Recycling Construction Waste

Did you know that 40% of the landfill waste generated annually in the US comes from construction projects? That is an astounding figure.

Yet what’s really astounding is that most of the waste that is typically hauled off a construction site can be recycled. Concrete, wood, steel, metal are all products that can be recycled and don’t have to go to the landfill.

Of course, deciding to recycle is a lot easier than actually recycling. LEED, the USGBC green building standard, provides up to two credits to projects that recycle 75% of construction waste. These aren’t small numbers, so to be successful projects must change the behavior of construction staff and require folks to separate waste on site. On dense, urban projects this becomes even harder because of the limited space available for separating waste.

Solera is working to achieve both LEED waste credits by recycling at least 75% waste. Mark Kane is Solera’s Assistant Superintendent working to hit the project’s recycling goals. “Currently Solera is achieving an 82% recycle rate. With twelve months to go on the project I realize achieving a 75% recycle rate is going to require a lot of work,” Mark explained on the Solera job site earlier this week.

Luckily Mark has some tools at his disposal:

• Trash buggies assigned to each subcontractor rather than community trash bins

• “Waste tickets” that fine subs that throw their waste or recyclable materials in the wrong place

Keep a look out on our blog for continued updates on Solera’s efforts to recycle our construction waste and help keep recyclable items from entering our landfills.

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“I prefer walkable cities”

"What's their Walkability Score?"

Just a few years ago, would you have thought a building could have a walkability score? A number of years before that, would you have guessed people would be choosing to live where their feet replace the car? Well all that has changed. Whether due to concern for the environment or the desire to live more like they do in Sex in the City, people across the country are now looking for places to live that allow them to get out and walk to their favorite spots, to meet up with friends and even to get to work.

Here in Denver the ability to use your feet to get around is fast becoming the thing to do. Ranked within the top ten Most Walkable US Cities by Walkscore.com, Denver shares this walkable title with other cities such as Portland, New York and Seattle.

Solera Apartments, located in downtown Denver, is a place that helps Denver achieve its top ten ranking. With a score of 92 out of 100, Solera is deemed a “Walkers’ Paradise.” Four blocks east of Coors Field and five blocks north of Denver’s central business district, living at Solera will make walking a genuine and practical option for getting around.

You also won’t be alone – Denver’s downtown neighborhoods of Lower Downtown (“LoDo”), Central Business District and Ballpark now boast a collective population of over 7,000 residents. This means that the Solera building is joining an already bustling community. As a renter at Solera, you get to be in the newest building of the downtown Denver bunch.

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What is LEED?

The developer of Solera Apartments, Zocalo Community Development, has made a principled commitment to reduce the impact its projects have on the earth and its environment. To facilitate the construction of highly sustainable buildings, Zocalo uses the US Green Building Council’s LEED Certification program. 

LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design and is a voluntary, consensus-based national standard that provides third party verification of a building’s sustainability. The LEED system can apply to all building types from commercial to residential and follows the full lifecycle of the building from design and construction to location and tenant comfort. Other sustainable building rating systems do exist however most other systems are not as rigorous or as popular; as of December 2008 over 2,100 buildings have been certified under the USGBC rating systems. There are nine total LEED rating systems:

• New Construction

• Existing Buildings

• Commercial Interiors

• Core & Shell

• Schools
• Retail
• 
Healthcare

• Homes
• 
Neighborhood Development

Solera will be certified under the “New Construction” rating system – nationally 1,421 buildings have been certified under this category. This system is broken into four levels of certification: Certified, Silver, Gold and Platinum. Zocalo’s RiverClay Condos project, completed in May 2008, was the Rocky Mountain Region’s first LEED-Certified multi-family project; it was certified at the Silver level.

The level of a building’s certification is determined by a point system. For New Construction, points/credits are allotted based on performance in six categories:

• Sustainable Sites
• Water Efficiency
• Energy and Atmosphere
• Materials and Resources
• Indoor Environmental Quality
• Innovative Design

Sixty-nine total credits are available for a given project. Solera will seek to improve upon Zocalo’s RiverClay building and achieve LEED Gold Certification, which requires a minimum of thirty-nine points. Here is the breakdown of points based on LEED Version 2.2:

• Platinum (52-69 points)
• Gold (39-51 points)
• Silver (33-38 points)
• Certified (26-32 points)

As we move forward, we will use this blog to update you on our progress under each LEED category and let you know the credits we are pursuing. We have a set plan for reaching our goal and will walk you through our decisions as we add new posts throughout the construction process.

For more information about LEED certification, please visit the USGBC website at www.usgbc.org.

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