Summary: Turner Construction launched a multi-faceted effort three years ago to green their own offices and bring sustainable practices to their clients’ projects. The ambitious plan called for an internal green policy that required all new Turner officers to be LEED® Commercial Interiors-certified or greater; more green features on client projects with an increase in the number of LEED Accredited Professionals on staff; and the implementation of a recycling program for construction waste on Turner job sites. The company also set their sites on educating students, young professionals, clients, staff, and outside users. Since making these commitments and others in 2004, the company has achieved and exceeded its goals.

The number of green projects Turner has completed or has under construction more than doubled from 85 to 195 by 2006, a 129-percent increase. The list of LEED-certified projects has grown to 34, and the number of LEED-registered projects currently stands at 65. These projects total more than 50 million square feet and are valued at over $12 billion. To keep up with the expanding projects, Turner’s 2004 aim to double the 42 LEED APs on staff in one year resulted in more than double that number in 2005; now there are 250 on staff. The Construction Waste Management Program has successfully diverted more than 83,000 tons of debris over the last two years. To continue the progress, Turner established a goal to divert more than 75,000 tons in 2007 alone.

On the education front, in collaboration with U.S. Green Buildings Council, the Emerging Green Builders program has made tremendous progress, with groups forming across the country with financial support from Turner. In addition, a three-hour online training course, “The Essentials of LEED,” educates users on how to facilitate a Green building project and prepare anyone taking the LEED AP exam.

Turner also assembled a Green Advisory Board, another of its goals, with outside advisors meeting several times a year to keep Turner abreast of new green-building strategies and offer employees access to best practices and other information through the company intranet. In addition, every office is staffed with a green operation manager and green champions. To encapsulate the requirements and information, the company developed an operations manual along with a green field checklist to guide staff and all subcontractors through Turner’s green building strategies.

Cost versus benefit
The impetus for the changes was to improve Turner’s overall ability to sell work and offer green services to clients, says Rod Wille, senior vice president, Sustainable Practices, Turner. Sales of green projects have risen significantly over the past three years, Wille notes, and the company wanted their efforts to differentiate them from other companies.

Before they jumped in with both feet, in early 2003 Turner spoke to clients, architects, and other stakeholders to assess the future of green design. “It became clear to me that green design was not the exception. Clients were clearly practicing it, and it was the future of design in the U.S.,” Wille says.

Turner has commissioned studies to gather data and distinguish reality from perception. A survey of 700 real estate executives revealed that the majority of respondents recognized the benefits of green building but perceived higher first costs, which became obstacles to pursuing sustainable practices. Wille says that the real cost differential is little or negligible, with cost savings over time. With these figures and this ammunition in hand, educating the clients, staff, and became a priority.

Integrated process
Wille says he finds that the more they practice green construction and the more they understand about integrating it into construction, the lower the costs become. The company maintains an intranet portal where they share best practices, lessons learned, and cost-data analysis.

Wille stressed that a key to a successful sustainable process is having all the stakeholders at the table participating in an integrated design process. He says building information modeling offers an even greater potential to advance sustainable construction.

Green the future
Turner is seeking additional ways to improve sustainability initiatives:

• Require a LEED-accredited professional to be assigned to every Turner Green project
• Require Turner’s subcontractors to be familiar with the LEED rating system
• Require future Turner offices to be LEED certified
• Measure and reduce its carbon footprint.

Turner is also offering its support to the AIA 2030 Challenge, which aims to reduce energy use in new buildings by 50 percent by 2010, leading to a goal of a carbon-neutral building by the year 2030, and to the Clinton Climate Initiative Large Cities Partnership. Working with the USGBC, Turner will assist with the development and implementation of a plan to reduce greenhouse gases and increase energy efficiency in five U.S. cities.

—Tracy Ostroff