The Urban Green Council (an entity of the U.S. Green Building Council) is proud to announce their first-ever EBie Finalists, which represent work on an impressive range of building types from across the country.  After much debate, the EBie Jurors selected 18 Finalists and 14 out of a total of 67 qualifying projects.  Winners will be announced LIVE at the EBie Awards on June 28^th in New York City at the Hard Rock Café!  Tickets are available for purchase at: www.ebies.org.

145 Talmadge Road was selected as a finalist for the “Reformed Gas Guzzler” Award.  This award recognizes the building with the highest percentage of energy savings.  It is awarded on the basis of two years of energy data – one before and one after improvement.  Nominated awardees on the project are Klas Haglid, PE, RA, Haglid Engineering & Associates, designer of the Energy Reduction Plan (ERP) implemented at the facility; Avi Avidan, Managing Member of Avidan Management, the owning and managing company of the property; Josh Avidan, Member Avidan Management; Ted Jesson, Operation Field Manager for Avidan Management; and Alex Heckman, EIT, LEED AP, Energy Projects Engineer for Building Performance Equipment, Inc.  This team combined to reduce the overall facility energy consumption by over 65%, and as of April, 2012, the facility is a net electric power producing site!

Summary: “This project retrofitted an existing industrial complex to become an ENERGY STAR Certified building.  The facility consists of approximately 40,000 sf of one-story office space; 181,000 sf of refrigerated warehouse; and 433,000 sf of mixed use dry-warehouse space. 

After performing a thorough energy audit, the project team developed a plan to address all of the major issues at the facility.  The low-hanging fruit included occupancy and refrigeration controls; more substantial retrofits included lighting upgrades, envelope upgrades, equipment replacement, energy recovery ventilation, and the addition on on-site renewables (nominal 4.4 MW solar array).

Upon completion, the nominal 4.4 MW rooftop solar array was the largest in the country.  The overall building efficiency improved by over a third, and in conjunction with the new solar array, dramatically reduced total grid energy consumption.  In fact, despite having 181,000 sf of refrigerated warehouse, this building is a net electric power producing facility on peak summer days.”