Burns & McDonnell Earns LEED(R) Silver Certification for Kansas City, Missouri Headquarters Renovation

KANSAS CITY, MO--(Marketwire - Oct 17, 2011) - Burns & McDonnell has been awarded LEED^® Silver certification for Existing Buildings, Operations and Maintenance (LEED O&M), by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). A separate LEED certification for new construction and major renovations is currently being pursued for the ongoing $25 million renovation of its world headquarters at 9400 / 9300 Ward Parkway.

Burns & McDonnell is currently renovating and remodeling the 9300 wing of its Ward Parkway complex and constructing a new 450-seat auditorium. A number of sustainable construction practices are being incorporated in the project, including reuse and recycling of demolition and construction materials and use of environmentally friendly products in building materials and office furniture.

The award is the first published LEED O&M certification in Kansas City, Missouri. LEED sets standards for design and performance in five key areas of environmental and health concern, including energy efficiency, water efficiency, use of materials and resources, sustainable site development and indoor environmental quality. Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is the USGBC's rating system for designing, constructing and operating the world's greenest, most energy efficient, and high performing buildings.

"For Burns & McDonnell, sustainability means taking a balanced approach to meeting our economic, environmental and social responsibilities," said J. David Langford, Vice President, Environmental Services Division for Burns & McDonnell. "One of the key reasons we chose to pursue LEED certification was to help educate our clients and the overall community about practical applications for sustainable practices and to demonstrate how they can pay off for a number of business operations. We are very proud of this accomplishment and want to acknowledge that it never would have happened without the support of our building owner, the James Campbell Family Trust."

The drive to obtain LEED certification began in 2008 when Burns & McDonnell launched a $1 million project to introduce sustainable features and practices throughout its operations, including investments to improve energy efficiency, indoor air quality and water conservation. A team of Burns & McDonnell employee-owners worked closely with the property management staff on projects to improve indoor air quality, increase energy efficiency, reduce overall water usage by more than 50 percent, implement green cleaning, integrated pest management and landscape management practices, and enhance purchasing and waste management.

The Ward Parkway complex currently has an ENERGY STAR rating of 96 out of 100 meaning it performs better than 96 percent of similar buildings in this climate. This high ENERGY STAR rating is a result of implementing several efficiency measures including lighting retrofits and controls, removal of inlet vanes on air handling units, converting the hot water and chilled water systems to variable volume configuration, installation of two new condensing type boilers and decommissioning a low-pressure steam boiler. In addition to new equipment, operations of the facility were reviewed, equipment schedules were validated, and outside air controls were improved to minimize the energy spend without sacrificing proper ventilation and occupant comfort.

The sustainability project has included a number of educational demonstration pilots including the addition of a 5kW photovoltaic (PV) system, a vegetated roof and a Smart Grid Laboratory with equipment used to test various new electric power delivery technologies.

"One of the goals of our sustainability project was to install and test a number of demonstration projects that have enabled us to make informed recommendations to our clients," Langford said. "We found that some technologies and systems have worked better than others and our clients have been able to benefit from this information."

One key feature of the sustainability project was construction of the Burns & McDonnell Bioretention system on its 20-acre headquarters campus. This holistic watershed management system consists of two large bioretention cells, bioswales, a rain garden and an in-ground stormtreat unit. The system captures approximately 7 million gallons of rainfall annually, or about 33 percent of the average annual rainfall. The system is designed to use the natural chemical, biological and physical properties of plants, microbes and soils to filter and treat pollutants carried in stormwater. The project has been utilized as a demonstration site for design and construction of similar green infrastructure areas being incorporated in Kansas City, Missouri's, ongoing sewer overflow control project.