Stryker Facilities Earn LEED(R) Certifications

KALAMAZOO, Mich., June 14, 2010 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ --Stryker Corporation (NYSE: SYK) announced today that two of its manufacturing facilities have earned Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) certifications from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). LEED is an internationally recognized green building certification system, developed by the USGBC, which provides a framework for identifying and implementing practical and measurable green building design, construction, operations and maintenance solutions. These certifications recognize Stryker's ongoing, company-wide efforts, many of which began in its European plants, to design and operate its facilities in a more sustainable and responsible manner.

The Company's patient handling and emergency medical equipment manufacturing facility in Portage, Michigan, has earned a Silver designation in the USGBC's LEED rating system for Existing Building Operations & Maintenance (EB: O&M) and is the first manufacturing facility in Michigan to receive the LEED EB: O&M certification, while its manufacturing facility in Suzhou, China, has achieved a Gold designation in the USGBC's LEED rating system for New Construction and is one of only five facilities in China to achieve this rating. The LEED EB: O&M rating system assesses the ability to maximize operational efficiency while minimizing environmental impacts by addressing whole-building cleaning and maintenance issues, water efficiency, energy efficiency, sustainable purchasing, recycling programs, exterior maintenance programs and ongoing indoor air quality. The LEED rating system for New Construction has similar goals that apply to newly built facilities.

Stryker's patient handling and emergency medical equipment building, which contains both manufacturing and divisional headquarters office space, is located in Portage, Michigan. Since its construction in 2005, Stryker has reduced this facility's energy usage by 27 percent through implementing a building operations plan, an energy audit and a retro-commissioning plan. Improvements have included the re-use of pallets, diverting plastic from landfills and overall trash cost reduction.

Stryker's China manufacturing facility is located in East China's Suzhou Industrial Park. The building was constructed with locally available materials high in recycled content. The facility design optimizes use of natural light and employs solar-powered water heating and other environmentally friendly utility systems.

Stryker is one of the world's leading medical technology companies and is dedicated to helping healthcare professionals perform their jobs more efficiently while enhancing patient care. The Company provides innovative orthopaedic implants as well as state-of-the-art medical and surgical equipment to help people lead more active and more satisfying lives. For more information about Stryker, please visitwww.stryker.com .

USGBC's Green Buildings of West Michigan book and tour in development

By Olivia Pulsinelli | Business Review West...

June 07, 2010, 1:20PM

It’s no secret there are many LEED-certified buildings in Grand Rapids — and the number is growing in West Michigan. The U.S. Green Building Council of West Michigan now is working on an effort to use that leadership as a showcase for city successes and the benefits of LEED.

The project, Green Buildings of West Michigan, will pull together LEED-building-performance case studies that will result in a book and a tour in September featuring participating buildings.

Hesselink

The chapter had wanted to undertake such a project for some time, said USGBC West Michigan Chair Renae Hesselink. When LEED first came out, there were no requirements to demonstrate the ongoing benefits of LEED certification.

“That had been bugging us,” Hesselink said. “We had been wanting to prove that, yes, LEED buildings do perform better.”

Some building owners don’t meter LEED additions separately or separate the building’s performance from the manufacturing or other processes taking place within the building, said Hesselink, also the vice president of sustainability for Nichols in Muskegon.

“Part of our goal is to encourage these building owners, when we find things like that, to now make the investment to separate that out,” Hesselink said.

The national USGBC started including requirements for demonstrating building performance in LEED for Existing Buildings a few years ago and LEED 2009 more recently. And a few other organizations and communities have started undertaking similar case studies, Hesselink said.

Green Buildings of West Michigan

Approximately 40 buildings have been committed to the project, including the following: • Aquinas College  • Bazzani headquarters  • City Flats Hotel (Holland)  • Davenport University  • Dwelling Place  • East Grand Rapids Public Library  • Forest Hills Public Schools (four buildings)  • Grand Rapids Art Museum  • Grand Rapids Ballet  • Grand Rapids Community Foundation  • Grand Rapids Public Schools — Burton Elementary  • Grand Rapids YMCA  • Grand Valley State University  • Habitat for Humanity Kent County  • Haworth Corp.  • Herman Miller  • The Interurban Bus Terminal (The Rapid)  • Metro Health Systems  • Plante Moran/The Christman Building  • Plaza East Office Building (Holland)  • Spectrum Health — Lemmen Holton Cancer Center  • St. Mary’s Health — Lack’s Cancer Center and St. Mary’s Southwest  • Steelcase Showroom (44th Street) Steelcase Wood Plant  • Van Andel Institute

For the first year of Green Buildings of West Michigan, the chapter wanted to include a wide variety of buildings. And the goal had been to focus on Grand Rapids to make logistics easier the first time around.

