We welcome The Signature Centre as the winner of the 2007 CRES Award for Renewable Energy in Commercial Buildings, and as the registration headquarters for the 2007 Denver Tour of Solar and Green-Built Homes and Buildings.

What a terrific place to kick off the Tour. This building is LEED certified at the Platinum level. It is a large, 183,000 square foot Class A office building and is being touted as one of Denver’s greenest office buildings. In fact, one of its tenants is Blue Sun Biodiesel!

The developer believes that high user satisfaction results in higher employee productivity. Access to natural light and views are very important to employees. To that end, the windows are tinted Low-e with interior light shelves, exterior shading and clerestory windows. Natural light penetrates 40’ into the building and 90% of the space has outside views. Task lighting is also used, thereby taking into account some of the biggest problems in office buildings. All of this increase worker productivity by, roughly 7%. The reduction in energy costs to power task lighting instead of traditional overhead lighting is 30%

One of the major components of the building is thermal comfort for all the inhabitants. There is a big problem in most offices is with temperatures being too hot or too cold. Aardex has solved this problem by putting in floor venting in each cubicle thereby giving each employee control over their environment. The energy efficiency of this system saves 28% over conventional HVAC systems. Electrostatic air-filtering systems improve air quality which reduces absenteeism. All of this helps to reduce the utility costs by up to 30% and help to boost worker productivity by about 3%!

The Signature Centre also has water saving features that save 50% of the normal amount of water. This is accomplished by using waterless urinals, dual flush toilets and low water use fixtures.

The building used 25% recycled materials, 30% of the building materials used were available locally, and there was 75% site waste reduction.

These innovative measures are not inexpensive and that cost is reflected in the square foot rental rate of $25 rather than $17 a square foot for other buildings in the area. While it is more than a 33% increase over other office buildings, the developers feel that the increase in the worker productivity will more than compensate for the increased rental fees.

“The Signature Centre is one-of-a-kind. It breaks the mold on what a building can achieve to improve company and employee performance,” said Randy Swearingen, director of office development for Aardex. “Green buildings manage energy costs. Tenants and their employers appreciate that.”

We are delighted to have them as part of our Tour this year.