On March 4th 2016, the Consumers Energy Service Center facility located in Bad Axe, Michigan achieved LEED certification. The LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) rating system, developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), is the foremost program for buildings, homes and communities that are designed, constructed, maintained and operated for improved environmental and human health performance. The Bad Axe Service Center is the first project in Michigan to certify under the LEED v4 Building Design + Construction rating system for New Construction.
The $3.5 million Bad Axe Service Center is a one-story structure of 7,000 square feet, replacing an older facility on the site that houses staff offices and serves as a material storage facility with state-of-the-art energy and environmental features. The project was completed under a design-build contract with Commercial Contracting Corporation of Auburn Hills, Michigan with the LEED process managed by Catalyst Partners of Grand Rapids, Michigan.
“Consumers Energy has committed to LEED v4 for all their new buildings and we feel fortunate to be allowed to help the process”, said Amanda Webb Nichols, Project Manager for Catalyst Partners.
LEED v4 is the first in the LEED rating system series to include a credit for Building Enclosure Commissioning (BECx) — a new discipline intended to improve the quality of walls and roofs — provided by the Chicago-based engineering firm, dbHMS. According to Aubrey Swift, Director of Design Integration who headed up the effort for dbHMS, the BECx procedure revealed and mitigated water intrusion issues that could have gone unnoticed. “The building used an economical type of exterior wall where there is just one layer of masonry between outside and inside,” reported Mr. Swift, “Our enclosure testing identified some areas where water was getting in and they were fixed before the interior finishes were installed.”
The Bad Axe Service Center sets a new standard for sustainable development in Michigan, and showcases how BECx can be an effective tool in maintaining budgets while preserving the integrity of a building’s construction.
CONSUMERS ENERGY, Michigan’s largest utility, is the principal subsidiary of CMS Energy (NYSE: CMS), providing natural gas and electricity to 6.7 million of the state’s 10 million residents in all 68 Lower Peninsula counties.
CATATLYST PARTNERS are specialists in high-performance and restorative design protocols for buildings, interiors and products. Catalyst Partners’ environmentally focused network of design, engineering, scientific, business and marketing professionals helps clients establish benchmarks and achieve their building and product performance optimization and certification goals.
DBHMS was founded in 2002, and is a minority-owned business with 125 employees worldwide. They provide a full range of services including mechanical, electrical, plumbing and fire protection, lighting and information technology design. dbHMS specializes in building commissioning, LEED consulting, computational fluid dynamics (CFD), energy modeling, and daylighting studies. dbHMS has been recognized as a LEED® Proven Provider™ for the Building Design and Construction rating system family by Green Building Certification Inc. (GBCI®).
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CONTACTS
Amanda Webb Nichols, Catalyst Partners: (616) 454-1111 | amanda@catalyst-partners.com
Elena Disabato, LEED Green Associate, Marketing Manager, dbHMS: (312) 915-0557 x246 | edisabato@dbhms.com
Brian Wheeler, Consumers Energy: (517) 788-2394 | brian.wheeler@cmsenergy.com