“We are ending up going to Holland because we’ve got Haworth and Herman Miller both involved and City Flats,” Hesselink said.

It was important for the chapter to get those and other high-profile buildings on board, she said. So the tour will include a bus to Holland.

“And our goal would be to expand that because Kalamazoo is an up-and-coming LEED market, and Muskegon has some buildings, and Lansing — and those all fall into our geographic territory,” she said. “So who knows? They might have their own independent tour next year at the same time, or Grand Rapids could be the central hub (with) trips going to all these separate communities.”

It wasn’t hard to convince building owners to participate in the project, Hesselink said. But their participation does require a time commitment.

“Probably the first challenge is the building owners love the idea, but that means they have to commit to providing their data, which is not always easy,” Hesselink said.

The chapter has engaged students from Grand Valley State University, Aquinas College and Kendall College of Art and Design to organize data collected from building owners. The data is entered into the EPA’s Energy Star Portfolio Manager.

With the deadline for the book approaching, the chapter can’t add any more buildings to this year’s book and tour, but Hesselink doesn’t want to discourage anyone from getting involved.

“We want this to be ongoing,” she said. “We don’t want to just build up and have our tour in September and that’s it. We want it to be an ongoing program and try to involve students ongoing, too.”

There will be plenty of opportunities for people to get involved, Hesselink said, including helping plan the tour Sept. 10 and 11. The chapter already has started marketing the tour and sending save-the-dates through the Heartland Region of the USGBC, which includes 14 states across the Midwest.

“So we’re definitely hoping to, and we should easily be able to, draw from Chicago and Indiana and Ohio,” Hesselink said.

Also, the chapter is working with the GreenTown conference — which is produced by two Illinois-based firms and came to Grand Rapids last year — and a gathering of Michigan mayors to create a synergistic three days focused on sustainable communities. GreenTown will be held Sept. 9 and 10, and Hesselink hopes attendees will stick around for the Green Building tour.

“We knew if we tried to stand alone, yeah, we probably could — but if we did it jointly with another conference or something, it would be better,” Hesselink said.

While the chapter hopes to create a learning experience for visitors to West Michigan, an unexpected benefit of the project has been creating a learning experience for building owners, as well.

“When we started going out and meeting with building owners and talking about the project, I would say a good share of them did not realize that we had that many LEED buildings and we were such a leader in the country,” Hesselink said. “As much as we think we talk about it and the media talks about it, the general public probably doesn’t realize it unless they’ve been involved in it.”

She said construction, architecture and engineering companies understand the implications of a LEED-certified building, but facilities managers and some building owners may not have been involved in the whole process.

“They moved into this LEED-certified building — all the occupants — probably with no or very little instruction on how to live in that building,” Hesselink said. “You need to do things differently — it’s a culture change.”

She’s finding that can be an opportunity for the USGBC to help provide training.

“A school district or a higher ed (institution) — think of how many employees Spectrum has — it’s a major, major job to train and continue the training,” Hesselink said. “Even if you’ve got a group of people you’re training, they’re not all going to hear it or learn it at the same pace.”

© 2010 MLive.com. All rights reserved.

Mel Trotter Ministries among Recyclers Recognized for Contributions

LANSING, MICHIGAN (June 08, 2010) – At its 28^th Annual Conference in Detroit, the Michigan Recycling Coalition recognized several companies and one individual for their contributions to recycling in Michigan. 

Lansing’s Marvin E. Beekman Center received the Outstanding Recycling Education Program for reducing their environmental footprint while educating others.  Beekman Center special education teachers, Nancy Lubeski and Lester Duvall, use waste reduction, recycling and composting to teach science, math, social studies and other subjects to students with severe cognitive impairments and autism.  They have organized staff and students into building-wide recycling efforts and have moved the building from very low levels of recycling to pending green school certification. 

