Lynchburg wins the gold for going green

Lynchburg has brought home the gold in its quest to build the city’s first LEED-certified building.

"We have some things to be bragging about," said Mayor Joan Foster.

The national LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, program has given the city’s environmentally friendly Juvenile and Domestic Relations Courthouse its gold certification, Lynchburg officials announced Tuesday.

The distinction recognizes exemplary measures the city and its contractors took to ensure the four-story building was green, including using recycled materials, safeguarding interior air quality and boosting energy efficiency.

The courthouse, which opened in 2010, boasts an energy-conscious green roof — a plant-lined plateau that cuts down on stormwater runoff — and is expected to achieve a 30 percent savings in energy use.

It is the first building in the city, publicly or privately owned, to earn LEED certification.

"This demonstrates the city’s commitment to doing the right thing and setting an example for the rest of the community," said Jim Talian, the city’s project manager, adding officials hope green building techniques will become more common locally.

Earning LEED certification was a long and rigorous process, and right up until the end, officials were unsure if they would get gold or silver-level approval.

Talian said the original goal was to pursue silver certification, but the project’s contractor, C.L. Lewis, made up its mind to go for gold, pushing to recycle at every opportunity and purchase its materials from regional sources, both of which score points with LEED.

"They really wanted it," Talian said of the Lynchburg-based company. "It was to the city’s benefit to have them on this project, because they were very committed."

C.L. Lewis’ efforts pushed the project over the top and got it the gold.

"To date, there have been some gold buildings in Virginia, but not a lot," said Amanda Adams of CJMW Architecture, who served as the project’s LEED consultant. "So this is very significant for Lynchburg. It’s challenging to get to the gold."

LEED, a program of the U.S. Green Building Council, was developed in 2000 to promote sustainable building and offer third-party assessments of developments. Gold is its second highest certification behind platinum.

Jim Vernon, of Craddock Cunningham Architectural Partners, said committing to the LEED system gave Lynchburg a new courthouse that is both energy conscious and healthier for occupants.

"I think the city has really taken the lead in this effort," said Vernon, whose firm provided architectural oversight. The courthouse design was done by the California-based architecture firm AECOM.

"I think the city really has more of an ability to encourage this among other builders and developers now being able to say they’ve done it themselves," Vernon said. "I think for area contractors it should also be less intimidating knowing that a local firm took it on and did really well with it."

Practices employed in the courthouse’s construction included using refrigerants that do not degrade the ozone layer; preventing dust from being sucked into air ducts and re-circulated through the building; and avoiding petroleum-based products that give off volatile organic compounds often associated with a new car or new building smell but can actually cause headaches and illness.

"Some of these things seem kind of like no-brainers, but they are still very much a part of common practice now," said Adams.

City officials said they were pleased with the certification, and credited it to a strong team effort. The parties involved in constructing the courthouse were recognized by City Council during a meeting Tuesday.

"I think to go for silver and get gold is excellent," Mayor Foster said. "We got the touchdown. We scored the basket. I love it."