The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE)’s mission is to advance heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration systems design and construction. Being a driver of system and design evolution within the HVAC/R community, it was important to ASHRAE to “walk the talk” when it came to renovating their global headquarters and meeting Net Zero Energy standards. Being a longstanding partner of ASHRAE, Armacell supported their initiatives and recently donated insulation products and accessories to this renovation project.

The reuse of existing structures is a basic principal of sustainability. For ASHRAE to achieve Net Zero Energy performance, the total amount of energy used by the building on an annual basis must be equal to the amount of renewable energy created on site. Careful project plans and key system innovations had to be implemented to meet this standard such as water efficient plumbing and landscape, energy efficient HVAC systems, and the ability to harness on site energy production. Some other requirements included low operations and maintenance costs, excellent indoor environmental quality, superior HVAC system performance, and improved acoustical qualities. Above all the design criteria had to meet and in some cases, exceed the requirements set forth in ASHRAE Standards 62, 90.1, and had to follow the guidelines set forth in the new ASHRAE Advanced Energy Guideline for Office Buildings. The final sustainability objective was for the building to be substantiated through available certification programs such as LEED®, Green Globes, Fitwell, WELL Building or Living Building Challenge.

Knowing that one requirement of this project was to ensure superior HVAC system performance, Armacell proudly supported ASHRAE with their altruism and bestowed solutions to help achieve this goal by gladly donating ArmaFlex® insulation and accessories. To commemorate this donation and thank Armacell, ASHRAE named its IT systems hub in the new global headquarters the ARMACELL DATA CENTER. “Working with ASHRAE and being a part of such an impactful project was an honor for our team. Sustainability, which is at the core of our solutions at Armacell, will drive the building materials industry forward and it is the key to future progress.” commented Phil Chuy, Sales and Marketing Manager, Southeast at Armacell.

By having a well-defined project plan and smartly utilizing a $10 Million budget including substantial donations from industry partners, ASHRAE’s building design was a success. The renovated and state of the art building will be on its way to be fully net-zero energy by March 2021 and Armacell is proud that our solutions will contribute to this momentous achievement for the industry.

For more information visit www.ashrae.org.
Download the Case Study PDF here.