Below is a quick bullet point guide on issues you should consider if you want a green development that uses sustainable construction principles. Contact Trade Services if you require any further info.

Choose A Sustainable Site

By making smart decisions about your building site early on, you can have a dramatic impact on the costs and savings of your project over the long term.

Location
Redevelop a brownfield, locate your project in an existing structure or use an in-fill strategy to help limit sprawl and preserve natural land. While there may be extra cleanup and insurance costs associated with building on a contaminated brownfield, many programs now exist to help defray those costs. In addition, redeveloped brownfield sites that are centrally located and offer river views, for example, are available at rates that are significantly below market level and can surge in value once remediated.

Orientation and Shape
Orient your building to minimize or maximize solar heat gain, according to your heating and cooling needs.

Design the shape of your building to optimize daylighting and reduce your electric lighting costs. Take care, though, to minimize any cooling load increases that can result from daylighting.

Use a combination of strategies -- such as high-performance windows and planted roofs -- to control solar heat gain and loss throughout your envelope.

Landscaping
Landscape your building's grounds or roof with native or adapted trees and plants. This type of greenery absorbs heat, helping to increase occupant comfort and lower air-conditioning costs by bringing down interior temperatures and providing shade. Green roofs also provide extra insulation in colder weather.

Stormwater Management
Surround your building with permeable pavement, plantings or soil to allow stormwater to seep into the ground instead of washing into sewers. These techniques can cost less than traditional culvert drainage strategies and at the same time reduce pollution runoff. They can also enhance your corporate or institutional image in the eyes of employees, tenants and the public.

They can also enhance your corporate or institutional image in the eyes of employees, tenants and the public.

Make use of grassy channels, known as bioswales, to reduce and slow the flow of stormwater from your property. Bioswales can help prevent erosion and filter stormwater, keeping harmful pollution, fertilizer and pesticides out of storm sewers.

For similar stormwater management results in urban areas, use rainwater cisterns, in conjunction with green roofs, which can also provide a water source for cooling towers and irrigation.

Construct wetlands and retention ponds to improve the look of your grounds, filter polluted stormwater runoff and reduce the need for storm sewers.

Maximize Water Efficiency

Both inside a workspace and outside a building, there are numerous steps you can take to reduce your use of clean, drinkable water, an increasingly precious and expensive resource in many areas of the country.

Landscaping
Landscape with plants that are well adapted to the local climate. Choosing indigenous plants over exotic varieties can help reduce the need for irrigation, as well as environmentally harmful pesticides and fertilizers. Invasive non-native plants can harm the local ecology.

Choose a micro-irrigation system, instead of traditional sprinklers, to deliver water to your grounds more efficiently. During watering, micro-irrigation delivers 85 to 90 percent of the moisture supply to plants, compared with just 40 to 50 percent delivery for typical broadcast sprinklers.

Plant low-water ground covers or drought-tolerant grass and use absorbent soil mixtures to promote stormwater infiltration and reduce additional costs related to managing stormwater.

Water plants and grass with rainwater from an on-site cistern to limit the use of potable water.

Fixtures and Cooling Towers
Specify waterless urinals, low-flow or composting toilets and high-efficiency faucets and dishwashers, which use a lot less water than conventional technologies.

Install a plumbing system that recycles water at your site. Known as "gray water," this recycled water can be used to flush toilets, fill a cooling tower or irrigate landscaping.

Choose a closed-loop cooling tower, which can save hundreds of gallons of water per day on average by reducing evaporation. In addition, investigate whether your area allows the use of non-chemical cooling towers and water conditioning systems. These use polarization technology or sand filtration combined with ozone for disinfection instead of chemicals, helping keep polluted discharge out of the sewer system, and lower water consumption by reducing the need for make-up water.

Save Energy

Energy-efficient design is one of the best opportunities you have for cutting costs and reducing your project's harmful environmental effects.

Windows and Daylighting
Incorporate daylight design elements such as clerestories, light shelves, skylights and high-performance windows. Increasing the amount of natural light in your building or workspace will reduce your electricity bill, as well as help boost employee productivity and satisfaction.

Specify windows with a shading coefficient no higher than 0.4 on the south, east and west and a visible transmittance level above 0.6 to let sunlight in and keep excessive heat out. If you are building in a region with hot summers and cold winters, a U-value in the .25 to .35 range will provide adequate insulation against the heat and cold.