Outstanding Innovation in Recycling went to Michigan-based, Rewards for Recycling, which partners with municipalities to increase household participation in recycling programs.  R4R works with local businesses within communities to provide retail coupons and savings for residents that participate in municipal programs, providing financial incentives to recycle.

Rewards for Recycling or R4R also partners with waste haulers, recycling centers and corporate sponsors to offer affordable programs to municipalities of all sizes, that educate in new ways and seek to expand the recovery of a wide variety of materials.

Mel Trotter Ministries, located in downtown Grand Rapids, provides shelter, food, clothing, education, computer-based learning, and work training and experience for men and women in need in West Michigan.  Mel Trotter received the award for Outstanding Nonprofit Recycling Program for efforts to green their facility.  The Ministry was already taking cast offs to provide food and clothing to those in need and now works with a local composter and recyclers to capture compost food scraps from their cafeteria and recyclables throughout the facility.  Mel Trotter is actively moving toward a recently adopted zero waste and green purchasing policy.

Michigan State University’s Surplus Store and Recycling Center received the award for Outstanding Institutional Recycling Program.  Recycling plays an important role in MSU’s “Be Spartan Green” initiative.  MSU built a Recycling Center that provides comprehensive recycling opportunities in all 579 campus buildings. The new Recycling Center is a LEED Certified building and also houses the already successful MSU Reuse Center.  Through this new facility MSU also offers drop-off recycling opportunities for many recyclable commodities to surrounding communities.

Sarah Archer, founder and director of Iris Waste Diversion Specialists received recognition from the MRC Chair of the Board for her years of work with Coalition.  Sarah has provided leadership on a number of initiatives undertaken by the MRC over the past fifteen years and continues to be a leader in her field.

Recyclers Recognized for Contributions

LANSING, MICHIGAN (June 08, 2010) – At its 28^th Annual Conference in Detroit, the Michigan Recycling Coalition recognized several companies and one individual for their contributions to recycling in Michigan. 

Lansing’s Marvin E. Beekman Center received the Outstanding Recycling Education Program for reducing their environmental footprint while educating others.  Beekman Center special education teachers, Nancy Lubeski and Lester Duvall, use waste reduction, recycling and composting to teach science, math, social studies and other subjects to students with severe cognitive impairments and autism.  They have organized staff and students into building-wide recycling efforts and have moved the building from very low levels of recycling to pending green school certification. 

Outstanding Innovation in Recycling went to Michigan-based, Rewards for Recycling, which partners with municipalities to increase household participation in recycling programs.  R4R works with local businesses within communities to provide retail coupons and savings for residents that participate in municipal programs, providing financial incentives to recycle.

Rewards for Recycling or R4R also partners with waste haulers, recycling centers and corporate sponsors to offer affordable programs to municipalities of all sizes, that educate in new ways and seek to expand the recovery of a wide variety of materials.

Mel Trotter Ministries, located in downtown Grand Rapids, provides shelter, food, clothing, education, computer-based learning, and work training and experience for men and women in need in West Michigan.  Mel Trotter received the award for Outstanding Nonprofit Recycling Program for efforts to green their facility.  The Ministry was already taking cast offs to provide food and clothing to those in need and now works with a local composter and recyclers to capture compost food scraps from their cafeteria and recyclables throughout the facility.  Mel Trotter is actively moving toward a recently adopted zero waste and green purchasing policy.

Michigan State University’s Surplus Store and Recycling Center received the award for Outstanding Institutional Recycling Program.  Recycling plays an important role in MSU’s “Be Spartan Green” initiative.  MSU built a Recycling Center that provides comprehensive recycling opportunities in all 579 campus buildings. The new Recycling Center is a LEED Certified building and also houses the already successful MSU Reuse Center.  Through this new facility MSU also offers drop-off recycling opportunities for many recyclable commodities to surrounding communities.

Sarah Archer, founder and director of Iris Waste Diversion Specialists received recognition from the MRC Chair of the Board for her years of work with Coalition.  Sarah has provided leadership on a number of initiatives undertaken by the MRC over the past fifteen years and continues to be a leader in her field.

