Archive for April, 2011

Miletus Group Takes First Place Honors at MBI 2011 Awards of Distinction.

Miletus Group took home first place honors in the Modular Building Institute (MBI) Awards of Distinction.

The Awards of Distinction is the largest international contest of mobile and modular buildings. The program seeks the best of the best in commercial modular building entries submitted by MBI member companies. A notable panel of judges from the architectural and building community reviews them. Judges look for exceptional projects in the areas of architectural excellence, technical innovation, efficiency, and length of project delivery.

Miletus Group’s Jobsite project won in the Temporary structure category with a highly sustainable mobile field office and used at the nation’s first LEED™ Platinum transit facility. This singlewide mobile field office, built on a standard 1260 frame, provides the same functional and mobility advantages as a traditional mobile field office – but with clever design and technical innovations that add up to a huge reduction in the client’s fleet’s overall carbon footprint.

This unit represents the culmination of two years of research and development into how to apply the most advanced green building measures into a production line and a fleet of lease fleet units. While the unit does include the latest in low energy lighting, HVAC equipment and related technologies, the real performance enhancements come from its sophisticated thermal skin.

The cost effectiveness and energy efficiency of this unit comes in several levels:

  • First, the unit has been designed for ultimate production ease and efficiency to manufacture.
  • Second, the material choices were selected for their durability, providing a long-term life and a higher than standard ROI.
  • Third, virtually all of the materials used in the unit are recyclable. This makes decommissioning more cost effective, requires no land fill space, and lowers the end of life energy use and thus its overall carbon footprint.
  • Fourth, the day-to-day performance of the unit, due to its efficient systems and enhanced skin, greatly reduce the operational energy use by up to 70% of a standard unit when all end-user options are incorporated.


© Miletus Group, Inc. 2011

 


Miletus NEWS: The Green Fleet marks industry’s first eco-friendly mobile field office fleet

Miletus Group, Inc. has joined forces with Jobsite Leasing Company to make mobile and modular offices eco-friendly. The Green Fleet™ marks a first in the industry, which has lagged behind conventional commercial building in terms of sustainable building practices. Mobile field offices, long a staple of the construction industry and present on virtually every construction site of medium and large construction projects around the world, are easily ignored as a ‘real’ building type.

When energy costs associated with the use and operation of Jobsite’s fleet of mobile and modular field offices started generating customer comment Jobsite decided to examine the possibilities of developing a green mobile building with the modular design experts at Miletus Group.

Miletus Group accepted the challenge. Miletus Group president and project spokesperson James B. Guthrie, AIA points out, “Our team spent a great deal of time analyzing the best sustainability practices in the building industry and then found ways to apply them to the mobile and modular office building sector.” Little will appear changed to office occupants in terms of the general layout, construction, and convenience of the high performance units, according to Guthrie. However, he states noticeable differences will appear in the form of substantially lower utility bills and significantly higher levels of comfort during hot summer and frigid winter months.

When asked why an architectural firm would be interested in a mobile office, Guthrie said: “If we were talking about one field office, one does have to wonder if the effort is worth creating 700 square feet of high performance building. However, our client is a fleet operator. They asked us to examine creating an entire fleet of these buildings. One’s perspective changes significantly when you add them all up.” According to the Modular Building Institute, there are approximately 300,000 fleet field offices in North America alone. That number represents over 200,000,000 square feet of green building potential. Guthrie added, “Doing this project felt a lot like planting the first tree in the creation of a forest. I might not get to sit in all that shade, but future generations sure will.”

Because this industry is highly cost driven, Jobsite first commissioned Miletus Group to perform a cost analysis to determine the feasibility of building high performance mobile and modular offices. Guthrie and his team began by doing alternative preliminary designs and then running a series of Department of Energy and USGCB LEED approved building performance computer models. The models provided a baseline analysis of the existing fleet against alternative design approaches. The results quickly proved that energy savings would offset initial green building costs. “The computer models were invaluable in assessing different approaches and creating a strategy for building procedures,” says Guthrie. With the help of the computer models, the manufacturer incorporated refinements in materials and production, which led to new efficient and cost-effective sustainable practices in the building of the High Performance Mobile Offices™, and a greater than 50 percent reduction in energy use. With the help of the Miletus design team, Jobsite was also able to dramatically reduce construction material waste, 95 percent of which is now recyclable. Additionally, the materials selection process was overhauled to include purchasing only from vendors that offer the largest inventory and highest degree of recyclable products on the market. The green building measures assured that the High Performance Mobile Offices would be 100 percent recyclable at the end of its life cycle. Moreover, Guthrie, who counts among his green building credentials, certified Green Advantage practitioner for commercial and residential construction, U.S. Green Building Council member, and member of the Modular Building Institute’s International Green Code review committee, expects ongoing field-monitoring reports will show building energy usage of sustainable-built High Performance Mobile Offices to be as little as one-third that of conventionally built, standard industry mobile offices.

On site at the USGBC LEED Platinum Transpo Center in South Bend, IN

HPMO, like a tree to a forest

HPMO with recommended insulated skirting

Full scale field office prototypes

© Miletus Group, Inc. 2011