Page 048 - team must overcome.
Source section: Section 3 - Sustainable Thinking at Work - New Processes for Building Green PDF page: 48 Guide page: 41 OCR quality: high (432 words)
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Once the goals have been established, they need to be listed and described in a written report. Identifying
a project team member as the “goal keeper” ensures that all subsequent work can be related to the goals.
Different goals may require different champions, depending on the complexity of the project. For example,
the role of the commissioning agent is to ensure that goals are articulated by the owner, understood by the
design team, incorporated into the design, and then achieved during construction. Thus the commissioning
agent is well positioned to follow the progress of the project in relation to established goals. Not every project
has a commissioning agent, but that role can be played by other members of the team.
Getting to know the site is part of the needs assessment and evaluation process. This will help during the
team’s big-picture discussions of how to turn the goals into a concrete action plan. Design-build projects
that can choose a site will benefit from setting goals before selecting a location for the project, thereby
ensuring that the location contributes to the overall project plan rather than presenting challenges that the
team must overcome.
The most obvious way to learn about a place is to spend time there, preferably at different times of day
and in different seasons. By observing the place, people, wildlife, plants, and weather, team members can
understand the patterns that make the place unique. Before they can do that effectively, from a sustainability
perspective, they need to understand what is. This applies to existing buildings as well. The building
ownership and management structure, use and users, and relationship to the community need to be taken
into account. For instance, if the building has 32 tenants, installation of submeters in all data centers will have
different implications than if it were a single-tenant facility. By studying the site, the team, with help from the
facilitator, can ensure the project’s connection to the neighborhood.
Meaningful data gathering and interpretation often require the expertise of technical specialists, such as
hydrologists, ecologists, engineers, economists, and anthropologists. There are many tools that can support
this effort, such as systematic data collection and analysis and mapping. For existing buildings, information
may be obtained through occupant surveys, building walkthroughs, and audits.
Geographical information systems (GIS) can help illustrate how different elements intersect and overlap.
Map layers might show soils, infrastructure, shade, wind patterns, species distribution, land uses,
demographics, roads and transit routes, traffic patterns, walkways and barriers, material flows, and solid
waste pathways. Maps can also display growth projections, targeted development areas, and other indicators
of how the site is likely to change over time. » z 2 o Ww un 41