Lionakis recently served as a LEED consultant to the Department of General Services (DGS) to assist the Cal Fire Ione Academy in achieving LEED Gold certification for their new, 20,000 square foot dormitory. The project was designed and managed by DGS and includes a three-story dorm located on the existing Cal Fire campus located on a gorgeous 420-acre site in the Sierra Nevada foothills.

The project originally pushed for a certification goal of LEED Silver, but our highly experienced sustainability team was able to assist in an impressive feat of achieving the next level of LEED Gold! With a holistic rigorous approach to water use reduction and energy savings, the project achieved LEED Gold through the following sustainable strategies:

1. The building derives on-site renewable energy from a PV array over the parking lot. The parking lot holds PV canopies with a capacity of 52,199 kWh of on-site renewable energy generated per year and feeding right back into the campus resulting in 15% of the dormitory’s energy needs.
2. Native trees and shrubs such as live oaks, manzanita bushes and deer grass were selected by the landscaping team for their drought tolerance.
3. Water-efficient systems within the buildings as well as low flow toilets, sinks, and showers, reduced water consumption by 40% from the baseline, 20% higher than the LEED requirement.
4. The project team implemented an Erosion and Sedimentation Control Plan according to the 2003 EPA Construction General Permit guidelines to prevent soil loss, sedimentation of storm sewers, and airborne pollution.
5. The building engages occupants in the project’s green aspirations including friendly signage to encourage use fo the water bottle filling station.
6. Task lighting installed at dorm room desks helps limit the necessity of continual overhead light usage, and each room as its own thermostat and operable window to enable individualized thermal comfortThis facility is a prime example of practical and sustainable design.

A round of applause goes out to our  Sustainability and Civic teams, along with Capital Engineering who assisted in providing Sustainability services for this project!