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Building Green in a Black and White World-- Chapter 4

The following is an exerpt from the book Building Green in a Black and White World. Section 2; Chapter 4; Part 4; Aligning Employee Jobs with Green Building--Superintendents

David Ritchey Johnston
January 1, 1900
HousingZone

-------Superintendents--------

Because the supers’ attitude about the change will affect the attitude of the other workers, they are where "rubber meets the road." The field mentality is generally different from that of the office crew. The best intentions in your plans can fall apart in the race for expediency. Supers have two primary motivations: Get the job done on time, and bring it in under budget. Beyond that, they consider many of the directives from the office as "their problem."

Tom Hoyt says, "Construction superintendents may not support what you are doing, but if you can paint the picture for them of what the advantages are and get their input, they will tell you where the problems will be. If you don't listen to them, that's where you can really get screwed up. You need to use them, and that's part of how you get their buy-in."

If supers think they are part of designing a more efficient framing system, they are less likely to throw in that other 2x4 that isn’t needed. And they are less likely to install a new material incorrectly because they don't believe in it to begin with. You have to educate them about the advantages of the products and how to install them. Involve them in deciding which green products to use, and take the time to train them well.

To succeed with supers, ensure that all green changes are seen as being in the best interest of those in the field. For example, indoor air quality (IAQ) is typically targeted at homeowners and their kids. But many major impacts of IAQ are most acute when the products are being installed. The health of field personnel can be jeopardized as they spray solvent-based finishes or use toxic adhesives in a closed space.

Super Kristin Shewfelt of McStain says, "Building green requires a shift in thinking throughout the entire company. For example, our green building checklist stated that we use mastic on all our ductwork. But lo and behold, I was walking around a site one day and saw that we were using duct tape. We were using mastic on the main plenum duct, but we were still wrapping the other feeds and returns with duct tape. I went to our superintendent and said, ‘What's the big deal?’ And he said, ‘Well, our mechanical contractor wants to charge two hundred dollars extra a home for that.’ I called up the contractor and said, ’What will you charge on a 2,000 sq. ft. home to mastic it all?’ And he quoted me about a hundred fifty dollars. The super evidently threw off some figure that would discourage me from pursuing it further. But I pursued it further and recommended that we consider mastic throughout."

Shewfelt continued to say that Max Sherman from the Laurence Berkeley Laboratories in California did an age study test on duct tape, UL81 rated foil-backed tape, and mastic. Duct tape failed miserably in the aging test. Some of the foil-backed tapes performed a lot better and so were good alternatives to duct tape. But his strong recommendation was that when given the choice, go to mastic. "It wasn't until we started getting those studies that construction personnel were finally willing to consider an alternative," she said.

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