Technology Enterprise Park Sustainability Case Study

Joseph Sorbet, Collaborative Real Estate

Technology Enterprise Park is a 134,000 sf multi-tenant commercial chemical and medical research laboratory building, housing higher education research initiatives alongside several private biomedical companies. Delivered in 2007, Collaborative commenced management of the facility in July 2015 and quickly implemented a rigorous sustainability initiative via a building efficiency optimization program, due to the facility continuously suffering regular critical systems failures and high utility costs.

Noteworthy highlights include:

  • Implemented Collaborative's best practices for maintenance management to include the cleaning of all air and water side heat exchangers, calibration of building controls and sensors, replacement of failed actuators, and continuous commissioning of mechanical, plumbing, and electrical systems.
  • Performed recommissioning, including the heating hot water loop, boilers, chiller plant, air handlers, and exhaust fan systems.
  • Thoroughly evaluated and returned each critical system to robust operational status.
  • Reduced Site EUI by 34 percent compared to 2015 baseline year.
  • Decreased the total greenhouse gas emissions intensity by 24.3 percent.
  • Reduced water use by 10 percent via condensation collection and reuse (800,000 gallons/year) and by repairing cooling tower leaks and raising the cycles of concentration in the condenser water loop reducing cooling tower blowdown.

Learning Objectives

  • Understand the value of effective maintenance management;
  • Understand the value of benchmarking and ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager;
  • Learn how we prioritized projects; and
  • Learn how we gained ownership "buy in" of our processes.

Biography:

Joe Sorbet has been in the business of heat exchange since 1977. He served in the U.S. Navy as a boiler tech, spent 15 years at the Atlanta airport, and 25 years in property management. His commercial real estate management experience includes Class A office, student housing, and laboratories. He now has 300,000/sf of laboratories in his portfolio.

 

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