“It’s in our company’s DNA to develop effective, efficient, and environmentally friendly buildings, and tenants in the high tech and research fields demand sustainable facilities,” explains Dan Stewart, Gardner Company’s Vice President of Development. “UNLV is also invested in the park and its buildings as both landlord and tenant, and they were interested in learning about Green Globes.”

“At the end of the day, sustainability is about people. From an owner’s point of view, making the building sustainable was a must to attract tenants from many different levels of the private and public sector.”

Jennifer Turchin, Principal at Coda Group, provided sustainability consulting on UNLV Tech Building #1. “In the Vegas market we have a lot of building types that don’t fit into the typical green building rating system’s box,” she says. “Green Globes was great because it offered us flexibility with choices that made the most sense for the building, and the process respected the fast speed of construction here.”

An array of smart decisions framed sustainability at UNLV Tech Building #1:

• Concrete tilt-up construction came from a locally sourced, durable, and recyclable product, improving the building’s life cycle.
• Whole building commissioning ensured that systems are performing at specified levels.
• Low-flow fixtures contribute to a 33.8% water savings compared to a baseline building, and 40% of irrigation water is recycled.
• Landscaping plans preserved existing on-site trees.
• Photovoltaic panels on the parking structure generate onsite renewable energy.

Best Practices

Turchin found the Assessor to be a favorable advantage of Green Globes. “It was so nice to be able to ask questions of an actual human who understands buildings and green building technology,” she notes. “It also gave the contractor and design team a sense of confidence to get a direct answer to a question and know that’s how the item will be reviewed.”

Even filling out the online questionnaire played into the team’s resolve. “We started with an integrated design process to decide what the sustainability features we wanted to include,” Turchin recalls. “Seeing those same suggestions in the initial questionnaire reinforced the ideas we’d strategized and it gave them credence.”

“At the end of the day, sustainability is about people,” says Stewart. “From an owner’s point of view, making the building sustainable was a must to attract tenants from many different levels of the private and public sector.”

UNLV Tech Building #1’s first major tenant is a partnership between UNLV and Caesar’s Entertainment called Black Fire Innovation. In all, the Tech Park’s ultimate planned build out will be 1.5 to 2 million square feet of space.

Because there are so many ways to approach sustainability, Turchin says Green Globes offers a great framework and set of parameters. Stewart agrees. “It doesn’t make sense to penalize projects for not fitting into a rigid compliance pathway,” Stewart says. “We all have the same goal, and Green Globes rewards project teams for doing the right things.”