Conventional wisdom says building green has to cost more. Hoffman LLC, the Appleton planning, architectural and construction management firm that built Northern Pines High School in Eagle River, the nation’s first public high school to obtain LEED-Gold certification, emphatically disagrees.

“Northern Pines cost 23 percent less than the national median cost of $150 per square foot for high schools built in 2006,” emphasizes Paul Hoffman, owner and CEO of the company. The company also built River Crest Elementary School in Hudson, which opened last fall and is seeking certification at the gold level under the new LEED for Schools rating system. It is coming in at 9 to 10 percent less than the average for new schools in the area.

Mark Hanson, Hoffman’s director of Sustainable Services, elaborated on four steps to build an environmentally sustainable project at or less than conventional construction costs. They are:

Frame the question properly. Rather than asking how much more a green building will cost, ask how to provide a green building at less than conventional cost.

Use integrated project delivery. This involves managing the project with a team of planners, architects and designers, and construction managers from start to finish. Hoffman’s system with one contract and a single source of responsibility provides direct communication with its clients and earlier cost identification, Hanson says. The company bids out all contracts, and considered 260 bids for Northern Pines.

Utilize high-performance, energy conscious design principles and construction practices. This entails using designs that meet standards such as those of the Leadership in Environmental and Engineering Design (LEED) of the U.S. Green Building Council. LEED considers sustainable sites, water efficiency, energy and atmospherics, materials and resources, and indoor environmental quality.

Apply value trading. Value trading, Hanson explains, is working with the customer and Hoffman team to find ways to cut costs in some areas to allow for sustainable features that are more expensive in other areas. At Northern Pines High School, for example, the company used concrete brick that could be applied in modules to save 40 percent on material costs over conventional brick.

Hoffman represents the fourth generation of his family to run a construction business in Appleton. His company began delving into green building in 1997 and built an environmentally friendly headquarters in the Greenville Center near the Outagamie County Airport. In 2001, Hoffman hired Hanson, the former director of the Energy Center of Wisconsin, and went exclusively into green building.

Since then the Hoffman company and the construction industry have made great strides on integrated design and construction strategies, energy efficient mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems, environmentally friendly materials and sustainable technology advancements. Hoffman speaks of the Greenville Center as a “first generation” project. The firm is now in its “fifth generation” of green projects, he says.

A new phase for the company came in 2007 when Hoffman sold the Greenville Center and moved the more than 50 employees to a new headquarters in the City Center East building in the heart of Appleton’s downtown. The new headquarters is an adaptive re-use of a former department store that includes many sustainable features. “You’re sitting eight feet from the former women’s lingerie department,” Hoffman quips to a visitor to his office.

Since the Fox Cities had a vacancy rate of 20 percent for office space, it made sense to re-use the building and help revive Appleton’s downtown, Hoffman says. At the same time, the new headquarters allowed the company to prepare for the recession by substantially reducing the cost per employee of its headquarters overhead.

In a time of economic downturn, Hoffman is advising potential clients to look for energy saving projects with short payback periods that would be advantageous even if federal economic stimulus funds aren’t available for them. These include replacing outdated, inefficient windows and lighting, upgrading heating and cooling systems, replacing deteriorating roofs, increasing insulation, remodeling or repairing old facades and upgrading plumbing with water-saving features.

By John Hill

You can contact John Hill by e-mail at jhoythill@sbcglobal.net.