Contract - April 2010 - (Page 28)

green In a paint-by-numbers kind of way, sustainability can be very straightforward. Especially in states such as California, where building codes all but mandate projects be built to standards that would achieve LEED certification, sustainable design can be as simple as tallying up the points. Now that LEED is commonplace, it is time to concentrate on the spirit of sustainability, which involves designing, building, and operating smartly. Sustainability is not just a turn-key operation. Architects and interior designers must commit to making sure that green buildings are efficient and make sense for our clients’ businesses in the long term. post-occupancy green For more meaningful progress on green building, sustainable design and sustainable operation must become more intertwined By Peter Barsuk, AIA, LEED AP, Senior Associate, Gensler The first step to fulfilling that obligation is to adopt a holistic view of the real estate life cycle. At Gensler, we look at each project’s sustainability in four, chronologically ordered pieces: strategy, design, implementation, and operation. Before anything can be designed, we must first understand our client’s business and organizational structure. We need to know what is working and what isn’t, what’s past and what’s upcoming, in order to develop a strategy to design appropriately with attention to the client’s current and anticipated needs. By understanding how employees in a particular organization work, we can design personalized spaces that encourage productivity. The four modes of work: learning, focusing, collaborating, and socializing, help shape this understanding. A Gensler workplace survey established that top-performing companies—those ranked highest on accepted measures of corporate leadership, including financial, brand, and employer-of-choice measurements—provide workplaces that support the four work modes. A successful real estate strategy looks at business culture, as well as operational efficiencies, to design inspirational spaces that can serve more people with less square footage. Select No. 58 at ContractDesign.com/readerservice http://www.cumberlandfurniture.com http://www.cumberlandfurniture.com http://www.ContractDesign.com/readerservice

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Contract - April 2010

Contract - April 2010
Contents
Editor's Note
Industry
Resources: The Green Scene
Focus: Land of Opportunity
Green: Post-Occupancy Green
Practice: Legal Green
Lean & Green
Environmental Extraordinaire
Above the Legal Limit
Informing the Masses
Luxury in the Raw
Designers Rate: Green Products
Process: Science in the Age of the Invisible
Sources
Ad Index
Perspectives

Contract - April 2010