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Leed Consulting
Argento/Graham provides a streamlined LEED consulting experience from planning and design to construction and occupancy, managing and supporting the power of your team to secure LEED certification. We optimize existing site and design features to build a strong foundation of sustainability, then create customized solutions that will complement your project vision and achieve your sustainability goals.
The Argento/Graham team has helped our clients achieve project goals from basic LEED Certified to double LEED Platinum on a wide variety of project types including commercial, multi-family, hospitality, core and shell, retail, and tenant improvement.
Energy Modeling
The Argento/Graham team believes that using energy modeling to inform design decisions is one of the most cost-effective ways to optimize functionality, energy efficiency, and occupant satisfaction for building systems. Energy modeling has the greatest impact when used early in design, but A/G can efficiently integrate energy modeling into any stage of the process to analyze and inform project direction. In an endorsement of this powerful tool’s indispensability, the State of California has now incorporated energy modeling as part of the Title 24, Part 6 building code.
Argento/Graham can help your project harness the power of energy modeling for LEED certification, code compliance, or simply as best practice to produce a high-performance building.
Commissioning & Retro-Commissoning
Commissioning is a quality-assurance process to systematically verify that building systems are designed, installed, operated, and maintained to meet the owner’s operational requirements. Though often considered a process that occurs around construction completion, commissioning can maximize its value when the oversight process begins during design and continues well after occupancy.
The Argento/Graham team has a breadth of experience providing CALGreen-, LEED Fundamental and Enhanced-, and retro- commissioning services for industrial, commercial, multi-family, hospitality, core and shell, retail, and tenant improvement projects. Our commissioning process consistently yields operational cost savings by reducing energy and water waste as well as maintenance time and cost while increasing indoor air quality and occupant comfort.
CALGreen & Title 24 Consulting
The California Green Building Standards Code (Title 24, Part 11), or CALGreen, was implemented in January 2011. Today, CALGreen requirements apply to all new buildings in California as well as some additions and alterations to existing buildings. First, Argento/Graham will determine the state mandated level of CALGreen compliance based on the scope of your project. Next, we will analyze and apply any local CALGreen amendments, development agreement conditions, or other green building code requirements.
By identifying the full range of green building requirements for your project, Argento/Graham can consolidate compliance documentation for easy integration into project documents. We support your compliance from initial plan check and requests for clarification through construction verification.
Fitwel Consulting
Fitwel is a rapidly growing, user-friendly standard that focuses on the intersection of health and wellness in the built environment. Created by the Center for Active Design, Fitwel recognizes leadership in supporting health and wellness by exceptional projects and companies in the building industry. Argento/Graham has Fitwel Ambassadors on staff to help project teams apply the strategies necessary to achieve Fitwel certification for a single project or an entire portfolio of buildings.
Net Zero Consulting
Many clients use our services to reduce their project’s energy use and associated carbon footprint. Some project teams, both in new construction and in existing buildings, work with us to strive for net zero carbon and net zero energy. Argento/Graham first works closely with owners and design teams to create a cost-effective, energy efficient and low-carbon building. From that baseline, we analyze strategies to offset the remaining energy use with on- or off- site renewable energy and monitor implementation to ensure a building is net zero carbon and net zero energy on an annualized basis. This consulting service complements our energy modeling and commissioning services for new construction as well as our energy audit and retro-commissioning services for existing buildings.
Cities across the country are increasingly adopting net zero ordinances for all buildings. To meet these ambitious requirements, property owners and managers will need to engage energy experts and skilled commissioning agents like Argento/Graham.
Life Cycle Analysis
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HERS Testing
With the booming development of housing projects in metropolitan areas across the country, Home Energy Rating System (HERS) testing plays an important role by verifying that residential projects are operating as efficiently as intended.
Argento/Graham’s HERS Raters can reduce energy costs for tenants and landlords alike while helping cities move towards their energy efficiency goals for residential projects. In addition to state requirements, HERS rating is also required for some projects pursuing LEED for Homes certification. HERS rating can also help multifamily projects pursue incentives from utilities.
IAQ Testing
Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) testing is the only way to know exactly how healthy the air in your building really is. By testing for various contaminants in multiple locations throughout a building, IAQ testing pinpoints which contaminants are present in which areas.
The indoor air quality testing experts at Argento/Graham can perform IAQ testing for a variety of reasons, including: pre-testing to assess IAQ as construction nears completion, operational testing to determine IAQ in an operational building, and testing for a project to earn the LEED credit for Indoor Air Quality Assessment. The Argento/Graham team can also provide recommendations on how to improve IAQ and prepare in advance to pass IAQ testing.
Energy & Water Audits
Energy and water audits will help a building owner evaluate their existing equipment and identify capital improvements that will yield energy, water, and other financial savings. Audits are tailored to the building owner’s needs, ranging from a simple identification of improvements that are likely worthwhile to an in-depth financial analysis for each improvement.
Argento/Graham can provide ASHRAE Level I energy audits and ASHRAE Level III energy audits, in addition to water audits. These include the requirements of all energy and water audits required by the City of Los Angeles Existing Building Energy and Water Efficiency ordinance.
WELL Consulting
The WELL Building Standard is the first building standard to focus exclusively on the relationship between buildings and human wellness by looking at seven main categories: air, water, nourishment, light, fitness, comfort, and mind. Human wellbeing and environmental sustainability go hand in hand, so WELL and LEED are natural partners for building projects on the cutting edge of innovation.
Our team of WELL APs recognize that people spend more than 90% of their time inside buildings and as such the quality of indoor environments is crucial to health and wellbeing.
ENERGY STAR Benchmarking
ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager is the most common tool to measure the energy performance of an existing building. This free format allows a building to compare its energy usage to peers countrywide, accounting for weather differences, occupant density, hours of operation, and other factors. Portfolio Manager allows buildings to benchmark their energy use for local ordinances country-wide, including the City of Los Angeles Existing Building Energy and Water Efficiency ordinance. Portfolio Manager is also an excellent way to track a building’s energy use intensity (EUI), which is becoming a more common metric of efficiency.
Argento/Graham can help operators benchmark their building’s energy and water usage in Portfolio Manager and track progress over time. Benchmarking also clearly reflects the energy use savings provided by Argento/Graham’s energy auditing and retro-commissioning services.
Daylight Simulation
A daylight simulation can help a project’s owner and design team better understand how to maximize beneficial daylight while minimizing glare.
Through a whole building analysis early in design, Argento/Graham can help project teams determine the optimal design for glazing locations and the effects of window films or coatings to mitigate problematic glare. Daylight simulation can help projects earn LEED credit by maximizing the use of natural daylight and minimizing artificial lighting, an effective strategy for reducing energy use.
Green Building Workshops
Education is imperative for simply keeping pace with an ever-evolving industry transforming the built environment. New codes are adopted regularly, the LEED rating system and other frameworks continue to tighten requirements as green building strategies are codified, and technologies continually evolve.
Argento/Graham offers private workshops on green, healthy building and energy efficiency, including preparation for the LEED accredited professional exam.