At 色多多视频 we know that good risk management relies on strong sustainability practices. We named our new sustainability strategy the “Roots of Resilience,” because these practices are the foundation of any thriving business, community, or economy. “Roots of Resilience,” sets out 23 ambitious targets for 2023 – 2026 that aim to advance sustainability across the many industries and countries it impacts daily. The strategy focuses on protecting natural ecosystems, addressing climate change, and embedding sustainable practices across our operations.
Increasingly, design professionals are called upon to design the built and natural environment to withstand extreme weather events, meet the demands of climate change, and minimize humanity’s footprint on the environment.
To present an outstanding example of sustainability and resilience, 色多多视频Design Professional spoke with Marc Brune, a principal at , an engineering design firm headquartered in Portland, Oregon. In September 2021, the doors opened to the , a five-story, 58,000-square-foot, mixed-use building in Portland’s historic Old Town/Skidmore district. PAE, a Design Professional policyholder, provided engineering design services for the building project, which now serves as the firm’s headquarters. Another of our policyholders, , provided architectural design services.
FFF: What is PAE’s vision and how does it tie into this Living Building project?
MB: Our vision is to help solve the planet’s energy and water challenges. That’s the starting point from which we view every project. We try to envision what good design looks like in the built environment. We ask, if we built our buildings like nature grows a forest, what would our buildings look like?
So, our buildings need to generate all of their energy. They need to capture and use only the water that nature gives their sites. They can’t generate any waste. In other words, they need to have a positive impact on their environment.
What’s entailed in achieving certification as a Living Building?
Only 125 or so buildings have achieved the certification because they’re measured against such a rigorous set of standards. To be certified, the building must meet the criteria of seven “petals”: Place, Water, Energy, Health & Happiness, Materials, Equity, and Beauty. There are 20 different “imperatives” spread across the seven petals.
What motivated PAE to design this particular Living Building?
Pre-pandemic, we had run out of office space in one building and leased additional space in a second building but wanted to have everyone working in one place. We had designed the Bullitt Center in Seattle and seen all the benefits that a Living Building can deliver, such as increased productivity, higher recruiting and retention rates, and the ability to simply walk the walk, and thought a Living Building would be the answer to our space predicament.
To be certified, the building must meet the criteria of seven “petals”: Place, Water, Energy, Health & Happiness, Materials, Equity, and Beauty.
How did this project come to be developer-driven?
We contacted the Portland-based real estate firm Edlen & Co. with the idea that PAE and other design partners would invest our design fees into the building. Then we proposed that Edlen find cash investors for the project, as well as other tenants for the remaining office space and first-floor retail.
How does the building use only the water that nature supplies to the Portland site?
All water used in the building is either captured rainwater or, for non-potable uses, reused graywater. We’ve also built a five-story vacuum-flush composting system that’s the first of its kind. The only municipal water systems we use are for the fire-protection system and stormwater overflow, where the rainwater tank overflows to the existing infrastructure.
How does the building produce its own energy?
All the energy the building uses is produced by onsite and offsite photovoltaics. We store the energy in onsite batteries and we have a microgrid system that manages the energy and even enables the building to run entirely on battery.
Does the energy produced equal the energy used?
Yes, between the onsite and offsite arrays, we actually produce more energy than we need. The offsite array is on a nearby non-profit affordable-housing development and dovetails perfectly with the equity petal. We have a contract that lets us retain the renewable energy credits, while the housing non-profit receives the energy, which is worth up to $20,000 per year.
There’s a lot of concern these days about how much embodied carbon the built environment represents. How much is there in this building?
There are about 2,500 tons of CO2 embodied in the materials in the building. The good news, however, is that we and ZGF designed the building to last 500 years. Part of that plan was to achieve a seismic performance Category 4 rating, which means there’s a much lower chance of having to tear the building down if it’s severely damaged by an earthquake. The building is built to withstand the Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake, which is predicted to have about a 20-percent chance of happening in the next 50 years. So, we expect that all that carbon is going to stay locked up in this building for a very long time.
What was really neat was that building to Category 4 enabled us to build about four inches closer to the neighboring buildings, increasing our leasable floor area by about 200 sq. ft. This additional income was enough to offset the cost of the seismic upgrade and make it basically cost-neutral to our investors.
What have been the advantages of working in a Living Building?
We get big benefits in recruiting and retention. ZGF brought plenty of daylight into the building, along with windows we can open and what the architects termed a “deckony,” which is a year-round open-air lounge on the top floor. Staff can feel good about working in the building, knowing they’re helping protect the planet. The building fits in well with our work as a mission-aligned organization, which helps attract staff.
As for retention, I’ve heard people say things like, “My work feels more inspired in this space,” which is what every employer wants to hear, right? Because staffing represents about 75 percent of our costs, any bump we can get in productivity is a big deal. There have been studies that show how productivity improves by up to 10 percent in a higher-performance space with plenty of daylight and healthy air versus the same old drab office space with stale air.
When and how will the building achieve final certification as a Living Building?
ZGF is leading the certification process and I’m the point person for making sure all the engineering systems are meeting the petal requirements. We’re getting to the end of our mandatory 12-month post-occupancy waiting period, during which we’ve been tracking, along with ZGF, the building’s performance against the petals and imperatives. We haven’t compiled the final figures, but we’re confident that we’ve reached or exceeded all of the requirements for final certification.
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AXA XL’s Roots of Resilience strategy aligns closely with the shared goals of our insured design professionals, who aspire to help society transition to a low-carbon economy while safeguarding our communities and infrastructure against severe weather events caused by climate change. This Living Building is but one exceptional example of how our policyholders are succeeding.
色多多视频Design Professional and its network of PLAN agents are there for you as trusted risk advisors to help you navigate the evolving landscape of designing resilient and sustainable structures. See our updated learning management system to read relevant articles in Communiqué and Fast Fast Forward, access protective contract language in our first-in-class Contract Guide for Design Professionals, and enroll in on-demand webinars like “Engineering with Nature,” “ESG and Carbon 101,” and “Resilient Design and the Evolving Standard of Care.”
