ukn4990's blog

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After our TI tour on Tuesday, I enjoyed visiting Frito Lay, in Plano TX. George Guck the Director of Facility Operations was kind enough to meet with us so late in the day. George has The building being 25 years old became LEED gold certified in 2009, which in my opinion is a major accomplishment considering it was such an old building. Their primary goal at the facility is to try their best to keep the cost of chips low! They do this by using solar power, recycling heat, and light harvesting. Which according to their energy bills are definitely helping the company save money. I really liked how he talked about the Culinary Lab and how efficient they are in their use of energy. I found the automatic doors going into the restroom to be interesting.  

I think they are doing a good job of keeping the employees happy, by offering extended cafeteria hours. I like how they are constantly looking at ways to improve their system. I would really like to work at this facility.

Picture from www.examiner.com/plano

On Tuesday we had the pleasure to visit Texas Insturments fabrication plant in Richardson, TX. This facility is the first in the semiconductor industry to achieve LEED Gold Certification. Pablo Ruiz the Facilities Manager and Paul Westbrook the Sustainability Development Manager provided us with a lot of information regarding the plant. This plant function is to produce semiconductor chips. We had the opportunity to view a detailed PowerPoint presentation which outlined what all the company does and the sustainable measures the company takes.

 This building has a rain collection pond, white roof, automatic faucets with rechargeable batteries, the plants and trees are native to the area so they try to irrigate with their own water. According to Pablo, they have 95% recycling rate.

TI is committed to sustainability. They try to be sustainable both in the workplace and at home. They offer vanpools, and are really close to the Dart buses lines. Overall this was an interesting tour I really liked their mini tour. I found the machines to be really cool and interesting.

I would like to work for this company, because they are a sustainable company and I think they are doing the right thing both for the company and the economy.

Picture taken from http://www.brwarch.com/portfolio/large/70_Detail%201.jpg

The Trinity River Audubon Center was by far my favorite tour during this class On Saturday, January, 8, 2011 we were allowed to tour the facility with the Education Manager, Zeshan Segal who was kind enough to answer all our questions and concerns. This facility is the first to be Gold LEED-certified in the city of Dallas. I thought it was really cool how they used recycled denim jeans for the insulation. The bamboo flooring, the beams in the building are all recycled steel, and various woods were used for building construction. I particularly liked the roof and how they are trying to grow vegetation on the roof. I really like how LEED requires all the materials to come within 500 miles from the site location.

We were afforded the opportunity to tour the whole facility and take a hike. The park has tons of different walking trails to the Trinity River, which we did take one of them and were able to see all the different trees ponds and animals living at the center. I particularly liked how low cost it is to take a tour their only $6.00 for adults. I also like the fact that they have educational tours to try to help educate young children.

Jackson Murphy the Sustainability Econometrics Specialist for Huitt-Zollars allowed the class to tour their Dallas office .  The building achieved LEED Gold Status and is trying to get Platinum certification. Mr. Murphy is very knowledgeable in sustainability and in LEED. He currently has 227 LEED projects in progress and 12 years experience throughout the country.

The building was very unique and sustainable. I am surprised that the 19 story building is only 30% occupied. Some interesting points that help make this building sustainable are low VOC paints and concelants, Energy Star appliances, and  recycled glass. I thought it was very intresting that you can live and work in the same building.

Steve Chaney from the A & M Texas AgriLife Extension Service came to speak with us about water conservation. The biggest issue he discussed was waste of the water and contamination. His main point was that we are going to run out of water if we do not control our use of water.His basic points from his PowerPoint were make sure you have adequate planning and design. If you are a homeowner do a soil analysis and prepare the soil, good soil and selecting plants native to your area helps maintain balance in your yard. 

Follow all the watering restrictions. Install sensors to detect rain and freeze, audit your sprinkler system to avoid runoff.  Try practices like rain water harvesting and rain gardens as a way to reduce water consumption.

I really do think I would do a soil test, I do feel I learned allot from his discussion. I never knew you could get free mulch from the city. In the future, I would like to implement the rain and freeze sensors in my own yard.

In summary, he was telling the classes try anything and everything to save water to avoid running out!

Picture from http://www.texasphotoforum.com/forum/infrared/88664-trinity-river-campus-tcc.html 

The Trinity River Campus is now the largest TCCD campus and also is a LEED certified building. Greg McCaffery and Robert Yates conducted our tour. They gave us a full tour of the whole building and talked about all the sustainable features of the building.

