CEI Central Office
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When Coastal Enterprises, Inc. (www.ceimaine.org) committed to relocating into a new home, it looked to blend its grassroots history with its visionary future. Founded in 1977, this nationally renowned Community Development Corporation and Community Development Financial Institution was primed to embrace 21st century sustainability in a big way.
After all, CEI’s mission of providing creative financing to Maine’s traditional and emerging industries often requires taking chances most lenders would turn away. As a financial partner for many of Maine’s upstart sustainable alternative energy providers, the facility needed to incorporate the efficient systems that CEI has helped fund.
The transition plan envisioned consolidating and merging operations from numerous offices, with over 80 staff positions throughout coastal Maine, into a common collaborative facility that was centrally located within its primary service area. The chosen site, on historic Federal Street in Brunswick, was perfectly suited to demonstrate its goals for the future and commitment to Maine’s sustainable future. As an urban infill site in the center of the downtown businesses and cultural district, it offered the opportunity to develop a cutting edge facility within a deeply rooted and progressive community. Coastal Enterprises, Inc.’s investment in this facility will have long reaching sustainable benefit to Maine’s future.
On November 1, 2015, construction on the CEI Central Office was completed and will soon be submitted for LEED certification. The submitted credits will exceed those required for Platinum level certification. More importantly, with its investment in alternative energy systems, the facility is not connected to any primary fossil fuel sources and CEI will be able to demonstrate the value of that commitment to its many clients and partners.
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MEASURE 1: DESIGN & INNOVATION
- The facility’s energy strategy is to maximize its use of sustainable natural energy sources so as to substantially reduce utility-source carbon dependence.
- Extensive programming dictated a flexible approach to space use that incorporated and open office with multiple small conference rooms per wing.
- The building is designed with a site EUI of 32-kbtu/sf/yr which is 56% less than a median EnergyStar office building.
MEASURE 2: REGIONAL COMMUNITY DESIGN
- As one of few contemporary and sustainable buildings in the heart of Brunswick’s Federal Street Historic District, the facility’s exterior massing, a modern take on traditional detail, material and character was carefully crafted, reviewed and approved with community and Historic Board collaboration and support.
MEASURE 3: LAND USE & SITE ECOLOGY
- The urban site plan uses no irrigation and includes only plant species native to Maine.
MEASURE 4: BIOCLIMATIC DESIGN
- The facility incorporates extensive natural lighting, sunlight tubes, an expansive solar panel array and daylight sensors to reduce electrical and lighting loads from the grid.
MEASURE 5: LIGHT & AIR
- The facility’s open office concept with large, high exterior windows is designed to spur the interchange of ideas and allow clear views and natural light into all work areas by incorporating glazed borrowed lights throughout.
- The facility incorporates a demand control ventilation system with CO2 sensors located in all of the building’s “high occupancy” areas. These CO2 sensors coordinate with the mechanical system to optimize the amount of outdoor air that is brought into the building based on the measured CO2 levels, allowing the system to substantially reduce exhaust ventilation loads when not needed.
- The facility incorporates roof top units that do not utilize exhaust fans. By working with the GC and the door manufacturer to provide the best door closure systems and by utilizing motor-operated relief dampers on the RTU’s, we are able to control the building pressure without the need for power exhaust fans in the RTU’s, which in turn will generate significant energy savings annually over the life of the building.
MEASURE 6: WATER CYCLE
- The facility utilizes water conserving, low-flow plumbing fixtures.
- The facility incorporates open-loop geothermal wells with heat exchangers that isolate groundwater from the load side of the mechanical system.
MEASURE 7: ENERGY FLOWS & ENERGY FUTURE
- The project includes an extensive 204-module photovoltaic array that will produce roughly 70,665 kWhrs of clean energy and will offset an estimated 72,500 lbs of carbon pollution annually.
- The facility includes low voltage LED lighting and appliances that save 43,800-kWh/yr and reduces carbon emissions by 45,000-lbs annually.
- The project includes three (3) 1,100’ deep wells supplying a Ground Source Heat Pump (geothermal) system that will reduce carbon use by 69,000 lbs and energy costs by 55%.
MEASURE 8: MATERIALS & CONSTRUCTION
- The facility’s LEED planning made every effort to maximize the use of durable and environmentally friendly local and certified materials and redirecting construction waste away from landfill disposal.
MEASURE 9: LONG TERM FLEXIBILITY AND ADAPTABILITY
- Highly durable materials and the open concept design where very few interior walls penetrate the ceiling will allow CEI or future users to easily repurpose all areas of the facility.
MEASURE 10: COLLECTIVE WISDOM & FEEDBACK LOOPS
- Mechanical, geothermal and solar PV systems include digital performance monitoring components that will allow CEI, through its role as a creative financing vehicle for Maine’s sustainable future, to factually promote the movement through real life data.