Sustainability Matters - Blog

Expertise

Data-Driven Design Series | Analyzing Water Use and Reuse

For our latest installment in our Data-Driven Design Series, we spoke with Jon Robertson, Glumac’s Lone Star Region Plumbing Manager, about strategies for reaching net zero water and how we’re improving the water efficiency of our projects. Water reuse and conservation is a major aspect of resilient design in the face of climate change. In […]

Concepts

Materials: Beyond Energy’s Impact on a Building’s Carbon Footprint

While a lot of attention is paid to the role transportation plays in the massive carbon draw down necessary to mitigate the worst effects of climate change, designers in the built environment actually have a much larger piece of the carbon pie to slice: Building materials. Expanded public transit and electric vehicles definitely play a […]

Concepts

Data-Driven Design Series | The Impact of Building Electrification

For our latest installment in our Data-Driven Design Series, we spoke with Brian Goldcrump, Glumac’s Northern Region Energy Director, about the impact our power grid has on building decarbonization. With the recent efforts by states on the West Coast to divorce their energy grid from fossil fuels, building system electrification now presents a real and […]

Expertise

Rainwater Harvesting Rebates Now Available in Austin

Austin, TX, has implemented a series of rebates and guidelines to improve the rainwater harvesting capacities of residential and commercial buildings. As much as $100,000 is available per project, including $5,000 for rainwater harvesting equipment, and $5,000 to conduct a water efficiency audit. The immediate impacts on a building’s efficiency and performance are obvious, but […]

Expertise

Data Driven Design: Harnessing Building Analytics to Deliver a Low Carbon Future

We’re introducing the first episode of our new Data-Driven Design Series, where we discuss with various experts both in and outside Glumac on cutting edge concepts we are currently integrating on building design projects across the world. Here, we talk with Glumac Energy Engineer Gordon Stewart about his work building interactive dashboards that help owners […]

Expertise

Focus on Climate Change Ramps Up With New West Coast Building Energy Initiatives

As the energy grid across the West Coast becomes more reliant on clean power sources, Washington, Oregon, and California are responding with legislation that will push new and existing buildings to improve their energy efficiencies and carbon emissions. Our Energy team is here to help you chart a path to compliance and carbon reduction. Here […]

Concepts

Personal Environments to Mitigate the Spread of COVID-19

As part of our work with Tetra Tech’s COVID-19 Task Force, we discussed with Dr. Willaim Bahnfleth, Chairman of the ASHRAE Epidemic Task Force, and Dr. Michael Kaiser, esteemed infectious disease expert, how personal environment style air purifiers can mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in the built environment, and create healthier spaces in the future. […]

Concepts

Design Challenge: Focus on Future Occupants

Over the next several weeks, we will be publishing a series on Sustainable Building Design Challenges and how our Sustainability Consulting Team responds to them. We asked the group a series of questions related to building design. This is the first entry in that series. How do we make sure today’s big picture thinking results […]

Concepts

Bipolar Ionization & COVID-19: Our Experts Weigh In

Bipolar Ionization has been claimed to potentially mitigate, or reduce, the spread of bacteria and viruses throughout a space. Bipolar Ionization works by introducing positive and negative ions into the air. The ionization causes production of clusters of hydroxyl (OH) radicals, which are formed on the surface of microbes, removing hydrogen from the microbes’ cell […]

Concepts

Expert Interview: The Role MEP Design Plays in Designing Equitable Spaces

We spoke to Mechanical Engineer Staci Atwater on how MEP engineers and architects can work together to create more equitable spaces for occupants. Staci is certified as a WELL Accredited Professional and Living Future Ambassador. She specializes in sustainable projects, such as net zero energy (NZE) buildings and projects pursuing LEED, WELL, or Living Building […]

Concepts

Fresh Air & Daylight: The Importance of Healthy Buildings in a Pandemic

Wellness may finally be having its day as a critical function of building design. Over the last decade, architects and engineers have been working to educate owners and developers on the wellness impacts of sustainable building design approaches in creating healthier and more productive lives for their occupants. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated that […]

Concepts

What Can We Learn from Going Back to Work in Glumac Shanghai Office?

Along with much of China, our Shanghai team has already begun returning to its office. It’s a high-performance space with some of the best air quality in the country. But during a pandemic, adjustments need to be made to maintain the health and safety of our staff. Life is different. The basic ways we navigate […]

Expertise

Collaborating from Home: The New Normal of Remote Work for the A/E/C Industry

The recent pandemic caused many businesses to scramble to find ways to maintain productivity as stay-at-home orders from local and state governments all but cut-off traditional office spaces. At Glumac, we were fortunate to have practices and tools already in place that have enabled us to work without the need for developing new or untested […]

Expertise

Glumac Design Trends Update: Strategies to Deliver a Low Carbon Future

 “Real change occurs from the bottom up; it occurs person to person, and almost always occurs in small groups and locales, then bubbles up to larger vectors of change.” – Paul Hawken The dynamics of the built environment are in constant flux – subject to the whims of emerging technologies, public health crises, and climate […]

Expertise

Great Projects

Trim Tab Magazine: How Net Zero Energy Electrified Learning at Creekside Community High School

The site of Creekside Community High School is less than a half-mile away from the Tigard High School in Tigard, Oregon. But the two facilities couldn’t be further apart. Creekside–the Tigard-Tualatin School District’s center for students requiring a non-traditional path toward completing their education–has long resided in an aging schoolhouse wedged just off the driveway […]

Expertise

4 Signs Your Building Commissioning Expert Will Get You the Most ‘Bang for Your Buck’

In the young history of building commissioning, we’ve already witnessed a surge of under-qualified firms that suffer from what I like to call the “I can figure that out” fallacy.   Yet, building commissioning is more than filling out and submitting paperwork to meet code requirements. It is a detailed process of analyzing complex building systems, ensuring they were installed correctly and […]

Expertise

How Ongoing Building Commissioning Could Benefit Your Manufacturing Operation

You may have had your building and manufacturing process undergo a thorough commissioning process when you designed and constructed your building. Good job!  You are certainly enjoying all the benefits of building commissioning year after year after year — or are you?  When you buy a new car and the service light comes on, you wouldn’t dare not bring the car […]

Expertise

Great Projects

Commissioning a Mega-Project: Seattle’s SR-99 Tunnel Replacement

Fire suppression system? Check Lane control signage? Check. Traffic detection? Check. From a deluge system capable of pouring as much as 17 inches of water per square foot, to the 300 cameras monitoring traffic, Seattle’s SR 99 tunnel might be one of the safest, most well-monitored spaces in the city. Traffic now passing below downtown […]

Expertise

Air-Flow Management MEP Engineering Strategies for Data Centers

Imagine a computer room or data center that was built before or shortly after the turn of the century, conceptualized without containment, and designed to a long-since abandoned practice of maintaining “meat-locker” conditions — a data center that never broke the barrier of 500 kW of IT load. Most facility managers, if they’ve been involved […]