WHY CHOOSE KULKA WHEN GOING GREEN?

Kulka under the leadership of Jack Kulka, who is both a P.E. (Professional Engineer) and a LEED AP has for more than three decades constructed quality environmentally sensitive facilities.

Working with a myriad of Design Teams, Kulka utilizing it’s vast experience in value engineering has optimized the design of facilities to insure minimal operating costs, thereby providing Owners with a rapid return on their investment.

Benefits of Green Features Outweigh Costs

  • Significant operating cost reduction
  • Increase in property value
  • Increased rent from tenants
  • Improved workforce productivity
  • Less employee illness/absenteeism
  • Greater ability to attract talent
  • Greater employee retention
  • Recognition

 

WHAT IS “Benchmarking?”

Building Energy Checkups-Ascertain & Analyze

  • Number of water fixtures & flow rates
  • Review past 12 months energy bills
  • Lighting efficiency (perform energy audit)
  • Potential alternate transportation programs
  • Physical condition of building structure
  • Operation of HVAC system
  • Efficiency of operational procedures

 

After collecting and analyzing all the aforementioned data establish a base year consumption level for all and meet with the client to review the benchmark and what steps can be taken to improve overall energy consumption.

Feasibility Study of Upgrading the Facility

  • Building survey
  • Code compliance
  • Systems narrative
    • Mechanical
    • Plumbing
    • Electrical
    • Fire safety
  • Building envelope report
    • Roof
    • Window
    • Shell insulation
  • Recommendations to upgrade facility
  • Preliminary budgets for upgrade
  • LEED Certification potential
  • Government grants and tax benefits to defray the cost of environmental upgrade

 

WHAT ARE THE ECONOMIC BENEFITS OF BENCH MARKING?

 

  • Decreased maintenance and capital costs
  • Improved occupant productivity
  • Optimize life-cycle economic performance
  • Net-Zero commercial building initiative
  • Reduced energy use by 50% or more
  • Less environmental impact
  • Consume 35%-50% less energy
  • Increase your bottom line

 

  

WHAT IS ENERGY STAR?

 

"ENERGY STAR is a joint program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy helping us all save money and protect the environment through energy efficient products and practices.
Results are already adding up. Americans, with the help of ENERGY STAR, saved enough energy in 2008 alone to avoid greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to those from 29 million cars — all while saving $19 billion on their utility bills.

For the Home

Energy efficient choices can save families about a third on their energy bill with similar savings of greenhouse gas emissions, without sacrificing features, style or comfort. ENERGY STAR helps you make the energy efficient choice.

For Business

Because a strategic approach to energy management can produce twice the savings — for the bottom line and the environment — as typical approaches, EPA’s ENERGY STAR partnership offers a proven energy management strategy that helps in measuring current energy performance, setting goals, tracking savings, and rewarding improvements.
EPA provides an innovative energy performance rating system which businesses have already used for more than 96,000 buildings across the country. EPA also recognizes top performing buildings with the ENERGY STAR.

Rate Your Building’s Energy Performance

For many facilities, you can rate their energy performance on a scale of 1–100 relative to similar buildings nationwide. Your building is not compared to the other buildings entered into Portfolio Manager to determine your ENERGY STAR rating. Instead, statistically representative models are used to compare your building against similar buildings from a national survey conducted by the Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration. This national survey, known as the Commercial Building Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS), is conducted every four years, and gathers data on building characteristics and energy use from thousands of buildings across the United States. Your building’s peer group of comparison is those buildings in the CBECS survey that have similar building and operating characteristics. A rating of 50 indicates that the building, from an energy consumption standpoint, performs better than 50% of all similar buildings nationwide, while a rating of 75 indicates that the building performs better than 75% of all similar buildings nationwide.
EPA’s energy performance rating system, based on source energy, accounts for the impact of weather variations as well as changes in key physical and operating characteristics of each building. Buildings rating 75 or greater may qualify for the ENERGY STAR label.
Commercial buildings eligible to receive a rating, representing over 50 percent of US commercial floor space, are:


WHAT IS LEED GREEN BUILDING RATING SYSTEM?



The LEED Green Building Rating System is a voluntary, consensus-based, market driven building rating system based on existing proven technology.  It evaluates environmental performance from a whole building perspective over a building’s life cycle, providing a definitive standard for what constitutes a “green building.”  The development of the LEED Green Building Rating System was initiated by the USGBC Membership, representing all segments of the building industry and has been open to public scrutiny.

The rating system is organized into five environmental categories:  Sustainable Sites, Water Efficiency, Energy & Atmosphere, Material & Resources, and Indoor Environmental Quality.  An additional category, Innovation & Design Process, addresses sustainable building expertise as well as design measures not covered under the five environmental categories.

LEED is a measurement system designed for rating new and existing commercial, institutional and residential buildings.  It is based on accepted energy and environmental principles and strikes a balance between known established practices and emerging concepts.

It is a performance-oriented system where credits are earned for satisfying criterion designed to address specific environmental impacts inherent in the design, construction and operations and maintenance of buildings.  Different levels of green building certification are awarded based on the total credits earned.  The system is designed to be comprehensive in scope yet simple in operation.

Kulka’s services include: