News
GROWING GREEN BUSINESS
October 31, 2011
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| We found lots of newsy folks in the audience for our Sustainability Summit. Weston Solutions' Shawn Temple and John Carbonara are trying to join forces with Energy Veterans' Walt Irmen on their latest project, the development of a 200-key hotel and 200k SF retail center in North Chicago near the Great Lakes Naval Academy. Walt's company hires veterans to do energy efficiency audits and certification services for Rule 179D reductions. | |
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| Tvsdesign's Ingrida Martinkus and Sarah Busch have been working on a series of LEED showrooms for Herman Miller throughout the country. Ingrida tells us they've already finished a LEED Platinum showroom in LA and are in the final stages of the Houston showroom. Next up will be the firm's Holland, Mich., HQ. Since furniture companies are often leading the way on green, Herman Miller has really been stretching to get to the top of the line in its showrooms, Ingrida says. | |
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| These are some of the green consultants our panelists were talking about: Goby's Chris Happ and Ryan Nelson have helped both Tishman Speyer and Zeller Group get LEED certification on all of their Chicago-area portfolios. They're up to about 11M SF of certifications over the last few years, Chris tells us, mostly Silver and Gold. The building that hosted the event, 401 N Michigan, is one of their latest projects. | |
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| DIRTT's Ryan Dean, Evolution Interior's Tony Amigleo, and Refurbished Office Environments' Dan Sherman see a trend of recycling office furniture. Tony says almost half of his company's business is recycled or partially recycled furniture (that means they can disassemble your office chair and reuse it for parts). Evolution's 400k SF warehouse in Austin has done about $38M in recycled and non-recycled furniture business this year. |
