Even if you don’t have the extra upfront capital it might take to go completely green, there are small steps you can take that will help your facility – either new construction or a remodeled building – to use the most of what nature offers.

• Sunlight – Mel McGowan, president of Visioneering Studios in Irvine, Calif., suggests situating the building on the land so that you can maximize natural lighting and minimize sunlight coming in during the warmest part of the day, which will dramatically cut down on your air conditioning costs.

• Windows – Having operable windows – what some designers and builders call a no-brainer – offers the ability for natural ventilation.

• Water efficiency – You can save water, and therefore water costs, by installing waterless urinals and low-flow toilets.

• Green power – Shop around (if you can) for a utility provider that offers green power, such as power produced by wind turbines. Dick Shiffer, principal at RNL Design in Denver, says the more demand there is for this energy, the more likely energy providers will be to move to alternate sources of energy.

• Recycle at the construction site – Sorting waste materials into bins to recycle the unused metal and wood can drastically cut the amount of waste sent to a landfill. If your architect thinks about it during the design process, some waste can be completely eliminated by designing with the size of the materials in mind. This process can also be applied to demolition of concrete slabs. Instead of hauling old concrete away, have it ground up to be used under your blacktop or new concrete paving where crushed rock will be used.

• Think from the ground up – Design the HVAC system so the air vents are on the floor instead of the ceiling. By putting the air ducts in the floor, the comfort zone – the lowest six feet of the room – is cooled much quicker, which means the system won’t need to cool the air as much, reducing energy costs, as well as the size of the equipment, which will also reduce costs.

• Keep it local – Have your architect specify materials that come from the local area, which will reduce transportation costs.

• Landscaping – Using plants native to the area will reduce the need for water and runoff.

• Building maintenance – Making a huge impact on the bottom line can come as easily as changing and maintaining the filters on your HVAC system, cleaning the burners on the boiler and adjusting the heating and cooling schedule to operate only when the sanctuary is in use.

Make Existing Buildings Sustainable

Here are some tips from Jim Van Compernolle, principal of JVC Architects:

Renovate in lieu of rebuilding. Although it can present some challenges, renovating can greatly reduce the amount of new material required for a building. This is especially true for structural components such as concrete, masonry walls, steel and wood framing.

Improve the insulation value of the building envelope by adding attic and wall insulation and replacing old single-pane glass with high-performance insulated glass.

Upgrade building systems, especially air conditioning equipment and lighting fixtures. When it is time to replace old air conditioning units, always replace them with the best built and most efficient units. Efficiency is rated in terms of SEER, which stands for seasonal energy efficiency ratio. The higher the SEER, the less expensive the system is to operate.

Protect or cover windows from direct sunlight, especially during the heat of the day.

Remove lawns and other high-water-use landscaping.

Case Study: Recycled Building

“Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” is more than a phrase at St. Gabriel’s Passionist Parish in Toronto. When the church completed a new facility in 2007, pews from the original building and images from the front doors were recycled and used in the new facility. Preferential parking spaces are provided for those who carpool or who drive hybrid or alternative fuel vehicles.

Long-term sustainability was a goal in many areas of construction. One of the components that helped St. Gabriel’s earn LEED gold status from the U.S. Green Building Council were low-VOC interior latex paint, carpets made from beets and corn stalks, heat-absorbing concrete floors and stucco, and sensor-activated lighting.

Another sustainability property that St. Gabriel’s incorporated into the design was insulating glass, which maximizes passive solar heating in winter, minimizes solar heat gain in summer, insulates against heat loss all year and transmits optimal levels of daylight.

The insulating glass product St. Gabriel’s chose is three and a half pounds lighter per square foot than triple-pane glass, which can eliminate hundreds of thousands of pounds of dead load in a building’s structural design. The glass also supports optimum levels of natural daylight, reducing the need for glare reduction devices. The insulating glass can eliminate condensation, stabilize interior temperatures, and allows for year-round use of floor space near exterior glass without the need for expensive perimeter heating.

Translated into dollars, insulating glass can mean significant energy savings per square foot, smaller HVAC systems, lower operational costs and greater flexibility in meeting LEED requirements.

Case Study: Domed Churches Save Money, Energy

Domed churches have been around for centuries. Think the Pantheon in Rome, the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul and St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. During the last two decades, the dome-building technique has prompted a growing number of congregations to take an innovative approach to an age-old tradition.

Proponents of domed churches say the unusual construction method not only yields a building that is energy efficient and able to withstand tornado- and hurricane-force winds, but also creates a design that lasts every bit as long as its ancient counterparts.

Energy savings are one of the main reasons churches opt to go with monolithic dome construction. “In every case where records have been kept and checked, it can be shown that the building pays for itself over a period of 20 years through energy savings alone,” says David B. South, president of the Monolithic Dome Institute.

There are several factors that contribute to a dome’s energy efficiency. Because the dome’s spherical shape covers the most amount of space with the least amount of materials, there is less surface area for heat to escape in the winter or seep in during the summer. The structures have the added advantages associated with the concrete’s thermal mass. When the interior of the dome is heated or cooled, the concrete warms up or cools off and then maintains that temperature for a long period of time. That means the interior temperature stays relatively constant. Since the insulation on a monolithic dome is placed on the exterior of the concrete, there is even less temperature variation than there would be in a conventional concrete building. As a result, the amount of heating and cooling equipment can usually be significantly reduced.

Furthermore, monolithic domes can be less expensive to build than a traditional structure of the same size. The cost savings are in part from the relatively simple construction process.