According to the U.S. Department of Energy, half of all commercial buildings in the U.S. were constructed before 1980. That means there is a surplus of aging buildings with potential for reuse. We are seeing an increase in interest in adaptive reuse as a cost saving strategy, but also a way to meet carbon reduction goals.

For DPR, we have employed an adaptive use strategy on many of our own office spaces. With our “living lab” offices, we can push the limits to explore what is possible in green and healthy workplace design. In fact, when looking at our own offices, the cost comparisons between new construction and repurposement prove out. Based on our experience, existing building stock can be renovated to high levels of performance for roughly the same cost as a baseline building and approximately 40% less than building new.

DPR works closely with customers and design teams to evaluate the viability of potential properties and buildings for the intended purpose. And we can help customers look at new building uses so customers can take advantage of market trends while also being more sustainable.

A building’s structural system typically represents over half of the embodied carbon of construction. DPR calculates the embodied carbon for projects as early as pursuit stage on behalf of our customers to get an understanding of the overall carbon impact of different materials. We use tools like OneClick LCA, EC3, EPIC and ZeroGuide depending on the stage and level of detail required.

The example below shows of breakdown of Global Warming Potential (GWP) of a project in California where DPR used LCA to identify the focus areas that most impact embodied carbon reduction strategies.

DPR works with customers to evaluate different structural options for their facility so they can make better decisions. When evaluating various structural systems, we compare both tangible and intangible variables that will be affected by the system.

Detailed structural analysis can right size individual structural members rather than apply a generic safety factor that can lead to an unnecessary amount of building materials being used.

Determining a building's structural system is influenced by the first cost, design criteria, ease of operation, sustainability, tenant satisfaction, and life cycle impacts. DPR has the tools and data to help you make informed decisions.

Working with the design and construction team to incorporate design features like exposed ceilings can reduce finish materials such as drywall, ACT and paint.

Many sustainability benefits—even beyond embodied carbon— can be realized through a strategic construction prefabrication approach. While every customer is unique and every project is different, DPR works with customers to develop a specific prefab strategy to meet the organization's needs and goals, weigh the benefits of each solution, and improve the overall process.

Thoughtful selection and procurement of low carbon and innovative materials results in significant reductions to embodied carbon with relatively low or no cost premium.

DPR uses tools such as EC3 and OneClick LCA to find materials with localized Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) data. With our supplier and constructibility knowledge, we identify and procure low carbon materials such as low carbon concrete, steel, and insulation, and also pilot other innovative solutions such as recycled glass pozzolan.

Being a general contractor allows DPR to get direct feedback from our field experts, suppliers and trade partners on feasibility and cost of low carbon materials. Our self-performing capabilities combined with in-house structural engineering uniquely positions DPR to install low carbon solutions.

By replacing average industry materials with low carbon alternatives, we can demonstrate significant carbon reduction from the baseline.

Collaboration with all stakeholders is the backbone of a successful carbon reduction strategy. It starts long before the project is planned and continues through the entire life cycle.

By breaking down traditional silos in the construction industry, customers can achieve everything they set out to accomplish. Together, we work with teams to set carbon reduction goals and work together to achieve them.

Performing Building Life Cycle Assessments

Whole Building Life Cycle Analysis (WBLCA) is a process used to quantify the emissions and impacts associated with a building or project across its full life cycle. While historically architects and sustainability consultants performed this analysis on projects, it does not tell the whole story. General contractors, who control cost and procurement, can have a large impact on material and design strategies that can provide crucial input at early stages and help track carbon beyond the design phase and even into occupancy.

By working collaboratively as a team and performing LCA early in the design process, customers can benefit from the highest carbon reductions at the lowest costs. As the project progresses, the ability to reduce carbon decreases drastically.

DPR has an in-house team that performs early stage LCA and continues to track throughout the project life cycle. This allows the team to move beyond the purely calculative metrics and begin to get a true picture of the sustainability performance.

Model Before Building

On a typical construction project, rework can account for 12-15% of the cost of construction. Rework, which not only causes project delays and add cost, also results additional waste during construction. By utilizing virtual design and construction (VDC), modeling projects before they are built in the field, DPR is able to see conflicts prior to ordering and installing material, build it right the first time, and reduce unnecessary waste.

Modeling early and collaboratively with the entire team also allows for earlier decision making and less change down the road.

Integrated Approach

Every project can benefit from integration; integration creates synergies that have been proven to lead to higher performing buildings and happier building users, customers and project teams.

Integrating Project Delivery, a book authored by Martin Fischer, Howard Ashcraft, and DPR’s Dean Reed and Atul Khanzode, offers the first comprehensive look at the integrated project delivery (IPD) system. A Simple Framework has been developed to organize the essential steps for integration and combines the key structural, process, technology and behavior components necessary to drive the behavioral change required to achieve high-performance projects.

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Covering all the bases to maximize carbon savings can be complicated, but having a partner with the right expertise can simplify the process and help get the intended results.

• Understand your organization's overall carbon reduction goals
• Include carbon budgets in the owners program requirements and basis of design
• Provide specifications requiring environmental project declaration or meeting certain embodied carbon thresholds
• Engage DPR's in-house team team to perform whole building life cycle analysis studies
• Discuss low carbon and design strategies early in the programming stages