The David H. Murdock Core Laboratory at the North Carolina Research Campus in Kannappolis, N.C., is one of several LEED-certified projects for Turner.

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Michael Deane, East Coast operations manager for sustainable construction and a LEED-accredited professional, oversees Turner’s training, green project setup, operations and sales. He is a founding board member of the New York Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council and was instrumental in identifying chapter members and organizing the first LEED workshops in New York City. Deane also helped create chapter events, fundraisers and ongoing programs. Since 2005, Deane has been on the U.S. Green Building Council’s national board of directors.

The U.S. Green Building Council consists of more than 12,000 organizations from across the building industry that are working to advance structures that are environmentally responsible, profitable and healthy places to live and work. Members include building owners and end-users, real estate developers, facility managers, architects, designers, engineers, general contractors, subcontractors, product and building system manufacturers, government agencies, and nonprofits.

Brian Schick, manager of business for the Carolinas, says Turner relies on the U.S. Green Building Council for its green training rubric. “We use the U.S. Green Building Council’s training program to help prepare our people for the LEED-accredited professional exam,” he explains. “We assign people to teams and already-certified individuals help lead those classes. It’s very interactive and helps our staff develop a strong interest in green practices.”

In addition to the U.S. Green Building Council’s materials, the company offers its Turner Knowledge Network classes through Turner University. Schick explains the continuing education courses take about six hours to complete online. “This is the primer to our nine-week-long LEED training,” he notes. “There are about 10 to 12 Turner employees enrolled in each session, and we launch sessions about four times a year. It is our goal to have our whole staff fully LEED-accredited.”

Schick also notes that the American Institute of Architects has recognized Turner’s efforts on sustainable building and even adopted portions of its online training program for its own members.

“Green is becoming increasingly easier to incorporate into design and building, which is why we continue to train our staff and raise our percent of accredited professionals,” Griffin notes. “In Raleigh, our goal is to have at least half of our staff accredited in 2008. Embracing green building practices gives us a competitive advantage, but it also makes good business sense. It’s not only the right thing to do, it’s the smart thing to do.”

Griffin says adopting green building practices didn’t require drastic change operationally, but more of a shift in mindset. “Sustainability is about taking smart business practices and making them standard,” he notes. “The challenge for us is more about education to the community and subcontractors.”

According to Griffin, many subcontractors have “gotten onboard and understand green construction, but a large component still don’t.” Trade organizations, he continues, have played a significant role in spreading the message of the importance of green. Additionally, Turner offers classroom training on green topics to its vendors and subcontractors.

Corporate Initiatives
Turner’s Carolinas division benefits from solid corporate backing to its green initiatives. Turner’s history is deep; the company was founded in 1902 by Henry C. Turner and quickly built a reputation for integrity, teamwork and commitment. The company says it continues to hold these values today.   

Headquartered in New York, the company operates offices in 24 states and overseas. It provides comprehensive management services through the development, design and construction phases of general building projects.

From offices in Raleigh and Charlotte, the Carolinas division oversees projects in North and South Carolina. Turner says this approach combines “the accessibility of a local firm with the strength and support of a national corporation.”

The Carolinas division has built several notable facilities, including the Bank of America Stadium, North Carolina State University C. Richard Vaughn Towers, and Spartanburg Renaissance Hotel and Convention Center.

In early 2007, the joint venture between Turner and BE&K-Davis broke ground on the NASCAR Hall of Fame building in Charlotte, N.C. Turner was selected to provide pre-construction and construction services to the 100,000-plus-square-foot, state-of-the-art facility, which will include a convention center, restaurants, retail outlets, media center and 800-space parking garage. The facility is scheduled to open in early 2010.

Another notable job, Griffin says, is the Cape Fear Valley Medical Center located in Fayetteville, N.C. The project involves expanding the facility from 504 beds to 594 beds, and Griffin says the job is ahead of schedule.

Completed in four stages, the facility’s renovations include the patient tower, outpatient center, hemodialysis unit, human resources unit and parking deck.

The project broke ground in December 2005, and in the first stage, Turner demolished the buildings and parking lots to make room for the tower and parking deck. Part of this phase involved temporarily redirecting the flow of traffic within the facility’s boundaries in an effort not to affect the current operations of the facility.

The project’s second stage was the construction of the parking deck, while the third stage, scheduled for completion in May 2008, will be the construction of the six-story tower. The tower will be a cast-in-place concrete structure and will house the emergency department, medical/surgical unit, intensive care unit and heart vascular center.

The final stage of the project will be the renovation of the hospital space for an outpatient center, sleep center, employee health, OP imaging, hemodialysis unit and human resources.