Synthetic Grass and The LEED Point Program

May 27, 2010 

Considering building projects, sustainability is a great social and environmental implementation. With the LEED program, green and sustainable design and construction is also economically rewarding. The LEED program, developed by the U.S. Green Building Council, awards points for registered building projects for sustainability. The use of synthetic turf in a building project provides several LEED point opportunities for different categories. The naturally eco-friendly nature of synthetic grass makes it ideal for design and construction. It requires no water and minimal maintenance, thus helping to conserve on operation bills. LEED points add to its ideal quality in an array of building projects.

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, performs independent verification of building projects. Developed by the U.S. Green Building Council, it sets the standards for green and sustainable building construction, as well as building design and operations. This Green Building Rating System is nationally acknowledged for focusing on five key components: water saving and conservation, energy efficiency, sustainable construction site development, indoor environmental quality, and material selection. The use of synthetic grass in building projects can earn LEED points in several areas. Building projects that have accumulated LEED points are eligible for valuable government incentives and tax credits.

Under water efficiency, artificial turf systems can accumulate up to four LEED points. This includes reducing watering by 50%, no necessity for an irrigation system, reducing watering by 20%, or reducing watering by 30%. When considering recycled, renewable, and recovered materials, synthetic turf can earn another four LEED points. This is for the use of a certain percentage of recycled materials, a specific amount of local or regional materials, or a certain value of rapidly renewable materials from plants harvested within a short cycle. Concerning low emission materials, there are additional LEED points available for the use of artificial grass. LEED points can also be earned with the materials turf is comprised of. Rubber, sand, concrete, and other materials can individually contribute to the accumulation of LEED points. Artificial turf systems create many LEED point opportunities for any building project.

Several industries use LEED, including real estate agents, architects, interior designers, facility managers, landscapers, and engineers. Both local and state governments have adopted this system for public buildings and establishments. LEED projects are in progress in currently 41 countries, including Brazil, Mexico, Canada, and India. There are also federal LEED initiatives in progress. Obtaining LEED certification can be done by registering online with the USGBC at www.usgbc.org. LEED teams are then required to present proof and documentation throughout the development process. Project teams establish which products are most appropriate for LEED credits. Lastly, upon meeting performance standards in the Green Building Rating System, credits are then awarded.

Synthetic grass and the materials it is comprised of enable any building project to accrue several LEED points. The LEED program is a great incentive to adopt sustainability in building design, construction, and future operation. In a time in which conservation is crucial and finances are tight, synthetic turf can earn your building project tax rebates while adopting sustainability to conserve natural resources.

http://green.what1wants.com/?p=5563

Nichols Achieves the EPA’s Energy Star Certification For Superior Energy Performance

May 20, 2010

Muskegon, MI … In keeping with its solid commitment to Sustainability, Muskegon-based Nichols Paper and Supply has achieved EPA’s Energy Star Certification with a score of 79.  Two years ago when starting their pursuit for LEED EB O+M (U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership for Energy and Environmental Design for Existing Buildings Operations and Maintenance) their energy star score was 70, a minimum of 69 is required to achieve LEED EB O+M.  Instead of accepting that score, improvements were made to their main distribution center and corporate headquarters in Muskegonand they were able to raise their score to 79.  The improvement that contributed the most to raising that score was a lighting change in the 96,000 square foot warehouse that has helped them achieve a 34% degrease in energy usage annually.  Renae Hesselink, LEED AP and VP of Sustainability of the company stated “Behavioral changes have also contributed to the increase in score, turning off computers and small appliances when not in use, occupancy sensors in offices, conference rooms, restrooms and storage areas, task lighting in offices, and working in the abundance of natural light that our building offers.”

 An ENERGY STAR qualified facility meets strict energy performance standards set by EPA and uses less energy, is less expensive to operate, and causes fewer greenhouse gas emissions than its peers. Energy use in commercial buildings and manufacturing plants accounts for nearly half of all energy consumption in the U.S. at a cost of over $200 billion per year, more than any other sector of the economy. Commercial and industrial facilities are also responsible for nearly half of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions which contribute to global warming.

For more than a decade, EPA has worked with businesses and organizations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through strategic energy management practices. To qualify for the ENERGY STAR, a building or manufacturing plant must score in the top 25 percent based on EPA's National Energy Performance Rating System. To determine the performance of a facility, EPA compares energy use among other, similar types of facilities on a scale of 1-100; buildings that achieve a score of 75 or higher may be eligible for the ENERGY STAR. The EPA rating system accounts for differences in operating conditions, regional weather data, and other important considerations.

For more information on the EPA Energy Star Certification and the Energy Star Portfolio Manager (the tool used to calculate your score) visithttp://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=evaluate_performance.bus_portfoliomanager   

Nichols is the largest independent distributor of cleaning, protection and packaging supplies in the state of Michigan, has been in business for over seventy years, is headquartered in Muskegon and services over four thousand customers.  Nichols also has branches in Wixom, Holland, Traverse City and Grand Rapids.

Michigan State University awarded for recycling, surplus reuse efforts

May 20, 2010

Free Press Staff

Michigan State University said today its Surplus Store and Recycling Center earned the Recycler of the Year award from the Michigan Recycling Coalition.

Opened in 2009, the $13 million, 74,000-square-foot center houses the MSU Surplus Store; recycling operations, offices and education center; storage areas for MSU departmental use, compost and metal scrap; a truck scale and space for roll-off and semi-trailer storage containers.

In a news release, MSU said that the center contains recycled green glass mixed in the concrete around the building; rainwater collection that provides 60 percent of filtered water for toilets, urinals and power washers; and rooftop solar panels that produce 10% of the building’s electricity.

MSU’s environmental goals by 2015 include reducing waste by 30%, energy consumption by 15% and greenhouse gas emissions by 15%.

Legislation could make state a leader in green

By Olivia Pulsinelli | Business Review West...

May 19, 2010, 5:59PM

There’s no doubt Grand Rapids is a leader in sustainable construction, but many hope the passage of proposed LEED tax incentives will make the state of Michigan a leader, as well.

John Byl
“I believe that if this legislation passes, Michigan would be one of the (leaders), if not the leading state, in sustainable design and construction,” said John Byl, a partner at Warner Norcross & Judd, who will lead the LEED Incentives roundtable at Business Review’s sustainability event May 25 atAquinas College.

Byl thinks Michigan could get ahead of the curve with this legislation. Although municipalities across the country have LEED initiatives, he thinks most states are just beginning to think about incentivizing LEED.



Senate bills 1111-1114 would create two financial incentives for building green. The first would be a property tax abatement of up to 12 years for new or rehabilitated LEED buildings — 20 percent for basic LEED certification, 30 percent for silver, 40 percent for gold and 50 percent for platinum.

The second incentive is a tax-increment financing program for LEED-certified buildings with eligible sustainability features on eligible brownfield sites.

These incentives would create a significant increase in green building throughout the state, Byl said.

Sustainability coverage

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“There are opportunities where people do build new buildings or rehab existing buildings where they’re not achieving that level of sustainability that could be achieved and, perhaps — for the long-term benefit for the environment and human health — should be achieved,” Byl said. “Grand Rapids has a fairly high percentage of LEED-certified buildings because of a couple of people that made it a passion to pursue sustainable construction and LEED certification in particular. But that’s unique to Grand Rapids, and that’s not prevalent across the state.”

One area in which he thinks the incentives would spur more of an increase in green building is traditional retail and office development.

Progressive AE Director of Sustainability Jeff Remtema, who will co-lead the Business Review roundtable with Byl, believes these bills would be most significant for the speculative construction market, where builders are less likely to seek certification.

“They don’t have a lot of incentive to put a lot of money into doing more high-efficiency or high-performance features in the building, so what we’re really hoping to accomplish with this particular piece of legislation is incentivize that particular market segment to do more green,” Remtema said.

He agrees speculative construction has declined significantly in recent years. But he said builders are making plans now for how the segment will return, and he wants them to have information to help them build more sustainable structures.

One question Byl has heard is whether the incentives will be limited to projects that achieve LEED certification. As currently drafted, the projects would have to achieve certification to qualify. 

However, the issue still is being debated, Byl said, and the legislation could include alternative standards if they were reliable and proved the same level of sustainability.

“I just hope there’s support for the legislation from the general public and our legislators,” Byl said. “I believe, if we take the long-term view, it would be a good thing for the state.”

 

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