Green Week 2019: The Carrot Awards

Ayers Saint Gross hosts an internal Green Week every year to advance sustainability literacy within our staff so we can provide better high-performance designs to our clients, reflect on our sustainability achievements to date, and plan for the year ahead.

Over the course of next week, we’re sharing information we’ve learned through project (or projects’) certifications, professional certifications, and conference attendance, as well as bringing in invited guests. We’re pleased to host Dr. Christine Sheppard of the American Bird Conservancy who will be speaking to our entire firm about Bird-Friendly Building Design. Anne Greenstone from Steelcase will be teaching our Baltimore office about the Fitwel certification and office wellness, and a representative from CMTA will teach our DC office more about design considerations for net-zero buildings.

Since 2011, we have annually reported the predicted energy use intensity of our whole building projects and the lighting power density of our interiors projects using the AIA 2030 Commitment. This data allows us to recognize and reward the most energy efficient of these projects from the previous calendar year with our annual Carrot Awards to inspire other projects to strive for greater energy efficiency.

We believe sustainable design and great design are the same. Our highest performing projects under design in 2018 illustrate strategies every project in our firm aspires to achieve.

We’re pleased to announce this year’s Carrot Award winners are the Hayden Library Reinvention at Arizona State University and the Brown Advisory Bond Street Office Third Floor Tenant Improvements. Congratulations to the design teams of these projects!

Hayden Library, originally built in 1966, is representative of a design and construction era that was limited by available technology and prioritized considerations for a library differently than today’s campus conditions require. The HVAC, lighting, plumbing, and architectural upgrades included as part of the library’s reinvention result in a significantly more resource-efficient building than the existing construction. The project is predicted to have an energy demand of 55% less than baseline and will offset a portion of its electricity load with a rooftop photovoltaic array. This work would not be possible without the collaboration of an engaged client and our team at Affiliated Engineers.

The Brown Advisory Headquarters Tenant Improvements provides commercial office space in Baltimore for a privately owned investment management company. The space we designed for them reduces lighting power density by 56%, more than twice the current AIA 2030 reduction target for interior spaces, through daylighting and LED lighting.

Be on the lookout for more sustainability-focused projects from our firm. For more on how Ayers Saint Gross approaches sustainable design, see our firm’s sustainability strategy, Take Action.