Commercial Services

Green Building Solutions provides a spectrum of services to small
and medium-sized commercial building owners as well as architects
and designers who want to help their clients create "green" construction
projects or make existing buildings more energy efficient and/or more "green,"
including achieving LEED for Existing Buildings certification. And we can help
you meet new disclosure requirements under AB1103 (benchmarking).

As environmentally savvy general contractors, we can help you create plans that
avoid design problems and take advantage of as many potential opportunities as you
want, and make sure they are properly implemented. We can help you build energy efficiency
features into your plans, and improve durability and safety of your projects, and the comfort they
deliver. Early recognition of these opportunities is the key, and we can help you think them through.

For existing buildings, we generally start with a building energy audit in order to come up with a list of
suggestions for ways to improve building energy efficiency.

This audit, which is primarily for energy (and water) efficiency, involves the application of building science
principles along with practical knowledge to come up with suggestions for improvements. This usually includes ballpark cost figures on some items and specific bids on others.

If the objective is to achieve LEED for Existing Buildings certification, the assessment is much more extensive. We can help you with the initial feasibility evaluation, the in-depth study that leads to a plan of action, and the implementation of that plan.

Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems are a fertile area for reducing costs. Older systems can be energy hogs, and HVAC upgrade or replacement can justify the capital expenditure within an attractive time frame; we can help you quantify the numbers to accept or reject any given proposal. Commissioning new HVAC systems lowers lifetime costs. Retro-commissioning involves evaluating existing systems to look for opportunities to improve performance through maintenance-type repairs, as well as identify possible upgrades. Here, some utilities offer significant rebates for reducing electrical usage that can help--or even completely--offset the upgrade costs.

Lighting upgrades/change-outs are another area where operating cost savings can be substantial, and some utilities offer significant rebates that can help offset the costs of the upgrades.

If you are thinking about significant upgrades, you may want us to perform a feasibility study to give you a dollars-and-cents dimension to your costs, savings, and potential rebates.

New requirements in California law (AB1103) require disclosure of an energy efficiency measure starting January 1, 2011. We can help you meet this disclosure requirement with EPA's Portfolio Manager benchmarking program.

And, we have a variety of other services for our commercial clients.