Patagonia designed green, now reaping benefits from its investment

Eight years ago, Patagonia put its money where its philosophy is on environmentally friendly building design.

Today, it's reaping the benefits.

"For us (green design) meant finding a location that would reduce our environmental impacts," explains Dave Abeloe, distribution center director.

The company sought a location that put it closer to its customers and manufacturers, thereby reducing fuel consumption.

Reno satisfied these needs, and also provided an ideal location for the outdoor-minded Patagonia employees to fish, hike or kayak during lunch breaks.

The building, designed by the Miller/Hull Partnership, a Seattle-based architectural firm known for its use of energy-efficient systems and recycled materials, incorporated multiple energy-efficient systems.

For it,Miller/Hull won a 1998 Top Ten Green Award from the National AIA Committee on the Environment.

Patagonia held to its natural conservation philosophy.Virtually all steel in the building is recycled, as are all ceiling tiles.

The wood is from sustainably harvested or reclaimed sources, as are the decking, doors and door trim.

The wall panels are composed of pressed, formaldehyde-free field straw.

The countertops in the restrooms are 100 percent recycled plastic, and the bumpers on the warehouse docks come from recycled tires.Window frames are recycled aluminum.

Even the carpets are 100 percent recycled polyester.

Patagonia has seen a return on its investment, both in human and dollar factors.

The building is heated by hot water through a radiant heat system.A conventional gas-fired boiler heats several hundreds of gallons of water.

That water travels through three miles of copper tubing lining the warehouse ceiling, into the 200 radiant heat panels that store and distribute heat throughout the building.

During the summer, the building's cooling system takes advantage of Reno's cool evenings."It's not A/C," says Abeloe,"but when it's the high-90s outside, it'll still be in the 70s inside.

It definitely works, and it's far less expensive to maintain and operate than air conditioning." Four exhaust fans in the roof tie into an automated temperature control system.

Once the outside temperature drops to a predetermined point, the system turns the fans on and opens a series of louvered vents on each side of the warehouse.

The fans pull cool air in, through the building, and out through the roof.

This system runs all night.

Because the building is so well-insulated, cool air is retained in the building throughout the day.

A solar tracking skylight, comprised of three solar mirrors under a Plexi-glass dome, reflects natural light into the warehouse space.

This solar lighting system not only provides a tremendous amount of natural light, keeping costs down, but, as Abeloe points out,"Better lighting improves productivity, decreases errors and increases morale, just because it eliminates that cave-like effect of working in a warehouse." The small amount of artificial lighting is controlled by a sophisticated, computerized energy-management system that turns lights on and off by zone, based on the typical start and stop times for each department's employees.

Motion detectors are used in the warehouse's aisles, so that the lights automatically turn on when a person enters the area, and then shut off when the aisle clears.

Solar energy powers the outlet store in the front of the building.

Solar panels outside the front door generate five kilowatts of solar electricity into the store.

Patagonia has seen financial returns on the investment."All the lighting controls, photo sensors, motion detectors, skylights the entire package saved us about 30-35 percent in energy costs per year.

The straight payback on that system was just over three years.

So for us, that was a no-brainer." He estimates a seven-year return on investment for the radiant heat system; solar energy takes the longest at about 15 years, simply because of the equipment costs.

However, some tax credits and rebates are available to those employing energy-efficient methods, speeding up the rate of return.

"If a business takes a little bit longer view of their capital outlays, it becomes easier to justify these kinds of improvements," says Abeloe."I think you can be in business and do the right thing at the same time."