Location
Raleigh, NC
Certification
LEED Silver
Program
LEED V4.1 O+M
Building Size
15,393 Sq. Ft.
01
Vision
As largely a personal and professional vision and priority for our company, we were able to purchase our first brick and mortar office in early 2018. Since then, we have greatly expanded our team and services with the new facility giving us space to connect and collaborate to reach these new heights. However, as building scientists and energy professionals, we’d be lying if we said we were completely satisfied with the state in which we purchased the building. So, thus began our journey in seeking solutions (a core value of ours) to find ways to improve it.
Focusing on a triple bottom line impact of people, planet and purpose, it is important to us to own a building which not only embodies our mission to change the way people make and use energy in the world, but also to improve our office space for team members and occupant wellbeing. LEED certification was certainly in the back of our minds from day one.
02
Challenges
As you may be aware, our humble beginnings trace back to the living room of our co-founders’, Bob and Maria Kingery’s home. Our team operates 100% in-house, embodying our do-it-yourself ethos and core values. And we certainly had this attitude when we purchased our office.
Photos from the early days of Southern Energy Management when meetings were held at Bob and Maria’s home.
Seeking Solutions
Built in the 1980s, this facility had seen very little in the way of upfits, be it functional or cosmetic. There were heating and cooling systems on their last leg, the envelope needed better air sealing, and there was, of course, no renewable energy on site to offset our energy use.
In early 2021, when our co-founder and CEO, Bob Kingery decided we should pursue LEED Certification, our own Multifamily and Commercial Team were clearly the folks to help see this through. Placing the project within a LEED certification pathway was relatively easy: the V4.1 O+M system was the obvious choice. However, getting an old, relatively inefficient building into compliance with the stringent, cutting-edge requirements of the LEED program comes with it’s own challenges. So, we started getting to work.
03
Solutions
Solar Power
In the summer of 2020, we jumped into action with improving our office building. We installed a 52.2 kW PV system on our roof. This usually more than offsets our uses, and any extra that we are able to produce is fed back into the local grid. In 2022, we were able to offset 83% of our energy usage with solar and in 2023, we offset a whopping 88.6%.
Facility Upgrades
We also installed several brand new, high efficiency heat pumps in several zones in the building to increase our efficiency and heating and cooling loads. Programmable thermostats were installed to optimize the conditioning schedules in the building and create more synergies between zones. Low flow and waterless fixtures were installed to lessen our water uses.
A waterless urinal was installed to reduce our water consumption.
As LEED requires stringent indoor air quality (IAQ) levels in all regularly occupied spaces, we removed many formaldehyde containing furniture and installed a sophisticated series of dedicated outdoor air systems (DOAS) in each conditioning zone in order to ensure that there is adequate ventilation and fresh air for the building and its occupants at maximum occupancy. Waste and water tracking also became paramount, and we began to tighten up on those aspects of the building for reporting to LEED. We even began to track our composting material that left the office each month.
04
Results
After over a year of preparation and hard work from our team working to implement more efficient and sustainable features to our building, we received the honor of LEED Silver Certification for our headquarters on Triangle Drive in Raleigh!
Overcoming Obstacles
There was no shortage of obstacles, but with the help of a team dedicated to seeking solutions and implementing strategies with thoughtfulness, we were able to see this goal to fruition. We were awarded a handsome 55 points on the LEED scoring scale.
While we are relishing this team-wide win, we are also looking forward to continuing to improve the way we produce and use our energy onsite at Southern Energy Management. We will be up for LEED Recertification in 3 years, and look forward to improving our score in the meantime.
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About Us
North Carolina’s solar power and building performance expert. Founded in 2001, we’ve worked for 20+ years to improve the way people make and use energy.
