GREEN Commitment

We are committed to making a positive impact on this planet

Correspondingly, it has chosen a Green steel buildings manufacturer as a supplier of green steel buildings purchasing through our dynamic true cost program.

What Going Green implies for the Steel Building Industry

In recent years, the construction industry has experienced a greater demand for environmentally-friendly, or green, construction solutions.

A green building has characteristics that reduce its environmental impact from construction through to the end of the building’s useful life.  Green steel buildings characteristics are measured against these three criteria:

• The environmental  impact
• The economic  impact
• Health and community

Various government and private, non-profit agencies recognize green construction efforts through certification programs.

USGBC’s LEED program is designed for building owners and operators. To receive certification through the LEED program, designers, builders, and building owners incorporate energy-saving strategies throughout the complete cycle of a building, from best construction practices to occupation and the end of the building’s useful life.

Strategies include choosing the environmentally sensitive design, insulation, delivery methods, and other criteria, which earn points toward certification.

The US Green Building Council cites these advantages for building green:

• Decrease in a building’s cost to operate, including energy savings
• Increase in a building’s value, improving ROI
• Improved occupant comfort
• Increase in a building’s occupancy capacity
• Increase in potential rent
• Reduction in urban heat island effect and smog
• Mitigation of global warming

Our chosen manufacturer is a leader in innovation and the delivery of products that meet our customers’ current needs and anticipated growth in years to come.

Our manufacturer’s facilities are networked, allowing them to determine the closest manufacturing plants with the capabilities to meet the specifications of a given order, thus greatly reducing emissions from and the fuel used for shipping.

Green Resources our Chosen Manufacturer adheres to

ASHRAE – The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers is an international organization committed to advancing heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration to serve humanity and promote a sustainable world through research, standards writing, publishing, and continuing education. ASHRAE 90.1, Energy Standard for Buildings Except for Low-Rise Residential Buildings, has become the basis for building codes and the standard for building design and construction related to energy efficiency and methods of determining compliance. (www.ashrae.org)

LEED® – Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design is a consensus-based rating program of the US Green Building Council, an independent, non-government organization. LEED is used to certify green buildings based on defined performance levels.

Cool Roof – A cool roof reflects and emits the sun’s heat back to the sky instead of transferring it to the building below. “Coolness” is measured by two properties, solar reflectance, and thermal emittance. Both properties are measured from 0 to 1 and the higher the value, the “cooler” the roof. (www.coolroofs.org)

USGBC – The U.S. Green Building Council is a private (non-government), non-profit community of leaders working to make green buildings available to everyone. They certify green buildings for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), offer licensing and professional development through local organizations, and publish reference and research materials.…and more.

Recyclability and Durability
Roof and wall panels, structural members, and other building materials composed of steel are virtually 100% recyclable when removed, as opposed to many conventional, non-metal construction materials, which are taken to landfills. According to the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI), steel is the most recycled material in North America, with an annual average recycling rate of 70 percent. Furthermore, new steel made with recycled material uses as little as 26% of the amount of energy required to manufacture steel from iron and other naturally extracted materials.

Metal roof and wall panels consist of a minimum of 25% percent recycled material, and, with the addition of our structural members, our metal buildings can contain 30%-50% recycled material, depending on the project.

In addition to recyclability, metal roofs and wall panels can reduce waste due to their unmatched durability and resistance to fire, wind, and insects. AISI reports that metal roofs last between 40 – 60 years and require less maintenance than other types of roofs.

Cool Colors for Metal Roofing
Our manufacturer offers cool paint colors for all of our metal roof panels. When used properly, considering the environment and the slope of the roof, a cool roof can reduce energy consumption, providing significant cost savings while helping to mitigate urban heat islands.

An urban heat island (UHIs) is an elevation of air temperatures in urban communities, relative to surrounding rural areas, caused when vegetation is replaced by large sections of pavement or other dark, non-reflective surfaces. Urban heat islands are believed to not only influence the temperature of the affected area but are also responsible for higher pollutants in the air.

Many of our cool colors meet the reflectivity and emissivity performance levels required by LEED and ENERGY STAR to mitigate the cause of UHIs and energy consumption overall. Reflectivity is the deflection of solar energy from a surface. Roofs at 2:12 and greater have been proven to generate less of a heat island effect than lower-sloped roofs. Greater reflectivity abilities require less energy to cool a building.

Emissivity is the relative ability of a surface to emit heat by radiation. As with reflectivity, when a roof can effectively cool itself through radiative heat loss, it will reduce the amount of energy consumption for the building.

Solar Reflectivity and the Solar Reflectance Index
Solar Reflectivity (SR), or reflectance, is the ability of a material to reflect solar energy from its surface back into the atmosphere. The SR “value” is a number from 0 to 1.0. A value of 0 indicates total absorbance. ENERGY STAR requires an SR value of 0.25 or higher for steep slope (more than 2:12) roofing and an SR value of .64 or higher for low slope (2:12 or less) roofing.

Solar Reflectance Index (SRI) is used to determine compliance with LEED requirements and is calculated according to ASTM E 1980 using values for reflectance and emissivity. Emissivity is a material’s ability to release absorbed energy. To meet LEED requirements, a roofing material must have an SRI value of 78 or higher for low slope (2:12 or less) roofing.

…AND MORE…

Whether our customer is seeking to meet LEED, Green Globe or other certification requirements or simply wanting to improve the energy performance of their building, our manufacturer offers solutions to reach many environmentally friendly construction goals.