Indoor air quality – go for the no- or low-VOC in everything, whether it’s tarnishes, paints, furniture, or whatever. I like Haworth for office furniture (www.haworth.com). They have a green showroom in downtown Dallas and know what they’re doing with carpet tiles, lighting, workstations, chairs, etc.

Energy-efficiency – you’ll want to maximize energy use to the greatest extent possible sans replacing the HVAC system. If you can seal up cracks and make the envelope appropriately tight, you’ll waste less energy. That will put less strain on the dated HVAC system. Combo that with the thermal energy storage product of Trinity Thermal (another Dallas-based group) and you’re doing good. Trinity’s TES product is an add-on to your existing system (can get LEED points). It stores energy during the night and uses it during the day, so you’re not buying as much energy during peak demand pricing.

Footprint – you can get as creative as you’d like and even consider the activities of the people working in the building before and after they leave. What happens with trash? Do you do things to prevent the creation of trash or material waste? Could a living wall on the southside help cool the building and help with rainwater runoff? Install a rainwater recapture system to subplant the use of new water for irrigation. Low-flow water fixtures will help with the internal water usage. Do you support and encourage carpooling/alternative transportation, or living close to work? Are healthy snacks available? Etc. Here, I think in terms of conservation and behavior, as opposed to offsets.

Good luck and have fun doing it green! Sorry for the long post and the errors, it’s too long to proofread.

The bloggers over at the Practical Environmentalist just bought a non-green building in Dallas for their business, Clean Air Gardening. The 13,000 sf building was built in the 1960s and they have a budget of about $50,000 to make it green. We’re talki…