Waltham, MA LEED Building Construction

Key Facts

• The new 61,000 square foot complex was built according to the U.S. Green Building Council standards to demonstrate Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED). Autodesk has achieved LEED Platinum CI Certification for the interior and LEED Gold Certification for the building’s core and shell. Not only does the building’s design and construction comply with green standards, daily building operations will focus on sustainability.  The building employs the latest technology in energy efficiency and control systems.
• To achieve their high energy efficiency standards, the following elements were important:
  

  • Employed the integrated project delivery (IPD) methodology to speed LEED certification by sharing information, decision making and profits among key stakeholders (owner, architect, builder).
  • Use of Autodesk’s Building Information Modeling (BIM) software (Revit, Navisworks and Ecotect for analysis) to visualize and calculate costs, energy savings, etc. was central tool throughout planning process.
  • Workspaces designed to optimize indoor lighting conditions & minimize energy using daylighting, occupancy sensors, efficient lighting.
  • Conference rooms and closed offices packed around center of building to allow daylighting to penetrate deeply into workspace. Extensive use of glass also aided this objective.
  • Building heating/cooling was automated with feedback mechanisms (occupancy sensors)
  • Cisco TelePresence video conferencing system connects with other Autodesk offices to reduce the need for travel.
• The project took 8 months to implement

• Additional benefits to the project include:

  • enhanced employee collaboration and productivity from increased interior comfort
  • reduced downtime/physical toll of travel through videoconferencing software
  • practical demonstration of Autodesk BIM software
  •  reputation of Autodesk as sustainability leader
• The actual (or likely) cost of the project is the same allocation as for a “typical” office build-out
• The primary sponsor for the project was Jay Bhatt, Phil Bernstein

What was the impact?

• Did you use a specific methodology or third party to calculate CO2e or KWh savings?

  There was no independent verification of energy savings, but both LEED and the IPD process required an outside party to evaluate (for LEED, to certify; for IPD, to verify performance goals in order to apply financial reward/penalty in contract)

• Comments on other resources saved

  Significant waste reduction through LEED requirement to reuse or recycle building materials, and use of locally-sourced materials
• The project has internal verification for results

Making it Happen

• The following regulations or incentives allowed the business case to be more attractive

  LEED

• Barriers experienced during the initiation of the project

• Comments regarding barriers

  • Budget constraint was severe (not “open” budget), being a typical allocation of funds for office space build-out.
  • Constraints imposed by LEED
  • Not every party was part of the IPD process
  • Pressure to move in by definite date

• How were they overcome?

  • Creativity of IPD members allowed great things to be accomplished without going over budget
  • Took advantage of efficiency rebates offered by local utility NSTAR - LEED certification may have been aided by beginning with a new LEED Gold-certified building shell
  • Use of BIM process and tools enabled central access to project data, resulting in cost savings which supported higher quality, more sustainable design and construction