Burnham's San Diego campus at 10900 N. Torrey Pines Road consists of 9 buildings, including a central mechanical building and a parking structure.  Five of the nine buildings, comprising 89% of the total enclosed square footage, are laboratory buildings.  The facilities were constructed in three stages beginning in 1975, added to in 1994, and completed during year 2000.

In 2008 Burnham decided to pursue LEED for Existing Buildings: Operations and Maintenance on their San Diego Campus.  Within this Rating System projects are evaluated and certified by the US Green Building Council (USGBC). For evaluation, LEED uses six environmental categories:  Sustainable Sites, Water Efficiency, Energy & Atmosphere, Materials & Resources, Indoor Environmental Quality, and Innovation in Design.  In December of 2009, the San Diego Campus achieved the Certified level within the LEED-EB Operations and Maintenance Rating System. 

Due to the Rating System’s emphasis on improving operations to incorporate increased environmental performance, Burnham created multiple Plans and Policies including; Building Exterior and Hardscape Management, Sustainable Purchasing, Solid Waste Management, Green Cleaning and Indoor Pest Management to help assist in the tracking and documenting process.  The project team, including the Facilities Department and Purchasing Department, began tracking and documenting their progress in credits previously identified in the Preliminary review as appropriate to pursue. 

Burnham achieved nine points under the Sustainable Purchasing Program documenting that over 70% of their Ongoing Consumables contain recycled content and 60% of the Electric Equipment purchased is either Energy Star Labeled or EPEAT-Rated.  Nine points were also achieved within the Green Cleaning credits.  Strategies such as installing Entryway Systems at all Building entrances and purchasing Sustainable Cleaning Products and Materials were part of these nine points.  Burnham already had an impressive Campus recycling program including separation on site and was able to achieve multiple points using newly created tracking procedures. 

Outside of the recently created Plan and Policies Burnham was able to achieve seventeen points by documenting good green procedures already implemented on their Campus.  Nine points were achieved under the Water Efficiency category.  Four points were achieved for already having drought tolerant plants, efficient irrigation and using recycled water within their existing landscaping.  Three points were earned under Indoor Plumbing Fixture and Fitting Efficiency by documenting water savings achieved by previously installed 1.1/1.6 gallons per flush dual flush toilets, waterless urinals and 0.5 gallons per minute motion sensor faucets.  Burnham recognizes the importance of good indoor air quality and was able to achieve the Prerequisite and a couple of points under the Indoor Air Quality section by installing  MERV 13 Filters in all outside air intakes and inside air recirculation returns  and by exceeding the minimum outside air requirement of all spaces by at least 30%. 

During the past 3 years, Burnham Institute for Medical Research has shown tremendous leadership in reducing energy usage.  Current year total source energy usage has been reduced by 26.6% compared to the 2004-2006 three year period.  This was accomplished by an aggressive energy management program and major capital expenditures to upgrade central plant efficiency.  By using historic energy data, Burnham was able to document that they are 23 percentile points above the National Average achieving four points within the Energy & Atmosphere category.    

The team agreed upon a rigorous schedule consisting of a one month audit and verification phase, a one month strategy and implementation phase and the minimum 3 month Performance Period.  The process started in January 2009 and was submitted to the USGBC for review in August of 2009.  This fast paced schedule could not have been achieved without the help of Burnham’s Staff and Sub Contractors. 

Project Team Members:

Burnham

David Hassell, Director of Facilities

John M. Reed, Maintenance Manager

Jeanette Sansom, Director of Procurement & Materials Operations

Todd Baase, Senior Maintenance Mechanic

Mark Sullivan, Senior Maintenance Mechanic

Matt McGreevy, Facility Manager

 

Consultants

David McKinley, Center for Sustainable Energy

Keith Schneringer, WAXIE Sanitary Supply

Heather Irgens, Long Life Lighting, Inc.

Robert Garcia, Express Waste & Recycling

Adam Ziegler, Pegasus Building Service

Mark Stewart, Lloyd Pest Control

Cheryl LaCombe, Drew George & Partners