green practices

Going Green: You can start by Turning Off the Lights

Optometrists around the country are discovering the tangible and intangible benefits of going green.

RICHARD MARK KIRKNER
Phoenixville, Pa.

Wal-Mart demands it of its suppliers. DuPont and Owens Corning regularly set aside capital expenditures to do it. Even in challenging economic times, Clorox, Hilton Hotels, Heinz and Coca-Cola announced plans to continue it. And today, a host of optometrists around the country are embracing it: a “green” strategy for their practices. These O.D.s are not only addressing environmental and social concerns — they're generating savings that ultimately impact their practices' bottom lines.

For William Wong, O.D., minimizing the carbon footprint means going beyond recycling paper and turning off the re-stroom light. The new office he and partner Douglas Leo, O.D., expect to complete this spring, the Fontana Optometric Group in the southern California town of the same name, uses natural light wherever possible, has solar panels for electricity, and extra insulation and radiant heat wrap to minimize the drain on heating and cooling systems.

Recent studies by both New Buildings Institute (NBI) and the CoStar Group, a commercial real estate information company, conclude that “green” buildings are not only effective in reducing energy costs, but also increase property values. But you don't have to build a new structure or spend a fortune in renovations to realize savings from implementing earth-friendly principles in your practice. Some cost virtually nothing, such as the insulated totes with the practice's logo that optometrists Shawn and Cathy Doty and Mark Leary in New Bern, N.C., gave their staff to encourage them to bring their lunches to work and drive less. Some cost a little more up front but provide big savings in their use, such as the LED (light-emitting diode) lights Todd Wylie, O.D., put in his Spokane, Wash., office.

Ceiling fans, skylights and large windows, window screens and blinds, reflective roofing, extra insulation, motion sensors, dimmer switches, heat pumps, LED lights, solar panels and even storm water recycling rain gardens are some of the sustainable practices popping up in O.D.s' offices.

These sustainable building practices range in cost from a couple hundred dollars to over $100,000, and in complexity from simple to sophisticated. Even the smallest steps, such as e-mailing recalls, reminders and follow-up documents, can reduce energy, paper use and costs. This article looks at a host of eco-friendly ideas optometrists have adopted.

Sustainability as an industry

An entire industry has grown up around building more cost-efficient and energy-saving buildings. A LEED-certified building, for example, is one that meets specific benchmarks for energy use and sustainability as determined by the U.S. Green Building Council. (LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.) In the NBI study, LEED-certified buildings had a median energy-use intensity 24% below (or better than) conventional buildings.

As president of Sustainable Solutions Corporation in Royersford, Pa., Tad Radzinski, a mechanical engineer and LEED project advisor, has advised veterinarians and optometrists on sustainability. “We talk a lot about energy efficiency because that has the most value as far as saving money,” he says. “Lighting is really important to look at, and so is heating and cooling the building. If we could make a pie chart of how we consume electricity in an office, the biggest chunk of the pie would be the heating and cooling; lighting would be second, and computers and plug loads would be third.”

Saving energy doesn't take an expert like Mr. Radzinski to come into your practice. Some solutions are as close as a light switch. “Off is really one of the best energy efficiency measures we can use,” he says.

Sustainability goes beyond power and plugs, however. “Anytime you're in a building that has a “new carpet smell,” that's really not a good thing, because you're breathing the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that are coming off the carpet,” Mr. Radzinski says. (VOCs are chemicals that enter the air as gases from other solids or liquids, such as paints, solvents, furniture, adhesives and carpeting.) The Environmental Protection Agency notes that VOC's health effects vary greatly, “from those that are highly toxic, to those with no known health effect.” VOCs may cause eye and respiratory tract irritation, headaches, dizziness, visual disorders, and memory impairment.

Tad Radzinski, a mechanical engineer and green building consultant, advises, “Off is really one of the best energy efficiency measures we can use.” (Photo courtesy Sustainable Solutions Corporation)

So the carpet and flooring industry has embraced low-VOC floor coverings that are recyclable, thus averting a trip to the landfill. Low-VOC paints are becoming more common, and ceiling tile manufacturers are starting to use recycled content and renewable resources.

Efficient lighting fixtures

Optometrist Tressa Malikkal sought Mr. Radzinski's expertise while planning her new office, which is just across the street from her existing strip center space in southeastern Pennsylvania. She expects to open the new office in the second quarter of 2010. Her husband, Jacob, a civil engineer with an MBA, is the project manager. He has devoted as much attention to the interior lighting as to the solar panels and the on-site storm water management system.

