“The Port of Vancouver is more sensitive to its effects on the environment than many other industrial clients,” notes Senior Associate at Mackenzie, Adam Olsen. “We’re currently in a heavy construction market with lots of properties becoming available, and achieving Green Globes certification shows the Port cares about the environment and differentiates them in the marketplace.”

While Green Globes offers a practical path to certification for coreand- shell buildings, the project’s Green Globes Assessor was keenly aware that the building won’t remain vacant and he prompted the team to think beyond the shell and site criteria.

“The assessor challenged us on how we wanted to support a future tenant that might be interested in pursuing their own Green Globes certification,” Olsen explained. “We thought about what we could include now to help them succeed in obtaining a Sustainable Interiors award.”

“… achieving Green Globes certification shows the Port cares about the environment and differentiates them in the marketplace.”

The process launched with a comprehensive sustainable design charrette to keep the project’s green goals and team on tack. As a result, the Centennial Industrial Park Building displays environment stewardship and gives sustainablyminded tenants a boost with:

• Occupant-controlled lighting sensors.
• The 22 4-foot-by-8-foot skylights in the roof will be able to provide daylighting into at least 10% of the net building area’s regularly occupied spaces.
• An installed trash enclosure provides the infrastructure for recyclables and composting.
• Safe glazing film on all windows reduces the chance of bird collisions to align with the Port’s value of bird protection.
• The building’s modeled and assessed energy performance exceeded the team’s original expectation.

Solid Alliance

For Olsen, one of the highlights of Green Globes is the cooperative nature of the process, which he finds a rarity. “With other rating systems, you submit everything to a third-party that has no real knowledge of the project and then wait. It’s like a black box,” Olsen says. “The Green Globes Assessor is more of an advocate to help the project reach its potential. Our assessor brainstormed to come up with thoughts and suggestions, and then came out on a walkthrough to personally verify the items on site. It’s a much more collaborative way to reach certification.”

From a client perspective, Olsen likes that Green Globes is less expensive, and he says the speed of certification gives clients a real advantage. “Certification happened once the project was substantially complete, which allowed the Port to tout its award when it took Centennial Park to market,” notes Olsen. “It wasn’t six months to a year later which is a letdown after the fact.” The Port of Vancouver USA had a huge grand opening for the Centennial Industrial Park Building with speaking dignitaries and media presence where they formally unveiled their new Green Globes plaque. “It was so nice that the Port could celebrate its Green Globes certification when it really mattered.”