Southface Journal Summer 2007 - EarthCraft Light Commercial

EarthCraft Light Commercial Pilot Program

By Shannon Gray and Marisa Wilson

In 1999, Southface partnered with the Greater Atlanta Home Builders Association to develop EarthCraft House, a regional green building program. From this residential program sprouted EarthCraft Multi-Family and EarthCraft Communities. Southface Energy Institute is proud to announce the newest addition to its energy efficient building programs, EarthCraft for Light Commercial (ECLC) which targets one to two story commercial buildings under 10,000 square feet. This program provides small commercial building owners and tenants an opportunity to have green buildings specifically suited to a hot, humid climate, designed with a building science and inspection process that is an alternative to LEED- certification. The ECLC standard also fosters a more intensive degree of support during the design and construction phases of the building process.

The EC LC standard has been designed to be suitable for a wide variety of small commercial businesses, such as restaurants, offices and retail buildings, so it is ideal for the non-residential buildings in an EarthCraft Community. There is a considerable need for a light commercial green building standard considering that the vast majority of commercial buildings (3.5 million) are in the smallest size categories. Half of commercial buildings are under 5,000 square feet, three-fourths are under 10,000 square feet and only two percent of commercial buildings are larger than 100,000 square feet in size (Source: Energy Information Administration, 2003 Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey).

ECLC focuses on energy-efficient strategies that have generally been associated with smaller residential buildings. Light commercial buildings need to incorporate features of both residential and larger commercial buildings. One of the most significant differences between these building types is the distribution of energy loads, or how the energy needed to run the building is used. Operating the HVAC is the most energy consuming aspect of a residential home, while in commercial buildings most of their energy is used in the lighting. Small commercial buildings lie somewhere in between and the ECLC program has been designed to address these hybrid needs.

The EarthCraft for Light Commercial program’s building criteria were finetuned during a charrette at Greenprints 2007, Southface’s annual green building conference. The charrette brought together architects, engineers, builders, planners and developers to discuss each category addressed by the program and make necessary adjustments to the required ECLC worksheet. It was a huge success with a great deal of community involvement and professional input. Southface thanks these talented professionals for their creative ideas. We welcome inquiries on ECLC.

By Anne Rogers

On May 31, Southface facilitated a charrette for Hedgewood Properties and a nationwide retailer to determine the environmental and energy goals for a future retail store in Vickery Village, a pilot EarthCraft Community. Vickery consists of 214 acres with 430 single family homes and 125 townhomes, lofts, and live-work units, a town center with 150,000 sf of retail and office space and 75 acres of parks and dedicated green space.

The goal of Hedgewood Properties, and the undisclosed tenant is to certify the space as a LEED® Core & Shell (CS) and LEED Commercial Interiors (CI) project. In addition to the two LEED certifications, this project will be the first pilot project seeking EarthCraft for Light Commercial (ECLC) status, a new program developed by EarthCraft House for commercial buildings of 10,000 square feet or less. The proposed retail facility at Vickery is the perfect candidate to employ both LEED and Southface’s new EarthCraft for Light Commercial program. This joint certification will allow the client to achieve both the national recognition of LEED Certification and the more tailored, retail-specific improvements associated with ECLC.

The charrette brought together the design teams for the tenant and the owner, project engineers, the company's regional managers, owner's representatives, general contractors and developers familiar with Vickery Village.