The Northwest Service Center is a new vehicle maintenance center for the City of Dallas. Situated on a 17 acre Brownfield site, construction began April 2005, and is slated for completion Spring 2006. The Northwest Service Center has the goal of achieving LEED silver status.

The 3 R’s - Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle are familiar words to most. But how many can actually put that to use on a construction site? Recent concerns with local environmental impacts have prompted the City of Dallas to re- evaluate how it performs construction. Currently under construction with Mitchell Enterprises, the new Northwest Service Center seeks to demonstrate how facilities can be constructed environmentally friendly.

While sustainable design is not new to the design and engineering industry, it is still a fairly new concept to most Contractors. In response to the many new challenges being faced in the field and dealing with the LEED rating system for the first time, Mitchell Enterprises made the decision staff the job-site with a full time LEED Accredited Professional. This LEED AP would focus on educating the sub- contractors, foremen, and laborers in addition to tracking the submittals required by LEED.

Rachael Green was brought on board to fill this role. As new sub-contractors are brought on site, she sits down and discusses the Construction Waste Management Plan (CWMP) and how it will affect them specifically. She also monitors the sub-contractors for the first couple weeks, and ensures that they are up to date and following proper procedures.

“Educating the sub-contractors has been the most difficult task yet,” stated Rachael. “The most difficult part has been convincing everyone that this has to be done. Coming from the design community, I didn’t realize that not all workers understand the difference between steel, aluminum, tin, and cast. Once this was brought to my attention, we were better able to focus on what needed to be accomplished in the field in order to make this a success.”

Most of the workers quickly adjusted to proper disposal of personal trash generated including soda containers, lunch waste, packaging, shipping and excess building materials. However, separation of construction related materials has proved a daunting task. “On most construction sites, you have one or two bins in which to dispose of construction waste. Normal procedure is to put all the waste in a pile, get a tractor, scoop it up (along with anything else that happens to be in the way), and then throw it all into a dumpster and haul it off. Out here you can’t do that!”

Most of the workers quickly adjusted to proper disposal of personal trash generated including soda containers, lunch waste, packaging, shipping and excess building materials. However, separation of construction related materials has proved a daunting task. “On most construction sites, you have one or two bins in which to dispose of construction waste. Normal procedure is to put all the waste in a pile, get a tractor, scoop it up (along with anything else that happens to be in the way), and then throw it all into a dumpster and haul it off. Out here you can’t do that!”

One of the most intense tasks Rachael has been involved with has been tracking the wastes as they leave site. With over 11,000 tons of asphalt and soils being recycled, to date, keeping up with the trucks coming and going can be difficult. “The subcontractors involved have helped a great deal. They have been ahead of the game since they recycle on most of their jobs.” One of the subs stated that “Recycling is not new to us; all the concrete and asphalt that we deal with is always recycled, so it is standard procedure.” The excavation crews made sure that all the weight tickets had been collected in order to calculate the actual amounts of materials leaving the site and their destination. Other items were also able to be salvaged, such as light poles. “A local church is converting these into flagpoles to be used as part of a war memorial, with the remainders being donated for reuse. Excavated soils were donated to a local oil company and are being used to convert an existing parking lot into landscaping while excess concrete and large rocks were donated to another site to be reused for flood control.”

“Locating recycling facilities has not been difficult. Keeping the materials from being thrown into the trash has. A daily dumpster check is done to verify that the materials are being thrown into the proper recycle bins. This has lead to a few individuals learning what the true meaning of “Dumpster Diving” really is! The subs have learned that we are monitoring this daily – and it’s made a difference. Communication and education are essential for completing the project on time, in budget and within the LEED guidelines.”

Rachael Green, LEED AP, is a licensed interior designer with 13 years of design and construction experience, the last five of which have involved sustainable design. In addition to being a member of the USGBC North Texas Chapter, Rachael has also provided local training on the LEED rating system. For additional information regarding this article, please contact Rachael Green at rgreen-nwsc@sbcglobal.net. All comments are the sole responsibility of the writer.

This article was originally posted 8/9/05.