Choate Construction Co. recently finished the Georgia Department of Transportation’s new administration building in Thomaston, Ga., which is currently under construction review for LEED-Silver certification.

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When green projects began popping up across the nation five years ago, Atlanta-based Choate Construction Co. took notice. “We try to keep ourselves in front of our competitors, so when we saw LEED being something that was not just a fad or trend, we educated ourselves and started working with the U.S. Green Building Council [USGBC] on many different levels,” says Sara O’Mara, LEED certification manager.

Choate is a founding member of the South Carolina chapter of the USGBC as well as the Charlotte, N.C., region and Triangle chapters. One Choate employee serves as the Southeast Regional Council chair to the organization.

To date, the company, which has five offices across the Southeast, employs six LEED-accredited professionals, with O’Mara among them. In addition, O’Mara is a member of the USGBC’s LEED Steering Committee. “The LEED Steering Committee works on every aspect of the LEED-rating system,” she says.

As a LEED Steering Committee rep, O’Mara was able to share some upcoming policy changes with Construction Today Quarterly. “We’re working on the next version of LEED,” she reveals. This will be the third LEED upgrade, but the organization has not finalized a name for it yet. For now, it’s referred to as “The Bookshelf.” According to O’Mara, it will be a 100-point system and credits will be weighted differently.

Under the new guidelines, projects will be allotted points specific to the region in which they are built. “It doesn’t make sense to have points work all across the U.S., so we’re creating alternate points,” O’Mara explains. “If one point is not good for your area in the country, you can select from other points.”

For example, creating operable windows might be a viable option for the Northwest; however, it wouldn’t be feasible for regions like the Midwest and Southeast that have higher amounts of humidity.

Also, the new guidelines will be more stringent. “We want LEED to stay at the forefront,” O’Mara says. “So, if something is becoming too easy for all projects to achieve, it doesn’t make it as unique. We are always tweaking the points.”

O’Mara expects LEED-certified projects to continue to increase annually. “Right now, you can already do healthcare and educational facilities, and now they have LEED homes,” she says. “It will be likely you could do green warehouses and manufacturing facilities. I also think in the future that we’re going to be doing more LEED on existing buildings than actual new buildings. Everybody is concerned about the environment and what we can do on our part to save it.”

Green Portfolio
Choate recently completed a slew of LEED projects, O’Mara says. In late September, it finished work on the Georgia Department of Transportation’s new administration building in Thomaston, Ga. The $10 million, two-story building is 50,000 square feet. It is currently under construction review for LEED silver certification.

“This project received a high rating of construction waste management, and they also used a lot of recycled materials,” she says. “The project took its drywall scraps and ground them up and mixed them into the soil, and the lime that is in the drywall allows plants to grow better and healthier.”

Choate is currently working on a $16 million mixed-use office building project in Charlotte. This is a LEED-certified core and shell building with a steel and glass exterior on a 600,000-square-foot site, with other buildings being constructed at the same time.

“It used to be a brown-field site, where there used to be a dry cleaners that apparently had a leak and a lot of its harmful chemicals went into the earth, she says. “So the owner removed all of the contaminated soils and brought good soil in. We took a terrible site that wasn’t useable and we made it to where it could be used again.”

Choate earned another point by buying the majority of its materials from within a 500-mile radius. “We were trying to be very conscious of where we were selecting our materials from,” O’Mara says. “A lot of material is made from recycled content. And it’s a tight site, so we made sure our building trash went into our trash bin since we’re diverting our trash from a landfill to recycle.”

The building saves approximately 42 percent of its water compared to a non-LEED building. “We used low-flow fixtures in the restrooms,” O’Mara says. Most toilets utilize 1.6 gallons of water per flush. However, Choate installed dual-sided handles. If the handle is pulled up, the toilet will use 0.5 gallons of water to flush. If the handle is pulled down, 1.1 gallons of water will be used. In addition, the sinks have sensors that only allow water to run for five seconds unless they sense motion.

The company also built its Charlotte office with LEED in mind. Its office space received LEED commercial interior gold certification. O’Mara says Choate’s office is built on the site of a previous development. “By redeveloping in an established community, Choate is within walking distance of several key features, such as churches, apartment complexes and restaurants,” she adds.

“This location encourages occupants to use various forms of alternate transportation with multiple bus route stops less than a quarter-mile away, preferred parking for carpools and bike racks with shower facilities on site.”

The project used water-efficient landscaping and irrigation practices, as well as low-flow, dual flush toilets and lavatory sink aerators with cut-off sensors to reduce Choate’s water consumption by 46 percent.

By using controlled waste strategies, the company diverted 49 tons of construction wastes from going to a landfill. “We know sustainability [is important] to our clients,” O’Mara says. “We wanted to show that not only can we do it for others, it’s a commitment within our own company.”