Some notable differences are the 12-inch deep air conditioning filters that are 80-85% more efficient. There are three Caterpillar electrical generators running at all times. We were fortunate enough to be able to view all the equipment. The stairways are isolated and pressurized in case of fire, and of course they are handicap accessible. The campus has an impressive 5 chillers and room for a sixth in case of expansion.

In the classrooms, there are air vents in the floor to release the pressure. The air throughout the facility is re-circulated through the air handler. One unique feature that I liked in the classrooms was the carpet and how all the data cables were stored under the carpet. The carpet is able to be lifted up one square at a time.

Overall I was very impressed with the facility and think that in the future other Universities will follow from what TCC has done here. I truly am amazed at what TCC has done here. In my opinion, this campus is substantially nicer than most other universities in the area.

We had the pleasure of touring 2321 Ryan Avenue which is located in Fairmount historic district. This home was built from the ground up. It is in fact another Ferrier home. This home is owned by Phil Newburn an architect with Dobbins  Crow. Who worked together with Ferrier Companies to build the home.

Unlike the other homes toured, this home is a LEED Platinum certified home. They chose to build their home with a more urban approach. There were many windows which allowed natural sunlight to come in. Standard green practices were done on  this home such as dual flush toilets, tankless water heater, low flow shower heads. One striking difference was the gas buring stove.

I really liked this home. I especially liked how the homeowner only pays on average $150.00 per a month in electricity, which in my opinion means that all these green practices pay for themselves.

I liked how in this home they had a decent size back yard. I appreciated the architecture that went into making this home. One thing I did not like is the green door I thought it really stood out in respect to the neighborhood. I would like to commend the homeowner on their smart use of space. The home did truly feel open and welcoming.

Picture taken from http://www.ferriercustomhomes.com/services/remodeling/projects/HH2/tour/

This home is located in Fort Worth, TX and is owned by Heather Ferrier. This home was built in 1938, and before Heather bought it was extremely distressed.

As a result, she was able to buy the home for a great price of $77,000 after the home had been vacant for several years. Because of the historical area, Heather decided rather than to tear down the house to use the existing structure as she felt the home had good bones.

What elements make this home sustainable? 

One major component is spraying the attic with foam. She decided to go with vinyl windows that are energy efficient. Installed a tank less hot water heater. The ceilings were blown with spray foam insulation this helps reduce A/C and heat use. They also used a roof made of asphalt which reduced the insurance bills.

I personally liked this home and thought they did a great job in preserving the home. I do not think the home blends in well with the area.

Jim Johnson is the director of development for Downtown Fort Worth Inc. His main point of the lecture was to discuss public policies that can enhance and encourage sustainability.

He spent his times discussing the sustainability initiatives that are being looked at. Things such as where parking meters should be placed and how wide streets should be are being examined with respect to the Master Plan. One of the major concerns is zoning.

The only really interesting thing I got out of the lecture was that the City of Fort Worth is auctioning off properties started $50.00.

Overall I did not really learn much from this speaker. I feel like his speech was too long and not very beneficial for me. I would recommend that he reformat his speech. I lost interest in the presentation as the time went on.

We had the pleasure of having Jerry Burbridge who currently works for Homeland Security come speak with us at our Fort Worth Campus. Jerry has several years’ of experience in real estate currently he builds green buildings from the ground up. Jerry briefly discussed the difference between market study and marketability study. A market study is basically just looking at demographics to determine who will buy or use a certain property while the marketability study will predict how a property will fair in the market place. Most of the lecture was spent primarily talking about inspecting buildings.  Although he briefly did mention Homeland Security Projects. There are basically six steps when inspecting a building regardless of size. 

The Six Important Steps: 

Outside
1. Look up
2. Look down
3. Look at all four sides 

Inside:
1. Up
2. Down
3. All sides 

What are the main learning points from this lecture? 

1. Follow the six steps when inspecting a building 

2. ESA which is environmental site assessment is extremely important. 

3. Be knowledgeable about net operating incomes 

4. Be one step behind cutting edge technologies 

5. Beware of green washing 

6. Start the education early.

In summary it was a pleasure to hear him speak today. I would have liked to hear more about Homeland Security, and what all projects he is involved in with regards to real-estate.