County Materials supplies an environmental winner
HOWARD, Wis. (April 20, 2005) - The regional headquarters for the Department of Natural Resources was designed to be understated to appease easily ruffled taxpayers. But it's made a splash in a whole different way.
The three-story office building is expected to earn a silver rating from the Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEEDTM) Green Building rating system, which offers voluntary but stringent guidelines for environmentally conscious construction. Projects can earn "certified," "silver," "gold" or "platinum" status.
County Materials, headquartered in Marathon, supplied nearly 50,000 units of County Stone Sussex, a tumbled concrete block with marbleized colors that forms the random pattern covering the exterior of the 34,560-square-foot office facility. The entire project includes an additional 15,500-square-foot detached service building (which will not be recognized under LEED) and maintains a two-fold function.
The office complex will become the first state-operated office building in Wisconsin to adhere to the LEEDTM standards. "We were able to achieve energy savings of 55 to 57 percent over ASHRAE standard 90.1-1999 Energy Code," said Welsh-born Project Manager and Sustainability Coordinator Ian Griffiths of Berners-Schober Associates Inc., who said America is lagging Europe and the rest of the world in energy efficiency design. "Why should we as taxpayers pay larger-than-necessary government utility bills when we know they can (design) at 30 to 50 percent of that?"
County Materials, founded in 1946, operates 30 locations serving the Midwest. The family-owned, American-based company is an industry leader in the manufacture and distribution of concrete block, brick, ready-mix, hollowcore, pipe, pavers, retaining walls and Aggregate finish products for residential, commercial and municipal construction and landscaping.