Sustainability
Design excellence rooted in sustainable practice is fundamental to MHTN's work. In a time when we have greater understanding of the impact of buildings on our health and our environment, both globally and locally, attention to sustainable design practice has become essential to every project at some level.
Many options exist for owners and occupants to achieve high performance and sustainable design goals. Our teams design in concert with each client's emphasis on sustainable design. Our approach allows an owner flexibility in applying sustainable principles to their project. Working closely with an interdisciplinary team, we identify sustainable goals at the project outset, define specific performance metrics around environmental, social and economic goals, and develop integrated strategies based on an approach that first looks at passive solutions. Key factors emerge in meeting owner and user goals such as daylighting and site orientation, HVAC system design and controls, reclaimed water, landscape strategies, responsible material selections, and lastly, assessment of renewable energy options.
More than ever before, clients are asking design professionals, “How much money does it cost to do a sustainable or LEED certified project?” MHTN Architects has developed proprietary cost modeling tools that allow our LEED Accredited Design Professionals to provide specific answers. E$pec and EarlyEco analysis allows our clients to clearly see total construction cost, base construction cost, cost per square foot, simple payback in years, annual operations savings, professional design fees, LEED submittal costs, cost per LEED credit, lowest cost per certification level (i.e. LEED certified, Silver, Gold or Platinum). These innovative cost assessment tools for sustainable design also inform life cycle forecasting, and have been recognized nationally.
MHTN is just beginning to impact Utah’s built environment by participating in Architecture 2030, a national nonprofit, non-partisan organization established to rapidly transform the US and Global Building Sector from the major contributor of greenhouse gas emissions to become a central part of the solution. http://architecture2030.org/2030_challenge
