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Kaiser Northern California Data Center

Strategic Approach delivers World's 1st LEED EBOM Platinum Data Center Facility

Kaiser Permanente is a national leader and one of the most sustainable organizations in the healthcare industry. Upon purchase of a 160,000sf Data Center Facility in northern California, Kaiser jointly hired HPS Architects and DPR Construction to renovate and expand the existing Facility.  The overall Team challenge was to accomplish the renovation and design the operational systems in a manner that would significantly reduce the typical load on natural resources associated with this type of facility.

The overall scope included upgrading the existing 160,000sf structure, including a seismic renovation to meet current Code requirements; and adding a new 60,000sf Central Utility Plant to increase the mechanical and electrical system capacities.  A particular program challenge dictated the design would need to be phased and the construction work would need to be accomplished while the Data Center was in operation with no interruption to services supporting the delivery of healthcare services.

To meet these challenges a comprehensive Owner, Design, Construction and Operations Team was assembled at the onset of the Project prior to initiation of any design work.  A key contributing factor to the Project success was the Owner including the operations-engineering staff at these early design meetings.  This group would ultimately be responsible to maintain the engineering systems and had strategic input into the systems design and installed components.  The interactive design meetings, with this high-level of expertise in all phases of the life of the building, evaluated each key design decision relative to the Project objectives, including sustainability and life-cycle costs.  With overall Team focus throughout project delivery on these key objectives, the Owner later commented: 

We challenged the Team to work together and look for better ways to deliver this Project. There was a high degree of trust. If you were to drop in on the meetings and didn’t know who the players were, it would hard to tell who worked for each company. It was never just what’s best for my company, it was what’s best for the Project.
Kaiser Permanente

The outstanding result was a Project that was completed on schedule, within budget and with no impacts to existing operations.  Significantly, the Data Center was certified LEED Platinum EBOM (Existing Buildings Operations and Maintenance), the first such Facility worldwide.  Important metrics included:

Key Performance:
  • Indoor Plumbing Efficiency:  47.55% reduction (35,970 gal/yr) from annual balance
  • Landscape Irrigation Efficiency: 95.29 reduction (12,466,970 gal) from mid-summer baseline
  • ENERGY STAR Score: 87
  • Alternative Transportation: 37.5% trip reduction
  • Waste Diversion: 66.07%
  • Design Storm Rainfall Mitigated: 54.38%
  • On-going purchases: 91.35% sustainable
  • Food Purchases: 73.36% sustainable
  • Reductions through Efficiency Improvements: 1,883,442 kWh / 493 MTCO2e reduction
Project Team:

Owner: Kaiser Permanente

Architect: Hawley Peterson Snyder

LEED EB Consultant: BuildingWise

Mechanical: Taylor Engineering / ACCO

Electrical: The Engineering Enterprise / Cupertino Electric

Controls: Sunbelt Controls

Civil: Sandis

Landscape: MPA Design

General Contractor: DPR Construction