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The Phillips Eco-Enterprise Center, a $6-million state-of-the-art green business center, opened its doors in the fall of 1999. The 64,000-square-foot facility is winning high praise for its sustainable design features and special attention to occupant health, and energy and material efficiency.

The Philips Eco-Enterprise Center (PEEC) is a comprehensive green commercial facility developed by The Green Institute in Minneapolis. It is one of the nation's first comprehensive green commercial buildings constructed on a speculative basis for multiple tenants. The facility is unrivaled by commercial peers in the same region.

Many features of the building have been attempted elsewhere on a piece-meal basis, but not in the same all-encompassing approach offered by the PEEC. A multidisciplinary partnership of community activists, environmentalists, real estate and business development professionals, architects, engineers, construction managers, tenant companies and university students provided the expertise and creative energy to develop this facility, which opened its doors in September 1999.

The team researched advanced building techniques, and benchmarked best-in-class developments. The team focused on three primary objectives in the development of the PEEC: 1) minimize the energy and material resources necessary to construct the facility; 2) minimize operational energy consumption; and 3) deliver a healthy work environment to building occupants. Environmental benefits are realized in both the construction and operation of the facility and include significant reductions in energy and raw material usage, air and water pollutants, greenhouse gases, and waste generation. The economic benefits include reduced operating expenses, increased rents, accelerated lease-up and employee productivity improvements.

The facility was designed to encourage building tours and on-going monitoring in order to demonstrate the merits of such building strategies to others. While the PEEC takes a bold step forward as a comprehensive green building, The Green Institute realizes that it is never a complete project and the improvements must be continuous. The Green Institute is committed to upgrading and improving the building to ensure that it minimizes its impact on the environment and sets a valuable example for future green commercial construction.

Project Name:	Phillips Eco-Enterprise Center
Business:	A non-profit, community-based environmental and economic development organization
Materials Saved:	26,000 square feet of ceiling tile and aluminum supports by eliminating dropped ceilings. 10,000 cubic yards of gypsum drywall. 80 gallons of paint by eliminating drywall walls. 1,200 square feet of raw carpet material by using resilient textile flooring. 79 percent of construction waste was diverted from landfills.
Reused Materials:	Steel joists, brick, doors and frames, windows, stair treads, decking, wood benches, carpet tiles, cabinetry, bathroom sinks and re-manufactured office furniture.
Recycled-content Materials:	Pre-cast concrete panels with fly ash, bathroom tile, windowsills, countertops and plastic roofing materials.
Low-impact Materials:	Wood (glu-lam structure), linoleum, zero-emissions coatings, low-emission coatings, low-emission adhesives and resilient textile flooring.
Energy Savings:	45 percent energy savings over conventional construction. Geo-Exchange system with vertical well loop. Energy recovery ventilation. 100 percent daylit warehouse including skylights with sun-tracking concentrators. Low-emissivity glazing. T-8 fluorescent lighting with daylight and occupancy sensors and state-of-the-art energy management system.
Water/sewer Savings:	Xeriscape landscaping (requires little or no water and maintenance) over a four-acre site and 100 percent stormwater treatment on site through natural percolation.
Projected Savings:	$33,270 annual operational savings. Payback expected in 11.4 years.