Miletus Group Revolutionizes Mobile and Modular Office Building Segment with Green Technology
Modular designers at Miletus help roll out “The Green Fleet,” the nation’s first eco-friendly fleet of High Performance Mobile Offices™
(Rochester, IN, January 14, 2011) Modular designers at architecture firm Miletus Group, Inc. have joined forces with Jobsite Leasing Company to bring green building to the mobile and modular office industry. The joint effort to make mobile and modular offices eco-friendly marks the first in the industry, which has lagged behind conventional commercial building in terms of sustainable building practices. The recently completed project undertaken after high-energy costs associated with the use and operation of mobile and modular field offices at Jobsite Leasing Company sparked an interest in green building.
With the common goal of integrating sustainability measures while also providing customers with substantially reduced energy costs during field operations, Jobsite Leasing Company, together with Miletus Group, laid out a system of high performance building measures in the new construction and renovation of its fleet of mobile and modular offices. Miletus Group president and project spokesperson James B. Guthrie, AIA points out, “Our team spent a great deal of time analyzing the best sustainability practices in the building industry and then found ways to apply them to the mobile and modular office building sector.” Little will appear changed to office occupants in terms of the general layout and construction of the high performance units, according to Guthrie. However, he states noticeable differences will appear in the form of substantially lower utility bills and significantly higher levels of comfort during hot summer and frigid winter months.
To determine the cost-to-benefit ratio of the project, Jobsite Leasing Company first commissioned Miletus Group with performing a cost analysis to determine the feasibility of building high performance mobile and modular offices. Guthrie and his team began by running a series of Department of Energy and USGCB LEED® approved building performance computer models. The models provided a baseline analysis of the existing fleet against alternative design approaches. The results quickly proved that energy savings would offset initial green building costs. “The computer models were invaluable in assessing different approaches and creating a strategy for building procedures,” says Guthrie. With the help of the computer models, the manufacturer incorporated refinements in materials and production, which led to new efficient and cost-effective sustainable practices in the building of the High Performance Mobile Offices™, and a 50 percent or greater reduction in energy use.
With the help of the Miletus design team, Jobsite Leasing Company was also able to dramatically reduce construction material waste, 95 percent of which is now recyclable. Additionally, the materials selection process was overhauled to include purchasing only from vendors that offer the largest inventory and highest degree of recyclable products on the market. The green building measures assured that the High Performance Mobile Offices would be 100 percent recyclable at the end of its life cycle. Moreover, Guthrie, who counts among his green building credentials, certified Green Advantage® practitioner for commercial and residential construction, U.S. Green Building Council member, and member of the Modular Building Institute’s International Green Code review committee, expects ongoing field-monitoring reports will show energy usage of sustainable-built High Performance Mobile Offices to be as little as one-third that of conventionally built, standard industry mobile offices.
Downloadable high-resolution images are available at the following link by clicking on the desired thumbnail.
http://www.duehrandassociates.com/prmg11-the-green-fleet.html
Contact: Mary Beth Duehr, DUEHR & ASSOCIATES, LLC, 1902 Wright Place, Suite 200, Carlsbad, CA 92008-6583; Phone: 760-918-5622; Fax: 760-918-5505; marybeth@duehrandassociates.com
About Miletus Group
Miletus Group, Inc. is an architecture firm that specializes in sustainable building practices in onsite, prefab, and modular offsite systems. Under the direction of James B. Guthrie, AIA, president of Miletus Group and Board of Trustees Chair for Modular Building Institute Educational Foundation, Inc., the team at Miletus Group provide a range of design, building, and development services that include site selection analysis, project programming, entitlement services, urban and architectural design and documentation, architectural modularization, sustainability design and energy analysis, cost analysis, and onsite and offsite construction. Educated at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Guthrie has lectured and written extensively about modular architecture. He is currently writing a book on the subject entitled Modern Modular Architectural Prototypes: A World Survey of the State of the Art. At Miletus Group, Architecture is the sum of Design + Build + Develop.
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