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Going Green : Black Hawk Bank in Rockford

Posted May 29 , 2009

Green and Lean: Why Prefabrication Makes Sense

Posted January 13 , 2009

Today’s emphasis on Green and sustainable solutions has led PG Architecture Design/Build to adopt a pre-fabricated approach to some of its branch bank projects. Pre-fabrication of building components (manufactured indoors in a controlled environment) is naturally Green. Looking at USGBC LEED credit outline, one can see that the prefabrication process can contribute to nearly enough points for the lowest level of certiﬁcation. Below are some examples of the LEED credit requirements that may be positively inﬂuenced by utilizing prefabrication.

Sustainable Site: Pre-fab construction is generally less destructive to the site and requires smaller staging areas. Energy and Atmosphere: Greater quality control in prefabrication of components creates better joints and thus a tighter, more energy efﬁcient building envelope. Materials and Resources: Pre-fabrication creates less waste on the jobsite and factory waste is reused or recycled. Also, prefabricated panels processed and assembled regionally (within 500 miles of the jobsite) may contribute to LEED credits. Indoor Environmental Quality: Prefabrication can aid in maintaining high indoor air quality during construction by reducing the amount of material being worked on site thereby reducing the airborne particles introduced into the air. Prefabrication also encloses the interior much faster than traditional construction, signiﬁcantly reducing the time that materials, ﬁnishes and products are exposed to damaging environmental conditions (i.e. rain, snow, UV rays, etc.) This contributes to LEED credits.

Although prefabrication alone does not automatically yield a “Green” building, it can contribute to 20 points toward the minimum requirement of 26 LEED points for certiﬁcation. PG’s prefabricated solution, PG preFAB, offers banks a wide variety of building sizes, design details and ﬁnish materials. With an in-house, LEED Accredited Professional/ architectural staff, PG has been able to design state-of-the-art branch facilities that incorporate Lean Design principles along with Green concepts. Prefabrication also allows for a quicker construction time and costs approximately 20 - 30% less than a traditional stick-built facility. Prefabricated branch facilities can certainly make bottom line sense for healthcare and ﬁnancial organizations expanding into new market areas. They are “Lean” and “Green” and offer the opportunity for banks to communicate their commitment to assisting their community by growing “GREEN.”

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