Griffin says Turner has been successful at bidding jobs because of its ability to provide pre-construction services up front. “Costs continue to increase, so early communication continues to be an important service that we provide,” he explains. “We offer accurate and dependable forecasting for clients, and we’re proud of that. It’s something we think that we do better than other contractors. We set the lead and try to excel.”

Schick notes the market in North and South Carolina remains robust. “I haven’t seen a downturn in our market,” he says. “I continue to see a need for schools, courthouses, institutional facilities. Those remain steady and continue to grow. Also, I’ve seen the private sector stay strong. High-rise residential, retail, office buildings – it’s not letting up.”

Green-Focused Projects
The Carolinas division has been selected to complete several LEED-certified projects in the last year. For example, Griffin points to the construction management services Turner provided to the North Carolina Research Campus in Kannappolis, N.C. The project includes work on several buildings on the campus: the David H. Murdock Core Laboratory, the Central Energy Plant and the University of North Carolina Center for Excellence in Nutrition.

“This is an exciting job that Turner is proud to be a part of,” Griffin says. “This is a large research facility with several major universities taking space there, including Duke University, North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina. Both the scale and nature of the job are exciting.”

Schick adds, “It’s a highly sophisticated project and the whole campus is LEED-certified.”

The David H. Murdock Core Laboratory is a 311,000-square-foot, four-story building consisting of a steel structure with a brick veneer and copper standing-seam roof. The laboratory is the cornerstone of the 350-acre campus and will contain specialized equipment including a 900-megahertz nuclear resonance spectrometer for analyzing and dissecting the structure of molecules into their component atoms; a 800 MHz NMR spectrometer and a 700 MHz NMR spectrometer for the analysis of smaller molecules; a genomics facility capable of analyzing the genomes of plants, animals and people; an imaging facility which will include electron microscopes and computers to produce advanced three-dimensional reconstructions; and a Good Manufacturing Practice manufacturing facility that can produce both small molecules and biologics. The project broke ground in February 2006 and is scheduled for completion in December 2008.

The project also consists of a separate Central Energy Plant. The 24,000-square-foot facility is located across the street from the Core Lab Building and consists of chillers and boilers and will service the entire campus. It is a steel and masonry structure with a brick façade accented with cast stone and glassfiber reinforced cement, punched windows, thermoplastic membrane and copper mansard roof system.  

The 130,000-square-foot Center for Excellence in Nutrition is next to the laboratory building. The steel structure with concrete slabs-on-metal deck also includes an exterior skin of brick facade, cast stone, fiberglass reinforced plastic, punched windows and a thermoplastic and standing seam metal roof system. The interior shell building work will include finish millwork, doors/frames/hardware, drywall partitions, acoustical ceilings, ceramic tile, marble tile, resilient tile and base, toilet and bath accessories and elevators.

Griffin also notes Turner’s work on the Silver LEED-certified Syngenta Biotechnology facility in Research Triangle Park, N.C. He says this is only the third laboratory in the country that is certified LEED for commercial interiors.

Changing Perceptions
Although green is a popular term, Griffin notes some owners still have misconceptions about the process. “Some owners think it costs more, but it doesn’t always have to,” he explains. “Especially when you look at the long-term value, green makes more sense.”

However, he points out many owners in both the public and private sector are knowledgeable and committed to green. “Most of our clients are quite educated and quickly getting even more familiar with green building,” Griffin states. “They may not initially know what level certification they want, but they are committed to incorporate sustainable design.”

Although the public sector may have been the first to largely adopt green, Schick says the private sector has rapidly caught up. He points to projects Turner has done for the Bank of America, Wachovia and Bissell Development, all in Charlotte, N.C.

“Many of the banks, for example, have completely adopted green building, and many aim to achieve high levels of certification,” Schick notes.

“Especially in the private sector, owners see how green building immediately drops their bottom line – employees have more daylight in the office, cleaner air and they feel better about where they work, so they are more productive.

“Green has been around long enough that people don’t sit back and wait to see if the trend is going to drop – they just embrace it,” he continues.

Griffin also notes the public sector sees the value in sustainable building. “From courthouses to jails to schools, the long-term payback of green is clear, and it’s been unanimously adopted across the board,” he says. “The public sector typically does not pursue Gold or Platinum certification as often as the private sector, but they are incorporating green practices and sustainable design.”

“There are many easy steps an owner can take to make green happen,” Schick says. “It’s just good practice. It’s a smarter way of looking at things, and it pays off very quickly. Green speaks to lifecycle cost, not first-dollar cost.”