Salas O'Brien News

Coming out of a summer of record-breaking heat waves, many property owners and developers are taking a fresh look at the high energy costs that come with keeping things cool. AC can take a major toll on the bottom line during steamy summer months, but Salas O'Brien can help you maintain a comfortable atmosphere while saving on energy costs.

In engineering, a project’s square footage doesn’t always indicate its complexity. Small, key environments like data centers, laboratories, and clean rooms often require incredibly detailed design work to achieve necessary outcomes. Our work for the Georgia Department of Public Health in Decatur, Georgia, is a prime example of this type of small-scale, complex project.

In recent articles, we’ve talked a lot about the ins and outs of commissioning. This systematic process has clear benefits, and not just for new projects—the owners of older structures may have even more to gain from commissioning than property developers that build new.

In any industry, the safety and efficiency of engineered production processes have a major impact on the bottom line. In the food and beverage industry, there’s a lot more than money at stake. Even the slightest production errors can radically affect consumer health and safety, and public trust, once lost, is difficult to regain. The Salas O’Brien team is passionate about community well-being, and we’re proud to promote product quality and compliance through our work for this vital industry.

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) began in 1993 with the singular mission of promoting sustainability in the building industry. This passion led to the creation of what has become the world’s most widely respected and utilized green building rating system: Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED). Since the system’s inaugural year at the turn of the century, LEED has been part of more than 92,000 projects in over 165 countries and territories across the world—and its impact on the community, the environment, and building-owner costs is nothing short of revolutionary.

A LEED certification from the USGBC is more than just an environmental stamp of approval—it’s a recognition of exceptional design that will translate into energy and operational cost savings and improved quality of life for building occupants. Research also shows that these quality and cost benefits attract tenants and lead to higher property sale value.

Commissioning plays a big role in achieving the level of design sophistication LEED requires, and as top U.S. commissioning firm with extensive LEED experience, Salas O’Brien has both the training and the track record to guide clients through the complex process.

From its earliest days as an energy consulting firm, sustainability has been at the heart of Salas O'Brien. That’s why we were excited to partner with Plumrose USA to create a design that would dramatically increase efficiency at their new Iowa processing plant.

The Critical Environments team at Salas O’Brien tackles some of the most technically complex telecom and data center projects in the world. We have a tremendous depth of experience designing in this fast-paced, continually evolving building type. One such project, for a Fortune 15 telecommunications company, delivered a network equipment center (NEC) in Colorado Springs, CO.

Covering more than 1.4 million square feet of building space total, San Jose-Evergreen Community College District has buildings that are among the oldest in the California community college system. With our wide variety of higher education campus experience and a focus on sustainability, Salas O’Brien was the perfect choice to provide services for renovations.

Sunset Development is a leading suburban developer in the San Francisco Bay Area, providing cutting edge commercial tenant spaces. Bishop Ranch is one of the company’s premier properties, and with planned expansion to the development, Sunset needed a partner to bring its 2600 Bishop Ranch building up to the company’s high standards for sustainability and efficiency.

It's a maxim of project management that you have any two of quality, speed, and cost. If you need a project done as soon as possible (preferably yesterday), then it's either going to cost you a fortune or will have sub-par quality.

When it comes to building projects, commissioning can prove the maxim wrong. With commissioning, you can save money, build better, and do good in the process.

Is that a bold claim? Sure. But there's a reason that more and more states and local jurisdictions are requiring commissioning on every building project.

In a prior article we defined commissioning and went over the basics of what it accomplishes. We also overviewed where it's required by law, and why you might consider it even it's when not required by law.