Our new corporate headquarters is located in Fitchburg, WI, just south of Madison. Opened in October 2006, our Gold LEED certified facility is one of the most-environmentally friendly buildings in the Midwest. The 58,000 square feet, three-story building is 40 percent more efficient than a standard building of its size and showcases many sustainable design features. For tours of our facility please call 608.271.8717.

Green Building Features:

Pervious Concrete

Our south parking lot makes extensive use of pervious concrete, which allows water to pass through the concrete to be stored in a re-charge bed below the parking lot surface. This reduces water runoff from the parking lot and recharges the groundwater levels. Pervious concrete also filters stormwater and can reduce the amount of pollutants flowing into streams, ponds, and rivers.

Natural Lighting

Conserving energy is an easy and important method of helping our environment, and it also dramatically reduces energy costs. This building uses natural lighting to light 90% of the interior spaces. This greatly reduces one of the largest usages of energy. The heating and cooling of a building also involves a large consumption of energy. To reduce that consumption, outdoor light sensors automatically lower and raise the shades to naturally assist the heating and air conditioning systems in maintaining a constant building temperature.

Lighting Control System

Another key to lowering the energy consumption of the building is the lighting control system which uses light sensors to detect the exterior light level and adjusts the interior light levels accordingly. This system enables us to use the light sensors and astronomical clocks to control all of the building’s interior and exterior lighting.

Regional Materials

10% of the materials used in the building were manufactured within a 500-mile radius of this facility. Another 10% of the materials used in the building were harvested within a 500-mile radius.

Flooring

The flooring in our facility is composed of a variety of recycled and rapidly renewable materials, such as:

• Bamboo: Used throughout the corridors of the building, Bamboo regenerates in five to six years, which makes it a rapidly renewable resource, and is as strong as Maple.
• Cork: Used in the lower level of the building, cork flooring is made from the bark of a Cork Oak Tree and recycled wine bottle corks. The bark is scraped from the tree using methods which do not harm the tree and renews every nine years.
• Yarn: The carpeting in the building is made from recycled yarns
• Rubber: The floors in the exercise room are made from a combination natural rubber and recycled rubber. Natural rubber is a rapidly renewable resource.
• Linoleum: The linoleum used in the daycare is composed of such rapidly renewable materials as Linseed Oil, Pine Rosin, Limestone Dust, and Jute. The flooring lasts longer and produces less offgassing than vinyl flooring.

Insulation

The insulation of this building is not your traditional fiberglass insulation. In fact, our insulation is made from recycled blue jeans. Yes, the same blue jeans you wear. Not only does it insulate just as well as fiberglass, but it also absorbs sound, does not itch, and is not made with any products which are hazardous to the environment.

Water Use

This building saves approximately 300,000 gallons of water each year (compared to the average building) through its use of water conservation techniques such as:

• Waterless Urinals: Saves 120,000 gallons of water per year
• High Efficiency Dual-Flush Toilets: By employing a dual-flush toilet system (up for liquid, down for solids), we manage to reduce the amount of water used each Hay.
• High Efficiency Faucets: The faucets in the building are solar-powered and are sensor-activated.
• Irrigation System: The exterior of the building uses a low-water irrigation system for its landscaping, which is composed of vegetation that requires very small amounts of water.

Air Floor

The Air Floor (located on the 3rd floor) enhances ventilation, improves comfort control and air quality, and offers large energy savings.

• Standard air flow floor uses 32.8% recycled material.
• The floor is designed to last the lifetime of the building with the flexibility for future improvements.
• Elimination of overhead HVAC system ductwork decreases slab-to-slab height.

Recycled Construction Debris

We were able to save $12,850 in disposal fees by recycling a total weight of 261.45 tons of construction debris, including the following:

• Scrap Metal: 16.85 tons
• Cardboard: 30.25 tons
• Wood: 88.5 tons
• Concrete: 125.71 tons
• Paper: 0.14 tons

Other Recycle Materials

This building also contains the following recycled materials:

• Porcelain bathroom tile made from recycled glass (58%)
• Ceiling tile made from recycled gypsum (70%)
• Drywall made from recycled gypsum and paper (36%)
• Aluminum window glazing made from recycled metals
• Structural steel made from 45% recycled materials
• Glazing made from recycled glass
• Translucent panels in our training and exercise room are made from recycled plastics
• Agrifiber door cores made from recovered straw

HVAC System

The HVAC system in our facility uses environmentally-safe refrigerants and also makes use of state-of-the-art features. Such features include:

• Water temperature system which adjusts the water temperature based on the outdoor temperature.
• Radiant flooring systems which allow us to maintain a constant and lower air supply temperature due to the natural convection methods.
• Chemical-free cooling tower which uses kinetic energy applied to water to change the bond structure and eliminate impurities, such as calcium, bacteria, and gasses, without using chemicals.

Green Roof

The roof of our facility is a green roof which contains vegetation that reduces the amount of water run-off from the building through a natural absorption process. A green roof lasts twice as long as a conventional roof (our green roof should last at least 60 years) and also helps to prevent heating and cooling loss. Additionally, the green roof acts as a sound-dampener by reducing sound by at least 40 decibels.

Energy Savings

This building saves approximately 227,496 kilowatts of energy per year over a building constructed using standard techniques, which will prevent 316,675 pounds of carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere. That is equivalent to NOT driving a motor vehicle 404,851 miles or reducing traffic by 23 cars per year.

Payback Period

Throughout the design process, careful attention was paid to the payback periods of the building. All items listed above were run through energy modeling programs or life cycle costing exercises to analyze payback periods. We would be happy to sit down with you and discuss the payback of a green building.