Environmental concerns and regulations are driving more and more companies to rethink the concept of “business as usual.” As sustainable building practices continue to increase in popularity, building owners around the country are turning to the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) for certification of their improved environmental performance.

Demand for LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified buildings and materials is so high that the USGBC has expanded significantly in recent years to accommodate their clients. As a result, they’ve had to build new headquarters that embody the founding principles of the organization.

“We knew that this was an opportunity to show our clients what a green building can look like,” said Ashley Katz, communications coordinator at the USGBC. “People sometimes assume that a green building won’t have the right aesthetics for their ganization, but there are a lot of possibilities to explore. These days, green design is very accessible.”

The three-year-old building is LEED Gold rated, and the 22,000-square-foot commercial interior is rated Platinum — the highest possible. The building was designed by LEED-accredited architects at Perkins+Will, and contracted by the James G. Davis Construction Corp., boasting 21 percent recycled materials in its construction. USGBC members also contributed products and services to the project.

One of those contributors was the family- owned, East Longmeadow, MA-based company Excel Dryer Inc., which donated its high speed, energy efficient hand dryers. Just as the USGBC has shed new light on green building and design, Excel has helped to change the way people think about hand dryers. Because of its patented technology, the high-speed, energy efficient dryer works three times faster than conventional dryers while using 80 percent less energy.

“Most people associate hand dryers with frustration and poor performance, often walking away unsatisfied and with hands-that are still not thoroughly dry,” said Denis Gagnon, president of Excel Dryer. The technology “has raised users’ expectations and is now considered the ‘new industry standard’ for hand dryers. We’re pleased to be a member of the USGBC and join them in proving that green design can be effective and economical, as well as energy-efficient and environmentally friendly.”

“With its new patented technology, this was a natural choice for us,” said Katz. “We wanted dryers that would limit paper towel use and minimize energy consumption, but we also wanted them to work quickly and thoroughly.”

Each of the USGBC’s restrooms includes an XLERATOR as well as waterfree urinals, dual-flush toilets and low-flow faucets, resulting in a 40 percent reduction in water use. “Green design is all about the details - cutting back on waste and resource use wherever possible,” said Katz. “Our new headquarters reflect that, from the lobby to the conference rooms to the restrooms. We’re excited to show our clients the best of green building in action.”

In November, Excel released the findings of a peer reviewed Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) that determined high-speed, energy efficient hand dryers can reduce the carbon footprint of hand drying by 50 to 75 percent. Conducted by Quantis, a Swiss provider of LCA analyses, the LCA measured the entire environmental impact of Excel’s high-speed, energy-efficient hand dryers from beginning to end-of-life.

The results of the study indicate significant environmental benefits when compared to other hand drying options considered in the assessment. The major advantage it provides, when compared to conventional electric hand dryers, is a nearly four-fold reduction of electricity consumption during the use of the dryer.

When compared to paper towels, the combined environmental impact of producing the paper towels and associated materials and handling far exceeds the impact of using high-speed, energy efficient dryers.

Even “high-intensity” users of (15 seconds of hand drying time per use) still remained at a lower level of environmental impact than “low intensity” users of traditional hand dryers (20 seconds of hand drying time per use) or one-to-two paper towels per use, according to Quantis.

The life cycles of the electric and paper towel hand drying systems were divided into five principal life cycle stages:
(1) Material Production;
(2) Transportation (including to the production site, to the point of use and to the end-of-life location;
(3) Manufacturing;
(4) Use; and
(5) End of Life (landfilling, recycling or incineration).

Within each of these stages, the LCA considers all identifiable upstream inputs to provide as comprehensive a view as is practical of the total influence of the product system. For example, when considering energy used for transportation, not only are the emissions and fuel used by the truck moving the products considered, but also the additional processes and inputs needed to produce that fuel. In this way, the production chains of all inputs are traced back to the original extraction of raw materials.

For the study, Climate Change Score, Water Use, Human Health, Ecosystem Quality, and Resource Depletion were selected as the primary impact categories. In the impact assessment, the flow of materials, energy and emissions into and out of each product system are classified and combined based on the type of impact their use or release has on the environment.

According to Quantis, this is the first LCA it is aware of that focuses on a highefficiency hand dryer; both conventional electric hand dryers and paper towels have been studied previously in other contexts. Because the results of this study indicate what it calls “a definitive advantage for the high-efficiency hand dryers, it is interesting to examine the results of other studies to check on the level of consistency.”

The results show that the great majority of environmental impact occurring during the life cycle of the electric hand dryer systems occurs during the use phase of these products. In contrast, the paper towel system is dominated by the production of raw materials and manufacture of the towels. Transportation is of moderate importance for the towel systems (between three and 20 percent, depending on impact category), while of very little importance for the electric hand dryers (less than 1 percent).

End-of-life is important for the climate change score of towels, where methane emissions from landfills contribute as much as 20 percent of the total. End-of-life is of much lesser importance for the other impact categories and for the electric hand dryer systems. Within the towel system, it is the towels themselves, rather than the dispenser, waste bin, batteries or bin liners that are responsible for the majority of life cycle impacts (>90 percent).

However, even in the — best case allocation methodology applied as a sensitivity test, the improvement from incorporation of 100 percent recycled content is not sufficient to reduce the environmental impact to near the level of the high-speed dryer, and a sensitivity test regarding the impacts of producing recycled pulp suggests that there may be very little, if any, benefit from using recycled content in paper towels.

Scenarios that were generated to represent different types of users suggest that the intensity of use is a very important factor, with impacts increasing in a nearly proportional fashion with the time the hand dryer is used or the number of towels that are used.