A ceremony held today in Bay City celebrated the groundbreaking on a historic development project that will not only become the Department of Environmental Quality's new district office in Bay City, but will be state government's first Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Platinum Certified building. The building, located at 401 Ketchum Street, will return an abandoned brownfield site to productive use, while using innovative technologies to substantially reduce energy use and operating costs.

The building is being developed by Murray Wikol of Green LEEDership, who also partnered with the DEQ on the agency's district office in Warren which achieved LEED Silver Certification. That office has seen as much as a 39 percent decrease in natural gas consumption, 24 percent reduction in electrical use, and a nearly 500 percent decrease in water use when compared to similar office buildings. With the new Bay City office being two LEED ranks higher, the DEQ is confident that the new office will provide an even bigger cost savings.

"The DEQ is committed to being a leader in promoting environmentally sound business practices," said DEQ Director Steven E. Chester. "This project represents a tremendous partnership between the public and private sectors to demonstrate that we can achieve the highest level of environmental protections while at the same time saving money during challenging economic times."

The many environmentally friendly features of the building include a unique combination of solar and wind power generation systems for onsite energy production. This technique that uses solar panels and a wind turbine to complement each other is the first of its kind in Michigan and is expected to produce 20 percent of the facility's energy needs. The building will also feature skylights to reduce or often eliminate the need for electric lighting, a raised floor system to provide more efficient heating and cooling, and a surface water retention basin to capture rain and snow melt to reduce the load on the city's storm sewer system.

The DEQ will also be conducting an LED lighting test project in two identical rooms in the building. One room will be outfitted with LED lighting, the other with high-efficiency fluorescent lighting. The rooms will both feature real-time metering to display up to the minute utility usage to determine the cost savings from each energy efficient technology.

The Department of Labor and Economic Growth will utilize a portion of the building as well as part of an effort to consolidate state office space and further cut costs.

"The great partnership between DLEG and DEQ has allowed the state of Michigan to construct a "green" building good for the environment and energy efficient," said DLEG Director Keith W. Cooley. "We are looking forward to more collaborative efforts with DEQ."

The location of the site is a former industrial property that had been left vacant due to environmental concerns. Through remediation efforts and construction of the new office, the site will be restored and put back to productive use and will once again be an asset to Bay City. By constructing on a brownfield site, no undeveloped green-space will be disturbed in the process.

Editor's note: DEQ news releases are available on the department's Internet home page at www.michigan.gov/deq.

"Protecting Michigan's Environment, Ensuring Michigan's Future"

Revised June 20, 2008 by Pat Watson