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Job Site Construction Office Trailers

Conor McGuire

Director of Sustainability

Columbia

LEEDuser Basic Member

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April 9, 2019

Please use this thread for you're actions / ideas for creating more sustainable job site construction office trailers.

I know that Pepper Construction led the way with a Net Zero Construction Jobsite Trailer. (Thanks Susan Heinking!) Is this a one off? Any lessons learned? Any one else pursing this? Is pepper the first and only doing this? Susan, is pepper scaling it to other jobsites?

pepper ZNEB trailer time lapse video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Im9oTo5ndg

https://www.pepperconstruction.com/blog/future-construction-jobsite-offices-generate-energy

At Columbia Construction we are considering feasibility of job site trailers that are:

grid-tied plus EV charging
grid-tied plus EV charging plus solar with net metering
grid-tied plus EV charging plus solar with net metering plus batteries
off-grid with solar plus batteries plus software-controlled fossil fuel generator (micro-gird)

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Jessie Buckmaster

Sustainability Manager

Hathaway Dinwiddie

LEEDuser Basic Member

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Tue, 04/09/2019 - 18:58

Hathaway Dinwiddie currently is piloting a trailer that is off-grid solar with batteries for a jobsite. We also have a mini generator that is manual to keep up battery reserves since we’ve had a lot of overcast days and our solar provider is working through some glitches with our equipment. We’ve only had to use the generator twice I believe for about half a day max so far. The system has been in operation for a year now and working great. We bought our panels outright and they are managed remotely. Jessie Buckmaster, LEED AP BD+C Sustainability Manager [HDCCo Logo] Office: 213.634.2796 Cell: 213.435.4191 buckmasterj@hdcco.com Fro

Conor McGuire

Director of Sustainability

Columbia

LEEDuser Basic Member

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Tue, 04/09/2019 - 19:17

Hi Jessie, That's awesome! I found this write up: https://www.santamonica.gov/blog/the-new-city-services-building-strives-toward-sustainable-design-even-during-construction Do you have other links or details to share on specs, etc.? Thank you.

Susan Heinking

Senior Vice President of High Performance and Sustainable Construction

Pepper Construction Group

LEEDuser Premium Member

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Tue, 04/09/2019 - 19:27

We are currently pursuing building more of these trailers for our fleet in a cost effective way. Building it in house proved not cost effective so we are in discussions with trailer manufacturers to produce more. It is harder than you would think to get connected with the right people on this. Trailer manufacturing is an entirely whole other world. Other than that- the trailer has been well received. I have gotten some comments that its "too nice" and that some of the tradespeople don't want to mess it up with their dirty shoes. The funny thing is the floor is just FSC bamboo from a local store but it looks too nice- I think finishes is something we might tweak in the future. As far as Net Zero and thermal comfort- its working just fine. It was our most comfortable jobsite trailer during the polar vortex so it made it through that test. If it can make it through a polar vortex unscathed I think we might have a winner!

Conor McGuire

Director of Sustainability

Columbia

LEEDuser Basic Member

0 thumbs up

Tue, 04/09/2019 - 20:10

very nice! thanks to both of you for the feedback. I hope we can collectively keep making progress on in this area. hopefully more job site trailer stories to come from me and others in this group!

Jessie Buckmaster

Sustainability Manager

Hathaway Dinwiddie

LEEDuser Basic Member

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Tue, 04/09/2019 - 20:17

Conor, Yes, that writeup is a good summary! This setup powers a double wide office trailer (6 staff people plus break area, bathrooms, and copier) as well as a single wide conference room trailer. I’ll keep you all updated with any progress. We’re hoping to roll out on other jobsites in the near future. We worked with Newport Power in Southern California for this. Jessie Buckmaster, LEED AP BD+C Sustainability Manager [HDCCo Logo] Office: 213.634.2796 Cell: 213.435.4191 buckmasterj@hdcco.com Fro

Julia Gisewite

Chief Sustainability Officer

Turner Construction Company

LEEDuser Premium Member

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Wed, 04/10/2019 - 17:18

Hi all! Turner had a net zero trailer at the San Diego airport several years ago (2010ish?). It was a one-off demonstrator. Extra insulation walls, floor and roof, triple paned windows, composting toilet, non VOC materials, solar panels, even a little wind turbine. It was surprisingly quiet due to insulation. It was then moved to a project we did for UCSD. We then use the same firm (EcoPort) for a big net zero trailer complex at Google Bayview in 2013 or so. EcoPort I think has since gone out of business. Effectively scaling the effort has historically been a tough (and expensive) nut for us to crack, but I love reading about the headway this group is making.

