Energy and Sustainability Services: What it means for our Educational/Institutional Clients

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Many institutions such as higher education, k-12, museums, and not-for-profit organizations were early adopters of strategic sustainability and energy conservation initiatives, and continue to provide leadership.

SSM has provided environmental and engineering solutions to institutions for over 40 years, and continue to fulfill our mission to help our clients’ pursue their success by offering the expertise of the new Energy and Sustainability Services division. Having guided numerous institutions to identify, plan and execute sustainability goals, future generations will benefit from the strategic thinking of today’s leaders:

  • Energy Auditing and benchmarking

  • Re-tuning HVAC and Central Utility Plant Operations

  • Strategic Energy Planning

  • Educational Programs that Engage Students and Staff, and Involve the School Community

  • ROI/Feasibility Studies for Capital and Renewable Energy Projects

  • Energy Grant and Utility Rebate Management

  • Carbon Inventories

  • Tracking of Energy Performance



CASE STUDY

Energy Model Justifies High-Performance School Design

Built in 1954, the 274,000 sf Quakertown High School was recently slated for new additions and extensive renovations — including a high-performance building envelope and new mechanical and lighting systems. The A/E client intended to pursue a LEED for Schools 2007 certificate and initially requested an energy building simulation model to obtain LEED points.

Since the A/E team anticipated critical questioning from stakeholders, the model was used to independently verify the cost-effectiveness of the design. The team used DOE-approved eQuest software to simulate utility consumption and costs of the base bid high-efficiency design, as well as multiple design scenarios with various deduct alternates removed.

The model, once created, allowed easy manipulation of the alternates and offered the A/E team multiple cost-benefit design scenarios to choose from.


RESULTS:

After reviewing the model-based cost-benefit analysis, the A/E team and the school district decided to pursue the base bid, while removing just one component (advanced daylighting controls).

This saved approximately $400,000 in construction costs and allowed the team to reserve budget for LED lighting throughout the school, which will provide annual utility savings.

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SUMMARY:

The eQuest modeling service supports LEED certification, informs value engineering decisions, and independently justifies the value of high-performance building designs.

By quantifying long-term costs and benefits of the deduct alternates for this project, the model-supported cost-benefit analysis helped the construction team cut costs while leaving budget for LED lighting.

This project is 44% better than ASHRAE 90.0-2007 and is expected to get 19 points toward LEED certification due to energy-saving measures.