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>> welcome to the brown bag

lunch, i am lawrence cornfield. we are here at beverly prior's law office. we are going to look at one of the greenest business office spaces in san francisco. you just celebrated the first anniversary of your green office space >> there are many elements. what we're celebrating, what you say it's one of the greenest office buildings. it's the contribution methodology. the materials mechanical systems that we look at. we are using recycles materials. how off gases. >> all focussed toward the goal of reducing impacts? >> exactly. we are using materials that are

rapidly renewable. there's another aspect. there are many aspects to being green >> what lead you to this green office? >> it's an interesting story. these kinds of thing start with gee, it's time to find a new office of our idea has evolved over time. how do we work together? what kind of space do we want that will support what we want? we have very ambitious goals. all those things started to

factor in. we had a brain storm session and made it clear, it's not an ideal world, we are not going to be able to get all the things they like. we ask people to prioritize and across the board, the staff said they want a sustainable office. it's a leed silver and we got excited it went to leed gold >> wow. so leed has a series of standards. starting with leed certified. you have met a high level the sustainability.

you can go to leed silver or gold. it's leadership of environmental design. it's a process of the u.s. green building council. beverly is ahead of this curve. we see every new building as sustainable features. they are not all leed certified. that's what the market demands >> our work is in the public sector. community colleges and so on. 5 years ago, we were trying to get them to think about it. then think about california is on the forefront of nation. san francisco is on the forefront of state

>> and beverly prior is way up there. we are up there at the top. it sounds like the challenge came to making this physical reality achiefable. what is the marginal cost? every always asks me. what is the marginal costs. may be i shouldn't ask. i have to say, there's a huge difference. between building a building from scratch, where you can design at will features from the ground up and the marginal cost then when you take an existing building. you were talking about major changes. i presume that has a major

impact. >> we don't own the building. so the landlord gave us an allowance. we had to make a bigger commitment. there's actually, sala might want to share about that. we had to convince the landlord in many cases. not everything that's green is about our tenant space. there's the restrooms, which the landlord had control over. making decisions about the mechanical. it was part of our strategy, whenever we started to raise the green flag, the landlord would say wo. >> it was part of that, i love that that leed stands for is leadership it energy and

environmental design. part of leadership is bringing people along and having them see the benefits. at least for their own pocket book. that was part of our strategy to have the landlord buy into the some of the strategies, but how it's making sense for them as business owners >> the long time returns, how many years you look at the 10-year cycle and evaluate these things >> i just realize i didn't answer your question about the marginal costs. one of the things is you hear about how much more does it cost to do leed and so on. there are those out there that tell you it's minimal, one or 2

percent. i think they are talking against a brand-new project where you have a lot of influence on things. >> by the way, we have done enough documentation on new buildings to show that meeting certain leed standards, i think we're looking at leed gold was a 2 to 5 percent marginal increase for a brand-new building. >> to even get leed silver. there's no additional cost because in california, the state energy codes and all these different things are supportive of good quality, so the state is really coming along too. in terms of percent, marginal. do you want to say sala? it was 25 percent? >> sala, you were the project

manager. tell us what your experience was. how the budget looked to you. >> i can jump and say 15 percent. but that's not the whole story. it's about how you're pushing. you can make it in 10 or 15 percent or 25 percent. i think it's about how the team, when i say the team, the client, the contract, the designer, sorry, and architect, the contractor, the move manager and the staff, all of those are on moving towards one goal. if they are not doing that all together. that 15 or 10 percent or whatever number can be 50 percent because you're pulling

and pushing. and as beverly said, we are in an existing structure. almost 100 years old. there are other variables that you have to work out with the landlord, contractor. so the same concept you, have to look at the time and the cost of the project. once you decide what your goal is and you do the design work, you do that on budget whether it's sustainabilitior not. mean the quality so you don't have major cost changes. >> well, but there is also the twist here the combination of an old building and trying to use materials and ways of construction that is a little bit sort of go against each

other. the building was built in a certain way and you are trying to create an environment within an old structure >> i just got back from the u.s. building council convention in chicago. it seeming to me, the biggest issue is not how do we up the standards for new buildings or anything like that. it's existing building stock and how to manage that to increase or address the sustainability. >> as an interior designer who spent my entire career in san francisco, it's all working within with the framework of an existing buildings. whether you're moving people in our out.

we can't afford to tear everything down >> we have all this embodied material. we just want to do upgrades >> if we are able to change the language, we will be able to accomplish so much more. there's a cost that no one talks about. it's the satisfaction of your employees in a green space and the health in a green space. there's more and more data being revealed that that has a significant impact on your real cost. we know the building cost is significant on the front end, but over the life of the company, the real cost is your people. if you are able to recognize a

