There is certainly nothing new about the environmental movement with a history that far precedes even the first Earth Day, held nearly 40 years ago in 1970.  While progress has been made in preserving critical aspects of the earth for the well-being of future generations, there are still many hurdles to be crossed and everyone, whether acting as an individual or as part of an organization, has to do their part.  As the old adage goes; “a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” could not be truer.  As an organization HRCG is committed to learning new methods and taking extra measures that have positive impacts on our environment, both locally and globally.  The following are just two examples of this commitment:    

LEED Programs

Without a doubt the concept of “Green Building” is fortunately no longer just wishful thinking.  Similar to the environmental movement as a whole, the roots of environmentally responsible development go back decades, if not generations, and the most prominent leader of the current movement is the U.S. Green Building Council (www.usgbc.org).  The USGBC is responsible for creating, implementing, and managing the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System which is the measuring stick for all things “green” in real estate development and construction.  The USGBC’s mission is as follows:

To transform the way buildings and communities are designed, built and operated, enabling an environmentally and socially responsible, healthy, and prosperous environment that improves the quality of life.

 As a member of the USGBC, HRCG is committed to doing our part to achieve this mission.  In addition to hands-on experience by working on LEED-accredited projects, our best means of helping in this cause is to continue to educate ourselves and our workforce through USGBC coursework, which we encourage our project management personnel to take.  Ultimately we expect many of our project managers to prepare for and ascertain the formal LEED Accredited Professional (LEED AP) designation which is the responsibility of the Green Building Certification Institute (www.gbci.org) to develop and administer.  As our knowledge of building in accordance with LEED standards through certain projects grows, we look forward to taking on a larger role in working with other members of the LEED development community – developers, building owners, contractors, architects, engineers, facility managers, and other building end users – to expand the popularity and general acceptance of building more environmentally responsible and sustainable products. 

Recycling

Unfortunately in the competitive commercial construction industry, historically there was not much opportunity to recycle construction debris in a cost-effective manner and consequently much of it ended up in typical construction and demolition (C&D) landfills.  The market however has evolved and today there are more opportunities to divert the following waste streams away from C&D landfills:

Clean wood (dimensional lumber, pallets, untreated wood, etc.) Clean aggregates (concrete, asphalt, brick, block, ceramics, etc.) Clean metals (structural steel, light-gauge metals, cast iron, fencing, rebar, etc.) Drywall Cardboard Dirt Landscape & yard debris

HRCG is pleased to work with progressive-minded vendors such as Environmental Alternatives, Inc. (www.eairolloff.com) that assist their customers in the recycling process.  While historically a waste hauler, EAI saw a market in additionally recycling C&D debris in lieu of simply disposing it in landfills.  They subsequently invested in the technology at several Washington, DC locations where waste streams could be segregated – if not delivered in non-commingled loads in the first place – and prepared for recycling either on-site at other facilities.  EAI is additionally a member of the USGBC and their waste reporting is critical to HRCG and other contractors and building owners who are seeking points for LEED accreditation of their projects.  Even if the project being serviced has no LEED affiliation, EAI is capable of compiling waste inventory reports to let the customer know approximately how much of their debris is being diverted to recycling purposes.  Working with sophisticated vendors like EAI, HRCG is setting recycling goals that we hope to improve upon each and every year.  

 

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