Acworth, Ga.— The facility dedicated to housing InterfaceSERVICES—the installation and maintenance business unit of modular carpet tile manufacturer Interface—has earned LEED-CI Gold Certification. The interior includes 6,636 square feet of offices plus a 26,977-square-foot warehouse operation. Randall-Paulson was the architectural firm of record for the corporate campus, with Morrison-Hershfield consulting on and overseeing the sustainability aspects for Interface. Both firms are Georgia-based. InterfaceSERVICES took occupancy in May 2011.
Sustainability is a corporate pillar of Interface, and it has long applied LEED-based design principles to all of its construction projects globally, including its LEED Platinum-certified Atlanta showroom.
“Interface founder Ray Anderson was an early proponent of LEED, and among the thought leaders who guided USGBC in the development of this sustainability standard,” said Pieter van der Toorn, president of InterfaceSERVICES. “So, we were compelled to ensure that the design of this facility would honor his memory, his legacy and his vision for leaving the world better than we found it.”
Van der Toorn heads the division of Interface that had an interesting start about 20 years ago, evolving from a longtime client relationship with CVS drugstores. “We found that we were managing constant installation challenges necessitated by new locations to the nationwide chain of retail operations or by renovations and refreshers required for stores all across the country,” said Van der Toorn. “So, to address their recurring needs plus those of other clients—most typically other retail and financial chains that demand a quick turnaround on an installation or service to minimize disruption to their daily businesses—we established this subsidiary.”
InterfaceSERVICES has since grown to offer the full spectrum of post-sale flooring needs not only for those who purchase Interface products, but for customers of any type of floor covering. The client roster includes those with storefront locations as well as active office settings. And going the distance, InterfaceSERVICES provides other maintenance functions, in particular painting and cleaning, to help reduce the number of contractors on a job site. Additionally, the division provides asset management of all flooring materials for a client, helping to determine future inventory needs and tracking them, plus warehousing everything at the Acworth facility and then shipping to the location and deploying the installers. To date, InterfaceSERVICES has installed more than 15 million yards of flooring, reclaimed more than 94 million pounds of discarded carpet product, and completed and managed more than 75,000 projects.
John Crouch, InterfaceSERVICES director of program development who coordinated the facility build, remarked that the new workplace has become a “destination” because of the level of sophistication of the energy management dashboard that has been incorporated.
“We’ve already hosted several Fortune 500 corporate teams who want to see the system in operation and possibly take a page from our sustainability playbook,” said Crouch.
The state-of-the art technology employed by InterfaceSERVICES regulates and monitors power usage, including HVAC and lighting as well as plug load, and it’s a system that earned “innovation” credits on the LEED scorecard. Motion sensors not only control lighting, but also temperature. And, the natural daylight is in abundance with, contrary to conventional design, a bank of open workspaces occupying the window perimeter and enjoying a southern exposure while private offices are placed deeper inside but with glass fronts that allow the natural lighting to filter through to the space. Two glass-front “fishbowl” conference rooms and a design studio also are part of the floor plan.
Also, according to Crouch, the Acworth facility is serving as a laboratory for applying and testing some of the parent company’s own in-the-works innovations that are still under wraps. But well configured in the décor are examples of Interface’s customization capabilities. It begins in the reception area, where a dramatic portrait of company founder Anderson—an artistic treatment uniquely constructed from the brand’s own carpet tiles—graphically illustrates that Interface can replicate even the most complex logo or emblem, even interpreting a photo. And inset into the concrete floor are carpet tile “rugs” and “runners” composed of product representing many of InterfaceSERVICES clients—providing both an homage to those companies and speaking to the breadth of the Interface line.
Among some of the most noteworthy achievements that yielded the Gold level LEED-CI certification were:
• 40% Water Use Reduction, with low-flow toilets, urinals, and lavatories.
• 30% Lighting Power Reduction below ASHRAE 90.1-2009.
Day lighting and Occupancy Sensor Controls for office spaces, conference
rooms.
• Optimized Equipment zoning, and controls for mechanical systems.
• 98.3 % of the Equipment installed for the project is Energy Star Qualified.
• Interface is purchasing Green Power for the facility.
• Project was able to divert more than 75% of the construction waste from landfills.
• More than 20% of the building materials were from recycled content.
• More than 20% of the Project Materials were from within 500 Miles of the
project site.
• Low VOC Paint, adhesives, sealants, flooring and furniture was used for the project.
• Interface has engaged Green Pest Control Measures.
• Interface has engaged a Green Cleaning Policy.
• The facility monitors and achieves real-time building commissioning to monitor the project’s mechanical energy performance.
• The facility monitors power with the use of plug-load verification.
InterfaceSERVICES at Acworth is 35 miles north of Interface’s Atlanta headquarters 95 miles north