Conor McGuire

Director of Sustainability

Columbia

LEEDuser Basic Member

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Wed, 04/10/2019 - 17:39

Thanks Julia! https://ecoportmobile.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/kens-newsletter.pdf yes, unfortunately looks like the ecoport moblile is no longer in business...ahead of their time perhaps.

Conor McGuire

Director of Sustainability

Columbia

LEEDuser Basic Member

0 thumbs up

Wed, 04/24/2019 - 14:23

Very interesting things happening in EV trucks. https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/24/ford-to-invest-500-million-in-electric-truck-maker-rivian.html https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/24/18514031/ford-electric-pickup-truck-ev-startup-rivian-tech https://insideevs.com/news/343646/watch-ford-f-150-electric-pickup-truck-drive-silently-video/ Fossil fuel transportation to jobsite is inconsistent with building green and a HUGE source of emissions. Our offices and jobsites need to transition to EV transportation. https://flowcharts.llnl.gov/content/assets/images/energy/us/Energy_US_2018.png I'm already making calls, emails and having conversations with our trailer companies working them to prep jobsite trailers for EV charging. Please join me in doing the same with your trailer companies. example: "Columbia Construction is supporting our field staff in the transition to sustainable transportation. This means that we are enabling them to charge EVs and PHEVs at the jobsite. We recently successfully piloted a jobsite with EV charging available to our field staff. In the pilot project, we had to install all the prep work so that we could use our plug-in EV charger. Ideally in the future, job trailers will come setup with a dedicated exterior 240v NEMA 6-50 outlet or NEMA 14-50 outlet, ready for us to plug our EV charging station in. Let's work together so that future trailers have the required dedicated circuit for jobsite EV charging. Example chargers: https://store.clippercreek.com/level2/level2-40-to-80?sort=p.price&order=ASC&limit=100"

Conor McGuire

Director of Sustainability

Columbia

LEEDuser Basic Member

0 thumbs up

Wed, 04/24/2019 - 14:37

I should add that in addition to trying to get trailer companies to standardize an EV charging station receptacle as a basic feature of the jobsite trailer, starting in April 2019 (now) Columbia adopted the policy of adding jobsite EV charging to any jobsite when requested by our field staff to support them in their inevitable decision to transition to EV transportation.

Norma Lehman

Principal

The Beck Group

LEEDuser Basic Member

98 thumbs up

Wed, 05/08/2019 - 18:55

This thread is great! It is getting me re-energized to raise the issue to our leadership again. about 4-5 years ago Beck investigated "green trailers" by forming a small committee and reaching out to trailer manufacturers to develop some guidelines for trailers. It didn't gain traction in the field, as each PM sets up his own job site and there was no firm directive from leadership to prefer "green trailers" that cost more. Things have come a long way since then, so i would like to revisit using the info provided here. Peer pressure is one of the most effective means to move the needle, i have found. Also intrigued by Pepper building their own. Since Beck now has Factory Blue (our prefab company) this may be possible for us to build it ourselves. Keep the posts coming!

Conor McGuire

Director of Sustainability

Columbia

LEEDuser Basic Member

0 thumbs up

Wed, 05/08/2019 - 19:13

Coincidentally, this just popped up in my newsfeed: GM sent out a press release saying that it is “in discussions” with Workhorse “and an affiliated, newly formed entity” to sell the plant. The release notes that “upon final agreement, the entity, led by Workhorse founder Steve Burns, would acquire the facility. Workhorse would hold a minority interest in the new entity.” Workhorse CEO Duane Hughes said if the purchase goes through, the plant would produce a commercial electric pickup as its first vehicle. https://electrek.co/2019/05/08/gm-lordstown-workhorse-electric/ Let's get those job trailers prepped with EV chargers!