The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization, selected Group14 Engineering, Inc. is the recipient of the DOE Protégé Award. This award was presented to Group14 during the General Session of the 13th Annual DOE Small Business Forum and Expo in Tampa, Florida June, 2014. We are exceedingly proud to be recognized for participating in such a visionary program. About the Mentor Protégé Program This program is a DOE initiative facilitated with the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) to help small businesses enhance their subcontract performance capabilities for government agencies. This award-winning comprehensive and established outreach program combines proven techniques with the latest technology and best business practices.

• Group14 was awarded four projects by NREL under the Mentor-Protégé program.
• One of our tasks including monitoring the energy performance of a PV-Thermal hybrid system.
• Our subsequent task orders pertained to NREL’s Open Studio software.As an energy efficiency consulting firm, we are hired as experts to model the energy performance of buildings and systems.

About the Award

“Our work with NREL involved leading-edge technology. We will be able to leverage this experience in promoting our services to existing and potential clients.  The experience is unique in our industry and set us apart from most of our competition. We are thrilled to be recognized for these efforts.” – Sue Reilly, President, Group14 Engineering “Small businesses’ vitality is critical to our Nation’s economic prosperity. Their health and growth is essential to the communities hosting DOE activities around the country. Small businesses generate innovation and technical solutions that contribute towards the fulfillment of our national security and energy missions. This award recognizes the efforts and commitment of DOE’s small business advocates who take every opportunity to utilize small business concerns to meets its requirements. Small businesses are essential in stimulating the economy and we want the Department to be a leader in providing contract and subcontract opportunities to small businesses.

Rachelle Marcur, Sustainability Design Consultant and expert in behavior change, is presenting at this years BEC Conference. Her session ‘Creating a Culture of Sustainability: A Process Approach to Resident Engagement’ is December 8th from 1 to 3 pm. There is still time to register for this amazing conference. BECC 2014│December 7 – 10, Grand Hyatt – Washington.

Group14’s Resident Engagement Pilot Program at the Denver Housing Authority selected to be Part of the ENERGY STAR Change the World Tour

Group14, in partnership with Energy Outreach Colorado, is kicking off a year long resident engagement program with the Westridge Community Energy Festival. The festival has been selected by EPA’s ENERGY STAR from hundreds of submissions to be included in their Change the World Tour, and is being sponsored by Xcel Energy and LG Electronics. The festival will take place at the 200 unit Denver Housing Authority community, and feature games, prizes, booths, music, and activities designed to encourage residents to take action to improve their community and reduce their utility costs. The festival is just the first event in a year long campaign of engagement strategies that will be piloted through this program. The event will feature food, games, activities, and product giveaways. WHERE: 3550 W 13th Ave, Denver, CO 80204 – Mulroy Opportunity Center, across the street from Westridge apartments WHEN: Saturday, Oct.

ColoradoBiz has recognized 50 Colorado Firms on a Greener Path at the Green Colorado Awards for 2014! The Green Colorado Awards recognizes Colorado Companies whose sustainable initiatives are setting the standard for other businesses to follow. Group14’s write up from the issue is below.

Group14 Engineering Consulting Denver

It’s not easy to achieve LEED Platinum certification in an historic building: the key is to recycle and hone in on energy reduction, water usage and details like sustainable cleaning and buying practices. But that’s what Group14 is all about, according to company president Sue Reilly. “The challenges are related to construction waste management,” she said. The company is a recognized authority on sustainable design, including LEED project management. “For all the different opinions you hear about LEED, it has transformed the market, in everything from energy efficiency to waste management,” Reilly said. Through its work with Xcel Energy, Group14 has worked on more than 75 local projects, and Xcel’s energy design assistance has kept enough off the grid to power nearly 10,000 houses for a year. For Reilly, steps like fuel-efficient vehicles parking and a push for recycling are part of the office culture. “We’re really excited about looking at a shift in operational habits to the way people use a building,” she says.

