We caught up with Michael Shatken, technical expert at KSS Architects, to find out why New Jersey is the perfect location for green-built distribution centers.
How has the attitude of developers who are creating distribution centers in New Jersey changed in regards to green building?
As a firm, we are engaged in the design of a number of distribution centers that are following sustainable design and construction practices. This has come to us as what I would say is a significant change in the market place. In the past, developers of distribution centers—along with developers in general—have been very bottom line-oriented. There now seems to be a trend within the market place that is embracing sustainable design. The attitude has gone from, "What is this, how can it hurt us, and how can we avoid it?" to a new mindset where it's being embraced.
The development community understands that there are market forces for energy efficiency and for creating environmentally sensitive buildings. People are asking for this within the properties that they lease or buy. Many of the end-user companies that these developers serve are managing their businesses in terms of this new notion of the triple bottom line: positive economic returns, non-harmful impact upon people, and minimal effect upon the natural environment.
Why is New Jersey considered an ideal location for distribution centers, and why is there a new focus on sustainability?
New Jersey is just calling out for these types of buildings. These sites are inherently sustainable by virtue of their proximity to both transportation and the people who work within them. Obviously the buildings themselves consume a certain amount of energy, but the energy it takes to get goods and workers to and from these distribution centers is a big part of the picture as well. New Jersey has the largest port on the east coast. In addition to the port, we have air freight, rail, and a great highway network. There is also an able and capable workforce within the urban communities that are near these sites.
Many of these sites are also brownfields—former industrial areas. Brownfield sites require an interdisciplinary approach. Not only is there a need for architecture and planning, but for environmental engineering to get the sites capped safely. There can also be some serious issues with regard to soil when dealing with brownfields. While this used to turn off developers, these problems are now thought of as very resolvable issues. Developers used to seek out sites that were shovel-ready and did not require as much effort to build on. Places like South Brunswick and Cranbury really seem to lend themselves to distribution, but these more suburban area have two environmental negatives associated with them. They are further from the inter-modal transportation and they are sites that were previously undeveloped. The determining factor for location of new distribution centers has become proximity to both ports and the consumer, and how these sites sit within a distribution bottle. This has made the problems that have been associated with the development of formerly industrial areas tackle-able. It requires a significant additional effort but it is achievable.
In March 2007, KSS Architects met with New Jersey NAIOP to discuss how LEED for Core and Shell applies to warehouses and distribution centers. What is LEED-CS?
Initially, LEED designed its building practices around places like office buildings, schools, and other types of high occupancy buildings. What is happening now is that they are beginning to tackle project types that are not served by their initial efforts. Core and Shell focuses on the design of the building skin, stairs, and elevators. They also have another product called LEED for Interiors which then permits the second phase of construction—whoever that tenant might be—to come in and finish out the project and get the building in a full condition of sustainability. In the past, we have been approached by NAIOP to design sustainable buildings for their members but ended up with situations where the LEED templates for other building types, such as offices or schools, just did not apply. In other instances, the criteria that was established was just not an indicator of the sustainability of the building.
What were some of the ways in which LEED-CS was modified to accommodate distribution centers?
We went back through a large number of the criteria and reworked them in order to make LEED more applicable to distribution centers. These buildings have some very unique qualities. In most cases, distribution centers don't consume a huge amount of energy for heating and air conditioning. Small areas occupied by staff are heated or cooled appropriately, but the temperature tends to be regulated much more leniently in the rest of the building where the products are stored. However, lighting can consume a huge amount of energy because these massive spaces are often entirely lit. One of the strategies that we have adopted is to employ motion sensors that allow the unoccupied portions of distribution centers and warehouses to be dark when people aren't working in them. We've also introduced the notion of day lighting. People obviously perform much better when they have the benefits of sunlight along with an exterior view.
Another slice of the carbon footprint of these buildings comes from the trucks that travel to and from these facilities. There's no reason why diesel trucks should idle for an hour or two while they are stopping for a pickup or delivery. We introduced into the LEED system and into developers thinking the idea of creating what's called "shore power." Electricity from the building is supplied to the trucks so that products that require refrigeration can be accommodated and the diesel truck can be turned off.
Again, size is a big factor. These buildings approach a million square feet, and a million square foot roof has become an enormous real estate resource in and of itself. We have had a number of instances where these roofs are being utilized for photovoltaic cells. For example, a one million square foot roof translates into 1 megawatt of electrical power. To put that into perspective, 1 megawatt of electricity is enough to power 900 of our typical homes in the northeast. So that is a huge factor and we're finding more and more that not only are the developers employing this, but third-party vendors are coming along and asking our developers and the end-users of these distribution centers to structure an arrangement in which the third party utilizes the roof for photovoltaic cells. So it is evolving in a way where it is of no cost to our projects through third-party vendors that are looking for places to install these facilities (photovoltaic).
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