firm would be at the forefront of a growing environmental movement speaks volumes about how times have changed.
The company moved into its new operations center at Carmel Church last month. Certified by the U.S. Green Building Council, it's one of the first buildings of its type in the region.
It was designed from the ground up to save energy and water, reduce pollution and be more healthy for employees.
When the company decided several years ago that it had seriously outgrown its longtime home in Bowling Green, it wanted more than just a building, says Beale, the company's president.
"Everyone felt it was the right thing to do."
Beale and a reporter recently toured the center with J. Donald Guthrie, an architect with McKinney & Co. of Richmond, which designed the building.
From a distance it looks like any corporate hub.
But the differences are visible all around, starting in the parking lot.
When it rains, water from the lot funnels into bioretention cells. Those are the commercial equivalent of rain gardens, where layers of gravel, sand, soil and mulch soak up the water.
That means less runoff--laden with car oil and other pollutants--winds up in nearby streams and, ultimately, the Chesapeake Bay.
Lights illuminating the grounds have fixtures that focus the beams downward, thereby reducing glare.
Around the grounds, native trees and plants grow, rather than typical nursery stock, and wetlands have been created along the banks of a drainage pond.
"We have more creative use of water drought-tolerant plants" so that no sprinkler system is needed, Guthrie said.
"The star of the show is the green roof," he said.
Along a large section of flat roof on the back of the building, rows of succulent sedum plants grow in beds of a gravel-like growing medium. They soak up large amounts of rainwater and reduce the "heat island" effect created by shingles, metal or asphalt used in conventional construction.
The rest of the roof has material that reflects heat rather than absorbs it.
Inside, pendant-mounted light fixtures and ambient light from 19-foot-wide windows ease the strain on workers' eyes. Countertops, some floors and stairs are made of "ice stone"--concrete mixed with recycled glass.
The bathrooms are a focal point of this brave new world of conservation.
No-flush urinals use alcohol to shunt fluids into the waste system. The blue fluid is lighter than water and floats on top.
"It costs about the same as a traditional urinal" but drastically cuts water use, Guthrie says, noting that a typical urinal can use 40,000 gallons a year. That's a water savings of about $440 a year each.
Dual-flush toilets allow the user to flush with more--or less--water. Other features improve indoor air quality. No ozone-depleting refrigerants that contribute to global warming are used.
Guthrie says his firm is working on a building with similar features in the Virginia BioTechnology Research Park in Richmond.
Other clients, he says, "are interested in green features, but don't necessarily want to go all the way."
Beale estimates that the Carmel Church building's add-ons cost about $120,000.
"But there's a payback in energy savings and other items. So it looks like a pretty good investment to me."
And Union Bankshares is not going it alone. It got a BayScapes grant through the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay to offset half the construction cost of the roof. And the alliance is helping to plant native plants on the site.
Volunteers planted native shrubs along the pond, as well as wetlands plants such as arrow arum and pickerel weed.
Leslie Middleton, president of the Virginia office of the alliance, said the agency helped SunTrust Bank with a green roof project at its Main Street site in Richmond.
She says commercial projects are increasingly important because of their size and potential impact on the bay.
"It has become apparent to many, many people across the watershed that to truly make a dent in these issues we've got to address larger landscapes."
The regional nonprofit alliance intends to use the Union Bankshares center as a demonstration site for environmentally sensitive development. It has scheduled a series of workshops there for industry professionals, local government and the private sector later this year.
About 135 people work in the 70,000-square-foot building, which sits on about 14 acres.
Barbara Lewis, a deposit services representative who has worked for the company for 32 years, is pleased with her new office home.
"It's like day and night" compared with the old building, she said. "It's beautiful, with big windows and you can look at the trees. And saving water, that's a good thing."
Rusty Dennen: 540/374-5431| BUILDING DESIGNS CAN CUT POLLUTION, WATER, ENERGY USE
According to the U.S. Green Building Council in Washington, buildings consume about 70 percent of the nation's energy, and about 12 percent of its water.
They have a life span of 50 to 100 years, consuming energy and producing carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas. If half of new commercial buildings were built to use 50 percent less energy, it would save more than 6 million metric tons of carbon dioxide annually--the equivalent of taking more than 1 million cars off the road every year. Those usage figures are being reduced as environmentally friendly buildings replace traditional ones. The council estimates that since its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standards were established in 2000 for new construction, there have been more than 6,000 registered projects nationwide. California and Oregon have more LEED buildings than other states. This year, an estimated $12 billion will be spent on green buildings. --Rusty Dennen |
