Interview with Green Chamber Member: Caletti Jungsten Construction

I spoke recently with Jeff Jungsten, Vice President of Caletti Jungsten Construction, a building contract firm that has set out to be sustainable since they first opened their doors. Jeff was in his element talking about green building and even over the phone you could feel his excitement for the future of the construction industry…

So Jeff, why do you call Caletti Jungsten a green business?

We’ve always been on the cutting edge and have built high performance homes; we just weren’t calling it “green”. What really changed the tide for us was when we began seeing products that were starting to catch up with our socially conscious mindset of sustainable building. So we started to incorporate more products in our construction that market themselves as green, are healthier, and give customers more choices. We’re excited that we are able to keep going even further into being a green business now because the products have really caught up to our mindset.

Officially, we have been a certified Marin green business since April 2007 through Marin County’s Green Business Program. We are members of Build it Green, USGBC, NARI, Green by Design and Living Architecture. We have certified green professionals through NARI since 2003, Sonoma State’s Green Building Professional Certificate Program, Build it Green’s green point rated program and the LEED Professional Accreditation program. By 2010 all management will be green certified through Build it Green or LEED. We actively participate in West Coast Green and regularly hold seminars and events through our affiliate members to enhance, promote, and educate the public and ourselves on best practices in green building and climate action planning.

Tells us about innovative programs you have created internally to green CJC?

We developed a green committee internally to audit our efforts at jobsites, inter-offices, and to enhance our community outreach. CJC not only has a robust recycling program and uses only environmentally sensitive cleaning supplies, but we went solar on our building (13kw) and added a part of the Cell Phones for Soldiers program, which allows service personnel to call home while providing a better way to reduce E waste. We encourage our personnel to use the Caletti Jungsten Smart cars for local errands and meetings as well as providing bikes for all employees and building tenants. For those employees that commute the 101 corridor we encourage the carpooling program. Office paper consists of 100% post consumer recycled content paper, default double-sided printing to reduce paper usage and we make use of a “plan scan” program which helps reduce the number of blueprint copies needed. We outright banned single use plastic bottles companywide and provided each employee with their own Kleen Kanteen. This has helped reduce plastic bottle waste by 100% in the company, and we also decreased water consumption by 40% by installing water efficient practices. CJC has worked with several cities to develop new green building guidelines to promote a consistent and clear vocabulary that is easy to understand and that can be a model ordinance for all municipalities.

Another thing we are working on is value engineering and sustainability planning with architects, engineers, and clients early into the design phase of project to help direct an efficient path to the final project. We’ve partnered with insulation companies to find old blue jeans to turn into cotton insulation; banned all formaldehydes in projects and only use no or very low voc (volatile organic compounds) paints and finishes. We utilize Green Waste Recycling to harvest trees that have been cut down and only pick services and companies that use biodiesel delivery trucks/equipment. Lastly, CJC utilizes local resources for soil that we have to remove to make into bricks and block.

It sounds like you have really tried to think about every angle of your business with the environment in mind. What advice would you offer to other businesses who are struggling to be more green or who aren‘t convinced it‘s worth the hassle financially?

Businesses need to understand that it is good for them economically and that going green can increase their marketing and reduce their energy and water consumption. Our car sharing program saved us substantial dollars we were spending on gas. Eliminating single use bottles reduced our spending and waste. Importantly, neither of these simple policies was difficult to implement. Some things do cost money such as recycled content paper, but if you print double-sided you can make up for that lost cost. And due to the increasing interest by businesses in using greener products, the costs are slowly lowering as demand is increasing. Installing the solar panels had an upfront cost but we will be energy neutral in a few short years and thereafter we will save thousands on energy. So the question to ask is this: if ultimately you can provide for a healthier environment and save money, why not do the right thing? If you have a business in Marin you have a great opportunity to join Marin’s Certified Green Business Program. The program is currently offered at no cost, however, it may not always be free of charge so now is the time to take advantage of it to benefit your business.

Why did you join the Green Chamber?

We joined because of the incredible work they are doing to advocate and promote sustainability. Everyone we’ve met through the GC has been driven, committed, professional, well-informed, and communicative. We see it as avenue that will enhance and work toward the same environmental benefits we are pushing for. The Chamber is like minded in how they get the word out about going green. For example, Caletti Jungsten is on Twitter and using webcams to reduce job site visits, and we see the GC doing the same thing. What’s really cool is that the GC and it’s members have a lot of energy, new energy. It’s really what drives us all to communicate effectively and efficiently and to communicate more in general. The GC helps us as a business because it’s not just city-wide, but covers many counties and thus we touch more people through the GC. We promote the GC because of the importance of their message and we want to be a part of that outreach in our community and beyond. These issues we all grapple with are without county/city/state borders. It affects us all wherever we are.

Are there certain green building trends or technologies that you see making headway?

Surprisingly, one thing I’ve noticed is more LEED-certified residences being built in other cities like Minneapolis and St. Louis than here in Marin! Think about Greensburg, Kansas which was devastated by a tornado and decided to rebuild completely green. We are seeing competition between people and cities to be the most sustainable — which is driving the whole industry and is what will continue to drive it for the next decade and beyond. Sustainable building also has to be driven from the dollar, and people have to understand what the savings are when they choose cleaner, greener products. We try to help our customers make well-informed decisions by providing them with knowledge about these new green technologies. Especially when we are engineering peoples’ home energy systems, we always try to promote green and explain that although they might pay a premium up front for a new technology, it will save them later.

Our internal green committee or “hit squad” has helped set up testing in our office so we can stay on top of the up and coming green building technologies. The testing allows us to explore questions like how do water-based paints/finishes work with water-based adhesives and is metal or wood framing better for the environment? Testing these products helps us get the most environmentally sound products into assembly. We do this auditing because it means that from design to the actual building, our company is able to drive green technologies and insert those new ideas into buildings. What I think is great is that this internal green committee is all volunteers. It’s exciting to think that a volunteer spirit is what is driving sustainable building from within our company to the outside world. Among the different construction techniques we are investigating in the test lab are factory-made wall panels. Forma’s wall system (pre-made wall panels constructed based on your plans), metal framing systems, and SIPs (pre-insulated) wall panels are coming to the forefront. But here they haven’t taken off — due to many house sites being complex and highly customizable, people just aren’t designing with them yet.

Do you think deconstruction over demolition is catching on as a way to save building materials from ending up in landfills?

Yes, at CJC we are currently deconstructing homes instead of demolishing them which reduces landfill loading and increases material conservation and donations. However, it is always going to be cheaper to mow a house over with a bulldozer. It will become standard when it becomes cheaper than conventional construction. I will say though, that deconstruction is becoming more compelling because there are donation tax incentives that are starting to be more common and well established. The question is can deconstruction programs keep up with the materials and can those materials get distributed in an effective way? Deconstruction tools are in fact becoming more sophisticated and shipping trucks are starting to use more biodiesel. Marin Resource and Recovery Center is where we take all of our debris and on average they recycle 65% of materials.

Is there anything interesting you want current or potential members to know?

To learn more about Caletti Jungsten Construction’s green approach, check out the sustainability page or follow us on Twitter at CJCGreen. Also, I would like to pose a challenge to every company in the GC to ban single use bottles.

Alright all you GC members, you heard him. Now who is up for the challenge?