He chose Eco-Lights, a low-wattage type of lighting made from recycled materials, ecologically harvested timber and other earth-friendly ingredients, as the company says. “The additional cost per fixture is not exorbitant,” Mr. Malikkal says. “It's about 10% to 20% more than traditional fixtures. It is manageable.” He also plans to use motion sensors in restrooms and other lightly used areas. The Malikkals expect to recover these lighting costs in 5 to 10 years.

Lighting is important for another reason: it can warm a room and drive up temperatures in the summer. “Up to 40% of the heat generated within commercial office space can be attributed to lighting,” says optical office designer Barbara Wright of Barbara Wright Design, Portland, Ore. So she recommended LED lights to Dr. Wylie when he planned his new office in Spokane, Wash.

Dr. Wylie has found an added benefit of using LED lighting, which runs on direct current, instead of fluorescent lighting, which runs on alternating current. He provides vision therapy for head trauma patients. “A very common visual symptom of patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) is that they are bothered by fluorescent lighting,” he says. “As I see a good number of these patients in the office I do not want to be causing them additional eyestrain while they are in my office.” Additionally, unlike fluorescent lights, LED lights do not contain mercury. When fluorescent lights are not disposed of properly, the mercury in the lights becomes an environmental contaminant that has been linked to kidney failure and brain damage.

That doesn't mean you should discount fluorescent lights altogether. Ms. Wright notes that newer designs are dimmable, which improves their utility in the examination room. “I've been in this business for 25 years, and for many years we had to put incandescent lights plus fluorescent lights and extra switches in examination rooms, but this year, they finally got the technology right,” she explains. Compact fluorescents can even fit into the recessed circular ceiling fixtures characteristic of incandescent lights. “The lighting technology in the last year or so has made great leaps and bounds,” she adds. (For a breakdown of the costs and potential savings associated with lighting, see “Will Going Green Actually Save You the ‘Green,’ ” below.)

Light: the old-fashioned way

Of course, the most eco-friendly lighting is the kind that's free, and optometrists are employing numerous tricks to let the sun shine in. In his new building, Dr. Wong is using the Light Pipe, a reflective stovepipelike skylight. Dr. Malikkal's building design includes large windows throughout. “Our goal was to have a lot of natural lighting, not only to help light the eyewear, but also to create a better environment for our employees,” Mr. Malikkal says. “A lot more natural light coming in keeps everyone a lot happier.”

Ms. Wright advises her clients to install double switching, which turns on only half the lights in an area. “If the natural light is strong, then you don't need a full complement of general lighting, and many building codes require double switching,” she says.

In Dr. Wylie's Spokane practice, Ms. Wright recycled the glass panels left behind from the bank that occupied the building previously. “We put them on an interior wall right next to an exterior room that had daylight coming in,” she says.

The second floor waiting area in Dr. Todd Wylie's practice uses glass panels recycled from the bank that had been in the space to let in natural light from an adjoining space with exterior windows. (Photo courtesy Barbara Wright Designs)

Window blinds help control the light in optometrist Pam Miller's Highland, Calif., office. “We have blinds on all our windows, similar to plantation blinds, so if we need more light in our office, we open them,” she says. The office is also painted in what she describes as “happy colors.” The reception area is yellow, which reflects light, and the examination rooms are orange.

In fact, painting is an economical way to dramatically update and brighten an office, advises Ms. Wright. And, to keep it green, low-VOC paints are widely available from the likes of Sherwin-Williams and Lowe's at prices ranging from $40 to $55 a gallon, according to www.consumersearch.com.

Keeping it cool or warm

Besides harnessing the sun's rays for lighting, you can take other creative steps to manage sunlight and minimize heating and cooling costs. You don't have to have a new office to do this, either. Dr. Miller's practice is in a converted 2-story Victorian-era house, but that hasn't stopped her from using sustainable principles to slash her energy bills. Nor have the 105° summertime temperatures dissuaded her from thinking of ways to not turn on the air conditioning.

“We use ceiling fans throughout the office, and that's particularly important in the summer,” she says. “During the summer-time here, we basically turn our lights off — probably 80% of them go off in our reception and front office area — and everything is open in our office. Just that factor alone decreases the temperature by about 10 degrees.” Open windows and security doors with screens allow for a cross breeze, and Dr. Miller is investigating installing a whole-house fan in the office attic.

“It's like a big suction fan,” she explains. “For example, if you have one or two doors open downstairs and you flip the fan switch, it will draw all the outside air in through office, so you can either cool or heat your office or home substantially.” If the air conditioning has been turned off over the weekend or overnight, a whole-house fan can significantly reduce the power the air conditioning draws to cool the building, Dr. Miller says.

The Malikkals are looking forward to a more energy-efficient heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) system in their new building, and no longer paying to run the outdated, expensive equipment in the existing office. “As a tenant, even though you're responsible for heating and cooling costs, you're not going to spend $10,000 to install new equipment that you can't take with you, so you deal with it,” Mr. Malikkal says. Another factor that increases their energy costs in the existing space, which is about 15 years old, is the “leakage” through the windows, adds Dr. Malikkal.