2 percent increase, you have more than paid for the front loaded cost of the construction >> what kind of features do we see in here that make it green? >> one of the things is what they asked for, so a lot of it is usability. tackable surface >> so the walls, you can stick pins in here? what is the material? >> all the tackable surfaces are either recycled cork or recycled polyester. they are formaldehyde free. >> is that the corn based stuff? >> it's an agricultural biproduct. and of the fabrics are corn

based fabric fiber. at the end of the life cycle they will be composted >> sometimes people say it's hard to find them. >> i think our specifiers were getting in touch with that. these products had been around and had been advertised a fair bit. people have seen them and we noticed our workers were keen to kind them. some of the challenges of making this leed. where were they manufacture exclude what went into them. some of the manufactures didn't know where to find their answers >> we made an effort to be as innovative as possible >> what do we have here? >> this is a great example of a

green product because this came from your old office. this is one of the 3 r's. this was reuse. there is credit in leed available for reusing furniture products and taking existing building stock >> how about the table? >> this is reused. beverly prior brought this and made it into a new conference table >> i see new chairs? >> those are all recycled as well. >> how about the lighting in this room? it's a lovely diffused lighting. >> they picked a great spot because the perimeter daylighting, you can take advantage of that and see the

electric lights aren't on. >> these are interior lights. >> they are on a censor which will shut them off. this is required to have daylighting. >> is there an over ride? >> part of it is you get credit for local products. the other aspect is if you are locating your office in a place with public transportation, there is public transportation, you are not doing something where everybody has to drive there >> if you move into a space

with a particular density and a particular development per square acre, you will get a credit. it's an embedded credit. this doesn't cost you anything. >> one of the things that you'll see as we walk around,

we have groupings of work stations some of them are standing. some people like sitting down and working together. but every time i'm sitting in one of these areas, i'm just so impressed by the quality of light. it makes so much of a difference. it's because we have so such natural light. it helps you feel good and i think that's a real key of what attracted us to the site. >> ventilation is a big energy use in buildings. so -- >> in the beginning, we were trying to use fresh air. that's a point with leed. just from the point of view as life is invigorating, so does fresh air. we tried really hard to make

the windows operate >> are they operatable now >> most of them are not. it does not rely upon the operatable windows >> at this point, we would have had to work with the landlord. >> that's a really big deal in san francisco much we are dealing with new buildings where they want operatable windows. you have smoke and fire issues. >> somehow, it does something to the circulation of area. in other offices you hear and feel the whoosh of air coming down. here we don't feel that.

you feel a constant temperature and flow of area >> alex, i came in here, did you have special problems with the hva c? >> no, we didn't. it following the natural contours of the building >> when we first sat in my office and looked, i thought the mechanical system is so beautiful, it was one of the hardest decisions are they going this way or that way. how do we make it work? there aren't a lot of walls to cover things up. i think they are really beautiful >> this is a recycled cork product. it's a bigger investment, >> is this real cork

>> i believe it's recycled from old wine corks. >> silver oak. yeah. so it's a recycled. i know people say cork is soft so it's quiet to walk on >> it's a renewable material as well. >> good. >> and very durable. it lasts longer than and comparable bct product. >> how about this other stuff? >> the carpet is a hybrid recycled. 90 percent of the carpet is recycled. it's a unique application. it's traction backed. it doesn't require adhesive. i take one step out of the process. eliminate a material all together that's associated with

a lot of boc's. >> the chairs are 100 percent cradle to cradle. it's an outside certification that means the product is entirely recyclable. it's easily disassembled. you can send it back and have them disassemble it >> i would like to see stuff let's repairable. so you don't have to replace the whole chair? >> i am positive that we can send this back to the manufacture and have it replaced rather than getting a new chair. >> this has that aleron. >> the entire assembly of this furniture has been put in a testing room and they have

tested off gassing and it's met a green guard. we have tackable, rather than covering them with any fabric. we used a biodegradable product, who's base is corn. >> that's good for us in corn farming. >> in case of an earthquake >> is there any limitation on the life? >> in the building department, i see people coming forward with some new product. one the things we have to look at is not that they meet the structural but meet standards for durability and meet the expectations people have. do you think we meet our

durability and other expectations using these products? >> i would absolutely say the manufacturers that put these products together are risking their reputations. they do testing before they let it go out with their name on it. all of our products, most of them have lifetime warranties. although i say this is compostable. it's not like sunlight and a little water and it will disintegrate. >> i think one of the things we need to do and everybody involved in this field, keep an eye on this. some of this is not going to work out. >> just underlining what robin said, i think this was not our

first choice material. our first choice material they were not, they had it out on display, but not willing to sell it to us. just let us have that. no. we have to wait until we are completely confident with it. we got something else that we loved and that speaked again to how much they are laying themselves on the line >> you get and leed points for this material as well? >> absolutely. >> let's talk about leed. they might think it's the only way to make it green. that's actually not the case. it's one of the standards. perhaps the host highly developed one. there is no leed for residential.

>> there is >> it's official >> they officially adopted leed. >> the cost the leed certification are quite high. for small are sustainable projects there are other standards. build it green? green point rated is one. used for residential. there are a whole bunch of areas being developed. we're real grateful we have leed. one of the issues with leed is it's expensive to go through the leed process. you have to document everything you do. pay them a fee. they have to check it. what is a leed certification cost? >> there's an initial cost to

register the project. the initial registration cost has come down and the u.s. gb c has worked really hard to bring this down. they are trying to address this and all nc. >> nc, new construction? >> yes. sorry. >> so what are we talking about? 10 that , $10,000. >> the certification will be around $1,200. >> that's not so much. i had been told many times it was cost prohibitive. but that doesn't seem to be the case >> i think part of it is