Tune your window specifications to your building's orientation. Shading coefficients are most important on southern, eastern and western exposures, while northern exposures should have high visible transmittance and low U-values.

Electricity Use
Site your building according to its heating and cooling needs. Adjusting a building's orientation by just a few degrees can have a big impact on the size of your heating and cooling system and your energy bill.

Specify lighting fixtures with a coefficient of utilization of at least 80 percent.

Make sure your fixtures and lamps are properly sized for use with one another. For example, T-5 lamps don't work as well in direct fixtures designed for T-8 lamps and may be too bright for some direct-lighting strategies.

Install occupancy sensors to control lighting, ventilation, air conditioning and heating in enclosed areas that are occupied intermittently, including offices.

Instead of using recessed fixtures to light a workspace, use a pendant strategy with an open top so light will hit the work surface and also reflect off the ceiling and walls into the task area.

Emphasize light-colored surfaces that reflect light and appear brighter.

Hire a lighting designer. A good lighting specialist will provide solutions that cut energy costs while creating a more pleasant and productive environment.

Speak with Trade Services throughout the project and help ensure you will meet your efficiency goals. Your design should include equipment to monitor water and energy performance over the entire life of the building.

Implement features such as low-e windows, increased insulation, task/ambient lighting and energy-efficient office equipment to reduce waste heat, which will allow you to downsize your HVAC system.

Consider staging multiple smaller HVAC chillers, rather than one large chiller. Compressors that run near capacity are most efficient. Variable speed drives can also help chillers operate more efficiently.

Specify oversized ducts that will deliver air at a lower speed and enable you to reduce the size and electricity consumption of your fans. An added benefit is a much quieter mechanical system.

Implement automated building controls for your HVAC system.

Office Equipment
Choose photocopiers, fax machines, printers, water coolers and other office equipment that carry the Energy Star label, an indication that they use an average of 50 percent less energy than standard models.

Ensure that the Energy Star "sleep mode" features are enabled on the equipment.

Make use of laptop computers, which use 50 percent to 90 percent less energy than standard desktop models.

Specify computer monitors with flat screens, which use half as much energy as CRT screens and offer sharper displays and less reflection.

Make smart use of materials and resources

Using reused and recycled materials as much as possible -- during construction and throughout the life of your building -- will save you money and time and help conserve natural resources such as wood.

Evaluate and specify materials or assemblies based on life-cycle analysis tools such as eLCie, BEES and Athena.

Create a management plan for construction waste management with the help of a consultant. Some integrated waste management companies such as Allied Waste offer services that are designed to meet LEED criteria in this area.

Make use of preexisting building shells and other structural elements at your site, when possible.

Set aside used materials such as hardwood flooring, high-quality brick, structural steel, plumbing fixtures and cabinetry and install them in your new space or elsewhere.

Use materials that were harvested, extracted or recovered in the region.

Limit wood use. For items such as shelving and bookcases, consider using composites made from wheat fiber or other agricultural waste or other non-wood materials.

Specify certified wood products. Purchase wood or wood products that are certified by the Forest Stewardship Council, indicating they originate from sustainable, well-managed forests. FSC-certified wood can be more expensive than common types of wood, but is less expensive than exotic varieties. Growing demand is driving down the price of certified wood.

Safeguard indoor environmental quality

You can help protect the occupants in your building from eye and lung irritation and other health problems by specifying gas-free materials and furnishings and keeping your space well ventilated.

Materials and Furnishings
Choose materials such as carpets, paints, wall coverings and adhesives carrying the Green Seal label and furnishings with Greenguard certification -- signifying they emit low levels of potentially harmful volatile organic compounds (VOCs).

Cleaning and Maintenance
Limit the use of harmful cleaning solvents in your space by choosing low-maintenance floorings and furnishings and by equipping entryways with features such as awnings, mats and walk-off areas.

Minimize the spread of toxic chemicals in your space by centrally locating janitorial facilities and installing a separate ventilation system and sink for mixing concentrated cleaning agents.

Use cleaning products that come in concentrated form and minimize the use of harmful compounds.

Ventilation
Specify a displacement ventilation system that delivers low-speed fresh air at floor level and allows it to rise in the room.

Install operable windows, which keep occupants comfortable and more satisfied by allowing them to control their access to fresh air.

Text courtesy of www.nrdc.org