Sealing that “leakage” is critical to reducing energy costs. “Insulate like crazy,” Dr. Wylie says. “Shoot for around R-100 in the attic.” The R-value measures thermal resistance for insulation. The higher the R-value, the greater the thermal resistance. By comparison, the U.S. Department of Energy recommends an R-Value of 49 for insulation in a residential attic. Mr. Radzinski advises a minimum R-value of 38 in commercial buildings.

“If you do your windows and insulation right, then your heating and cooling equipment can get smaller,” Mr. Radzinski says. For energy efficiency, the roof is critically important, because heat rises. He advises clients to use “white” roofs, which reflect heat and reduce a building's cooling load. A dark roof can easily reach 140° F on a summer day in the Northeast. “Instead of a temperature differential of, say, 140° and 74°, you'll go down to a little above ambient and 74°,” he explains.

To allow for thicker insulation, Dr. Wong is having his new office built with 2x6 studs instead of the typical 2x4s, but he's not stopping there. The plywood on the roof will have radiant insulation on one side to reflect heat. Dr. Wong has already used radiant insulation on the roof of his home workshop and claims it reduces the building temperature 25 degrees on a hot day. “My workshop went from unbearably hot in the summer months to comfortable until 3:00 or 4:00 in the afternoon,” he says. In cold months, the reflective barrier also saves on heating.

Going solar

In California, where Dr. Wong's office is located, and in Pennsylvania, where Dr. Malikkal is building her new office, incentive programs encourage the use of alternative energy sources.

“Most cities have taken the good-citizen approach and are waiving inspection fees and engineering inspections for solar systems,” Dr. Wong says. “Cities are counting on the installers to do the engineering because their own staffs cannot do that yet.”

Also, solar and wind turbines are subject to federal rules on net metering. That means electric utilities must buy back any excess power a customer's system generates, according to the Energy Policy Act of 2005.

Mr. Malikkal estimates the energy generated by solar panels will cover the cost of lighting the first floor of the new 2-story building. Thanks to tax credits and subsidies, he also expects the net cost of the solar panels will be about 40% to 50% less than the actual cost.

Installing solar panels is not necessarily a slam dunk. Dr. Wong's project requires specialized engineering because the roof panels have to withstand the Santa Ana winds. Mr. Malikkal says installing solar panels has to be one of the last things done in finishing the building.

Don't forget the fixtures

You may not think much about the carbon footprint that your furniture, cases and cabinets leave, but Ms. Wright says these deserve a close look for a couple of reasons. “The furniture and fixture manufacturing companies have the hardest time trying to get low VOCs into their products, because they have to use so many glues and lacquers to maintain the integrity of the products,” she says. “They have to use glue that will hold the furniture together.”

That said, Mr. Radzinski works at a desk made with low-VOC compressed wood. He acknowledges that particle board and wood composite is used “everywhere“ in all types of furniture. He also has found a source that recycles and reconditions old office furniture for a fraction of the cost of new furniture. Such reconditioning companies sell their goods on the Internet.

This is where quality craftsmanship can be better for the environment. “Something everyone can do is invest in really good design in the first place, then you don't have to throw out cabinets or fixtures after 5 or 6 years because they look dated,” Ms. Wright says. “A more timeless design that can withstand years of use and still look good is probably one of the most eco-friendly things you can do for your practice.”

Recycling is a mantra that's inspiring more office designers, as well. “When we work with clients, we try to recycle whatever we can,” Ms. Wright says. “If their display items still look good, I don't want to discard those items. I want to keep whatever I can.”

Jacob Malikkal, MBA, and Tressa Malikkal, O.D., with a rendering of the green building they plan to open in 2010. The mansard roof actually hides solar panels from street view to fit in with the character of other Main Street buildings. (Rendering courtesy Jacob Malikkal, MBA; photo by Richard Mark Kirkner)

The next level

The Malikkals' project involves demolishing an existing house, and their goal is to preserve as many trees on the property as possible. In fact, they've paid into an escrow account for the town's open space fund that obligates them to make a contribution for each tree that's removed.

Meanwhile, Mr. Malikkal has designed a storm water management system for the new office that will retain all rainwater on site, thus avoiding the town's storm sewer system. “We're using an underground storage retention basin under the parking lot,” he says. “As it overflows, it will discharge into a rain garden that retains water because of the types of plantings in it and also removes impurities before it percolates into the ground.” Once the building is open, the Malikkals may consider using rain barrels to catch water from the downspouts.

For the Malikkals and others, the desire to adopt new sustainable principles won't stop just because the building is finished. OM