Sustainability Matters - Blog

Expertise

Impacts: Decarbonizing Higher Education Campuses

In 2018, Glumac began work on a strategic road map for the California State University system that supports decarbonization efforts across its 23 campuses. With the overall of providing a pathway to carbon neutrality, this design standard provides guidelines for the university and its staff to decarbonize the operation of all its facilities. Since then, […]

Expertise

A Deeper Dive into Liquid Cooled Data Centers

Nvidia’s groundbreaking H200 GPU chip is setting new standards with double the speed of its predecessor, the H100. This unparalleled performance upgrade, however, forces designers to grapple with a considerable increased energy demand. The data center world, which collectively contributes nearly 4% to global energy consumption, currently relies heavily on air cooling. Enter forward-thinking solutions […]

Expertise

Building Resiliency: ASHRAE 241 and Its Impact on Climate and IAQ

Indoor air quality has a major role to play in resilient building design. As the COVID-19 pandemic and the growing presence of climate-related disasters converged in recent years, the need for our indoor spaces to keep us safe, together, and working has become more apparent than ever. Recently, we were joined by Dr. William Bahnfleth of […]

Expertise

Reflections on COP27 – Decarbonization

This post was made in part of a series along side our partners in Tetra Tech’s High Performance Buildings Group. You can read the rest of the group’s posts here. COP27 is focused on action this year. As global leaders gather, the priorities to are twofold: accountability, and; solutions to implement now. Accountability  Loss and damage […]

Expertise

Impacts of Inflation Reduction Act

The climate provisions in the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) are substantial. The sustainable design community’s advocacy efforts and demonstrated projects promoting efficient, low carbon, resilient and healthy buildings has finally manifested into U.S. policy creating new climate funding resources and extending existing programs. For a quick understanding of IRA’s climate provisions, we like […]

Expertise

Expert Interview: The Benefits of On-Site Electric Vehicle Charging Stations

We spoke with Scott Clemons, a electrical engineer with Glumac who breaks down the environmental and financial benefits of owning on-site electric vehicle charging stations and why they offer unique opportunities for those who purchase them. ### There are a few different types of electric vehicle (EV) charging stations. Can you describe them? Level 1 […]

Expertise

Data-Driven Design Series | Analyzing Water Use and Reuse

For our latest installment in our Data-Driven Design Series, we spoke with Jon Robertson, Glumac’s Lone Star Region Plumbing Manager, about strategies for reaching net zero water and how we’re improving the water efficiency of our projects. Water reuse and conservation is a major aspect of resilient design in the face of climate change. In […]

Expertise

Rainwater Harvesting Rebates Now Available in Austin

Austin, TX, has implemented a series of rebates and guidelines to improve the rainwater harvesting capacities of residential and commercial buildings. As much as $100,000 is available per project, including $5,000 for rainwater harvesting equipment, and $5,000 to conduct a water efficiency audit. The immediate impacts on a building’s efficiency and performance are obvious, but […]

Expertise

Data Driven Design: Harnessing Building Analytics to Deliver a Low Carbon Future

We’re introducing the first episode of our new Data-Driven Design Series, where we discuss with various experts both in and outside Glumac on cutting edge concepts we are currently integrating on building design projects across the world. Here, we talk with Glumac Energy Engineer Gordon Stewart about his work building interactive dashboards that help owners […]

Expertise

Focus on Climate Change Ramps Up With New West Coast Building Energy Initiatives

As the energy grid across the West Coast becomes more reliant on clean power sources, Washington, Oregon, and California are responding with legislation that will push new and existing buildings to improve their energy efficiencies and carbon emissions. Our Energy team is here to help you chart a path to compliance and carbon reduction. Here […]

Expertise

Collaborating from Home: The New Normal of Remote Work for the A/E/C Industry

The recent pandemic caused many businesses to scramble to find ways to maintain productivity as stay-at-home orders from local and state governments all but cut-off traditional office spaces. At Glumac, we were fortunate to have practices and tools already in place that have enabled us to work without the need for developing new or untested […]

Expertise

Glumac Design Trends Update: Strategies to Deliver a Low Carbon Future

 “Real change occurs from the bottom up; it occurs person to person, and almost always occurs in small groups and locales, then bubbles up to larger vectors of change.” – Paul Hawken The dynamics of the built environment are in constant flux – subject to the whims of emerging technologies, public health crises, and climate […]

Expertise

Great Projects

Trim Tab Magazine: How Net Zero Energy Electrified Learning at Creekside Community High School

The site of Creekside Community High School is less than a half-mile away from the Tigard High School in Tigard, Oregon. But the two facilities couldn’t be further apart. Creekside–the Tigard-Tualatin School District’s center for students requiring a non-traditional path toward completing their education–has long resided in an aging schoolhouse wedged just off the driveway […]

Expertise

4 Signs Your Building Commissioning Expert Will Get You the Most ‘Bang for Your Buck’

In the young history of building commissioning, we’ve already witnessed a surge of under-qualified firms that suffer from what I like to call the “I can figure that out” fallacy.   Yet, building commissioning is more than filling out and submitting paperwork to meet code requirements. It is a detailed process of analyzing complex building systems, ensuring they were installed correctly and […]

Expertise

How Ongoing Building Commissioning Could Benefit Your Manufacturing Operation

You may have had your building and manufacturing process undergo a thorough commissioning process when you designed and constructed your building. Good job!  You are certainly enjoying all the benefits of building commissioning year after year after year — or are you?  When you buy a new car and the service light comes on, you wouldn’t dare not bring the car […]

Expertise

Great Projects

Commissioning a Mega-Project: Seattle’s SR-99 Tunnel Replacement

Fire suppression system? Check Lane control signage? Check. Traffic detection? Check. From a deluge system capable of pouring as much as 17 inches of water per square foot, to the 300 cameras monitoring traffic, Seattle’s SR 99 tunnel might be one of the safest, most well-monitored spaces in the city. Traffic now passing below downtown […]

Expertise

Air-Flow Management MEP Engineering Strategies for Data Centers

Imagine a computer room or data center that was built before or shortly after the turn of the century, conceptualized without containment, and designed to a long-since abandoned practice of maintaining “meat-locker” conditions — a data center that never broke the barrier of 500 kW of IT load. Most facility managers, if they’ve been involved […]

Expertise

Using Autodesk’s BIM360 Cloud Platform to Improve Sustainable Building Design

Glumac, partnering with Turner Construction, signed on to provide MEP engineering services on the fast-track, net-zero P Street design-build project in Sacramento, CA. Tapped to also bring its sustainability-focused know-how to the team, Glumac compressed the time-intensive workflows that are typically required to support projects with such audacious energy use goals. They did this by formulating a workflow […]

Expertise

Expert Interview: Brian Stern, Energy Analyst, LEED AP BD+C

  Brian Stern is an energy analyst with Glumac, A Tetra Tech Company, who supports firm-wide sustainable and high-performance MEP Engineering and building design. His work improves building performance from initial concept all the way through operation. Using energy modeling software, he develops holistic building energy efficiency strategies appropriate to local environmental conditions. Brian’s focus […]

Expertise

Leveraging Energy Modeling to Improve Conceptual Level Decision Making

-Originally published in the 2018 Facade Tectonics 2018 Annual Conference & World Congress Conference proceedings, Vol I. INTRODUCTION Green building design is continuously evolving to require a more holistic approach, especially with ever escalating concerns about climate change, rising CO2 levels, and progressive energy code cycles. California’s Title 24 Energy Code is moving towards net-zero energy […]