This project is the first building in Portland, Oregon to start construction under the “Living Building Challenge”. The building incorporates several unique features one of which includes using shipping containers as an integral part of the project design. A water reclamation system would be used in the building to capture rain water and reuse it as gray water for the toilets and irrigation systems. Photovoltaic solar panels will capture sun rays and convert them to A/C power that will be used in the building and directed back into the electrical grid. A Ground Source Heat pump system will be used to heat and cool the building. There will be a total of nine ground loops that will go more than one hundred feet into the core of the earth to draw natural heat from the earth into the building. Recycled materials including windows, doors, insulation, siding, sinks and lavatories will be used in the building. COLAS' crews self performed all of the interior/exterior demolition as well as installing all of the site infrastructure. The project M/W/ESB participation will exceed 45 percent.
COLAS worked with the project team for nearly fourteen months, in which time COLAS redefined the project scope multiple times in order to achieve the project budget and maintain the "Living Building Challenge". COLAS was selected as the contractor because the owners felt that COLAS’ three prong approach to sustainability that focuses on the social, economic and environmental guidelines to building in a sustainable manner, was the perfect fit to its project goals. The COLAS way of approaching sustainability directly effected the high levels of M/W/ESB as the COLAS’ approach to sustainability gives all members of the contracting community an opportunity to compete.