Thinkspace

Every private office has an occupancy sensor in our newly built out Thinkspace office.  Our goal is to reduce energy consumption by more than 30% for the space that we occupy.  We installed commercial light fixtures with higher performance ballast and lamps.  That alone should help us get to the 30% energy savings.  In addition [...]

Filed under: Cost of Green, Energy, LEED, conservation, green building, sustainability | Tagged: Commercial Light Fixture, energy efficient light fixtures, occupancy sensors, vending miser | No Comments »

The Thinkspace main lobby desk has been built and installed.  In addition to having a professional appearance we wanted our lobby to make a statement about sustainability.  To gather ideas, we went to Ecohaus and looked at different types of materials and decided we wanted to showcase beautiful sustainable materials.
We used a gorgeous Vetrazzo recycled [...]

Filed under: LEED, green building, sustainability | Tagged: Bamboo Panels, green building, laminate, recycled glass counter, sustainability | No Comments »

For our commercial tenant improvement project we chose to go with a “green” carpet.  The critical  things to look for when picking a commercial grade environmentally sustainable carpet is 1) what is the carpet top made of; 2) what is the backing material made of; 3) what type of adhesives will be used.
Carpet Top: The [...]

Filed under: LEED, Recycle, green building, sustainability | Tagged: eco-carpet, green building, sustainability | No Comments »

This weekend Seattle is hosting Green Festival 2008 at the Washington State Convention Center.  According to the Seattle-PI, at least 20,000 and up to 30,000 people will attend this event this weekend.  I took my family to the event on Saturday .  The weather outside was about 80 degrees and it was probably the best [...]

Filed under: sustainability | Tagged: Green Festival Seattle, Green Living, sustainability | No Comments »

We have put a lot of focus on air quality for our executive office suites build-out.  Early on in our design process we decided to use either a low or no-VOC paint.  Yes, it’s good for the environment (reduces smog and ozone pollution) but even more important it is good for your health.
“VOCs” are Volatile [...]

Filed under: Cost of Green, LEED, green building, green interior | Tagged: Air Quality, eco paint, green building, green offices, LEED | No Comments »

 
Tenant improvements can require a new company moving into an existing building to create a lot of demolition debris.  In order to build out our Thinkspace executive office suites, 5.79 tons or 11,580 pounds of demolition debris was removed.  The number of tons could have been much greater, but one of our goals was to [...]

Filed under: Construction Waste Management, Cost of Green, Innovation in Design, LEED, Recycle, green building, sustainability | Tagged: Demolition, eco friendly, green office building, LEED, leed-ci, Recycle, recycling, sustainability | No Comments »

I think businesses like Google are doing an excellent job in raising awareness for energy conservation.  The Google home page is “blacked out” as they have “turned out the lights” as symbol to raise awareness for Earth Hour 2008.  It’s quite striking to see the normally white background on the Google home page suddenly go [...]

Filed under: Energy Conservation | Tagged: Earth Hour, Energy Conservation, sustainability | No Comments »

 On March 13th, the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) issued a report stating “buildings represent the greatest opportunity for considerable reductions in CO2 emissions”.
“Every year, buildings in North America cause more than 2,200 megatons of CO2 to be released into the atmosphere, about 35 percent of the continent’s total CO2 emissions.  In the United States [...]

Filed under: Cost of Green, business, green building, green interior, sustainability | Tagged: Cost of Green, Efficient, Environment, green building, Green Construction, sustainability | No Comments »

We have selected furniture for the Thinkspace office and the one piece that I’m most excited about is the Phillippe Starck designed Emeco stool.  We have purchased these in bar stool height (14″ W x 14″ D x 30″) for the cyber cafe.
The stool is produced in the United States and is environmentally friendly.  80% [...]

Filed under: LEED, furniture, green interior design, sustainability | Tagged: eco furniture, furniture, green interior, green interior design, LEED, sustainability | 1 Comment »

Puget Sound Energy (PSE) has awarded a $13,000 conservation grant to Thinkspace for energy efficient lighting retrofits.  Thinkspace’s plan calls for a reduction in energy consumption by approximately 21,106 KWH.  Annual energy cost savings are estimated to be a little over two-thousand dollars per year.  Our discussions with PSE have been on-going for three months.  It [...]

Filed under: Cost of Green, Energy, conservation, green building, sustainability | Tagged: conservation, Cost of Green, Efficient, Energy, Environment, Grant, Green, green building, Green Construction, Incentives, LEED, leed-ci, sustainability | No Comments »

I have five office chairs and a desk which a previous tenant had left behind when they moved out.  I knew that these items need to be given away so I decided I would give “freecycle” a try and see how it compares to Craigslist.  I’ve used Craigslist a lot in the past, as I tend to [...]

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Over the past few months, I have been searching for companies, organizations, government agencies that encourage other companies to go green with their tenant improvements.  One of the first places that I called was PSE (Puget Sound Energy).  I talked with an Energy Management Engineer and he was happy and willing to meet me at [...]

Filed under: Cost of Green, Energy, green building | Tagged: Cost of Green, Energy, energy incentives, green building, green office building, sustainability | 1 Comment »

In addition to using HEPA air purifiers to maintain air quality during the demolition of the existing space, we also took a close look at the existing HVAC system.  Inside the space we have existing VAV (variable air volume) boxes.  VAV boxes are used to zone areas in large commercial buildings and also contribute significantly to the [...]

Filed under: HVAC, LEED, green building | Tagged: Air Quality, Demolition, green building, Green Construction, HEPA Air Purifier, HVAC, LEED, leed-ci | No Comments »

Electricity is one of the largest expenses in a commercial office building.  Whether you’re the building owner or a tenant that is occupying a large space, it is good business to look for ways to reduce your energy consumption.  For a building owner it means lower utility costs, a more energy efficient, and desirable building.  For [...]

Filed under: Energy, LEED, green building | Tagged: Commercial Light Fixture, Efficient, Energy, green building, Green Construction, LEED, leed-ci, sustainability | No Comments »

One of the LEED Certification goals is to divert construction, demolition, and packaging debris from landfill disposal.  Our personal demolition goal is to recycle 95% of all materials.  We started off our project with the Site Foreman telling all of our subcontractors that we don’t use the word “dump”.  All of the existing materials in [...]

Filed under: LEED, Recycle | Tagged: Construction Waste Management, green building, Green Construction, Landfill, LEED, leed-ci | No Comments »