acronym for Leadership in Energy and Environmental
Design, is a Green Building Council program that provides
third-party verification of green buildings based on a strict
set of standards.) Three other Murphy DCs have already
earned LEED certifications, two gold and one silver.
He considers the not-insignificant cost of earning LEED
certification to be a strategic benefit for his company—
largely because a growing number of customers now factor
in sustainability when they go to choose a vendor. “We saw
a client base that needs our help in reaching their own sus-
tainability goals,” Murphy says. He adds that although he
hasn’t seen any requests for proposals that specifically asked
about his company’s green credentials, he also knows he has
won business because of its eco-initiatives.
ALL THE PRETTY FLOWERS
In addition to major operational improvements in lighting and
energy use, the Murphy Co. has paid close attention to issues
like landscaping and ground water. Richard Murphy’s back-
ground in landscape architecture has much to do with that.
Putting the sun to work twice
When you drive down the hill toward the Barrett
Distribution Centers facility in Franklin, Mass., the building’s roof is visible through the trees. You might not
notice at first that the roof is unusual in some way—
until a bright glint of sunlight catches your eye.
The sun is reflecting off the solar array on the facility’s
roof, an array that provides 100 percent of the power
required by the 260,000-square-foot building.
From the inside of the facility, another investment
becomes obvious. Skylights dot the ceiling, shedding
light on the work areas below—and reducing the need
for electrical lighting.
Barrett has made an aggressive investment in renewable energy. Working with Canadian Solar, one of the
world’s largest solar companies, the firm has installed
over 2,000 295-watt photovoltaic solar panels on the
roof of its headquarters building in Franklin. The Barrett
roof array will produce 720,000 kilowatt-hours (kwh)
annually. This will make the facility entirely self-sufficient and generate a surplus of 300,000 kwh annually to
help offset the load at the company’s other locations.
In addition, the use of solar power sharply reduces the
facility’s carbon footprint. Arthur Barrett, president of
the company, says that its investments in solar panels,
“daylighting,” energy-efficient lighting, and energy-efficient chargers for its material handling equipment
will result in a zero carbon footprint for the company.
According to a report from the environmental consulting firm GXT Green, hired by Barrett to conduct an
analysis of the building, the warehouse produced the
equivalent of 952,534 pounds of CO2 annually prior to
the project. The 720,000 kwh of electricity expected to
be generated by the solar panels equates to 1. 3 million
pounds of CO2, based on a conversion factor of 1.85
pounds of carbon per kwh, the consultant wrote.
The power produced by the Barrett building’s solar
array will also help National Grid, an electricity supplier
for 22 states in the Northeast, meet mandates to provide
a portion of its power from renewable energy.
Specifically, Barrett will aid National Grid in meeting its
obligations by generating Solar Renewable Energy
Credits, or SRECs. These credits, which represent the
value added by environmental benefits and renewable
energy costs versus the conventional coal and natural
gas methods, can be sold back to the utility company at
market value.
