Common Ground wanted a healthy, sustainable building to house the recent homeless. Because they would be wholly responsible for the energy and operating costs, it was critical for Common Ground to have a well designed building that would use energy efficiently.

CEC’s team of energy engineers performed building energy simulations and recommended various measures to reduce the building’s energy consumption, including a ground source heat pump system, occupancy-based controls for HVAC and lighting, and energy recovery ventilation. CEC’s team of green building experts helped the design team meet the project’s green design goals and guided them through the LEED checklist and certification process.

As of the end of 2009, CEC is working with the design team to develop the LEED documentation for the project and is preparing LEED Letter Templates and other documentation for a number of LEED credits.