McKinstry is a national leader in designing, constructing, operating and maintaining high-performing buildings, and we are excited to have them as CBE’s newest industry partner. McKinstry’s mission is to make every building they touch more efficient, which overlaps with CBE’s mission to improve the environmental quality and energy efficiency of buildings. It’s clear that our groups are focused on the same goal.
While CBE works to accomplish this goal by providing information on technologies, design and operation strategies through research, McKinstry is focused on turning those strategies into action for their projects across the country — from new construction and ongoing operations to adaptive reuse, energy retrofits and advanced renewable energy systems.
If you’re curious about what that looks like in real life, look no further than their South Landing project in Spokane, Washington, currently under construction and scheduled to be completed later this year (shown above). South Landing is a transformative development that strives to spur the construction industry to eradicate waste and address climate change. The project has an audacious goal, to demonstrate that zero-energy and zero-carbon buildings are possible in any market with no cost premium.
As we all know, however, energy efficiency is about much more than just building sophisticated new buildings. So much of the potential for transformative change is contained in our existing buildings and systems. This is why McKinstry is also excited about these project examples:
- Implementing a combined heat and power (CHP) system at MultiCare Good Samaritan Hospital in Puyallup, Washington, allowing the hospital to generate its own power on-site—which is drastically more reliable, cost efficient and energy efficient.
- Executing an energy revitalization project across the entire campus of Kilgore College in Kilgore, Texas, saving the college nearly $1 million each year in energy, facility maintenance and operational costs.
- Partnering with the University of Utah Health Science Campus in Salt Lake City to power 800,000 ft2 of new space through energy efficiency projects in existing facilities, and ensuring that savings remain consistent and persistent.
CBE’s new partners at McKinstry note that today’s built environment is needlessly inefficient, resulting in buildings that cost too much to design, build, operate and maintain. Working to change this wasteful status quo is a major undertaking for them, however, no one can do it alone. They believe that the CBE consortium is a rare opportunity for them to partner with industry peers and researchers, and to collaboratively guide research efforts in a positive, impactful direction. We look forward to collaborating with these new partners towards these goals.
Featured image: South Landing project, courtesy of McKinstry.