Group14 Engineering was awarded an ASHRAE Research grant for Project 1627-TRP, “An Evaluation of the Actual Energy Performance of Small Office and K-12 School Buildings Designed in Accordance with the 30% ASHRAE Advanced Energy Design Guides” in July of 2014. Over a period of the next 18 months Group14 will engage in this research with three primary objectives: Objective 1: Compare Energy Utilization Indices (EUIs; site energy use per unit area per year), normalized based on standard hours of operation and plug load energy use, for a sample of small office and K-12 school buildings designed in accordance with the first (30%) ASHRAE AEDGs to the modeled EUIs of small office and K-12 school buildings in the same climate zone that meet the requirements of ASHRAE Standard 90.1-1999. Objective 2: Determine the factors common to relatively well-performing buildings, as well as the factors common to relatively poorly-performing buildings, based on building surveys.  Objective 3:Provide recommendations for how future AEDGs for small office and K-12 school buildings could be made more effective in achieving better energy performance than required by ASHRAE Standard 90.1 while providing acceptable indoor environmental quality. Xia Fang, P.E., CEM will serve as the Principal Investigator. Ms. Fang holds a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering and brings to the team a breadth of experience spanning mechanical design for commercial buildings, commercial building energy modeling, and energy audits. She has previous experience in a research capacity at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and is now a senior building energy engineer with Group14 Engineering.

Group14 Engineering is presenting at this year’s USGBC RM Green Conference – don’t forget to register! Optimizing Operations through Data Visualization and Occupant Behavior. This session will outline methods to optimize operations through Data Visualization and Occupant Behavior to achieve performance goals.

Bentall Kennedy proudly announces that 1900 Sixteenth Street in Denver, Colorado has received Platinum-level status under the LEED for Existing Buildings (EB) program. With this certification, 1900 Sixteenth Street, a commercial office building owned by Multi-Employer Property Trust (MEPT) and for which Bentall Kennedy acts as real estate advisor, becomes one of fewer than 175 buildings globally to have earned this LEED Platinum distinction. This distinction and the previous LEED achievements are also shared by CBRE as property manager for 1900 Sixteenth Street. Further, with this certification 1900 Sixteenth Street becomes the only LEED Platinum (EB) building in Colorado and, specifically, it attains a globally-unique achievement as the only multi-tenanted building holding three simultaneous certifications: LEED Platinum (EB), LEED Gold CS (Core & Shell) and LEED CI (Commercial Interiors) at 100% of tenanted space. Group14 provided engineering support for the LEED-EBOM energy and commissioning credits. We performed retro-commissioning and we are now providing ongoing commissioning using SkySpark fault detection & diagnostics to support CBRE. We are so proud to be part of the first Platinum LEED-EBOM building in Colorado!

1900 Sixteenth Street, as a 17-story, 400,000 square foot commercial office building in Denver’s Union Station District, received LEED CS 2.0 Gold (Core & Shell) certification in November of 2010, and then subsequently received LEED Commercial Interior certification for all 21 tenant suites representing 100% of the building’s space. The most recent LEED Platinum (EB) certification was received in September of 2014.

The official groundbreaking and naming ceremony for the new MHCD child and family site, the Dahlia Campus for Health and Wellbeing! Located at 3401 Eudora Street in Denver, it will offer a wide range of services including: kids dentistry, preschool, early childhood mental health, an urban farm, horticultural therapy, outpatient services, cooking and nutrition classes, parenting classes and support, play spaces, a gym, a community room, infant mental health, gardens, health navigators, support groups, day treatment program, prevention programs, childcare network supports and deaf and hard of hearing services. Group14 is providing the LEED, energy, and commissioning services for the new Dahlia campus project. This is our second project with MHCD. We provided LEED, energy, and commissioning services for the Denver Recovery Center, which opened in July of 2012, was recently awarded the highest Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®) Platinum Certification. The Recovery Center was awarded the Platinum certification for a number of reasons, including the deliberate way that the existing building was deconstructed with a strict commitment to salvaging building materials. An impressive 72% of construction waste was recycled. Beyond their commitment to the environment we are proud to support MHCD because they change the lives of Colorado residents. We are proud to support their mission of Enriching lives and minds by focusing on strengths and recovery, and we are honored that they continue to choose to work with our firm (and for the shout out at the groundbreaking ceremony). We are excited to get this project underway! For more information on MHCD’s Dahlia project please visit:    http://mhcd.org/dahlia-campus

Mayor Michael B.

Group14 Engineering has a long and successful history of working with Barker Rinker Seacat Architects (BRS was the architect for all the projects listed below) we are proud that this work has earned recognition.

• 2014 Arizona Parks & Recreation Association Outstanding Facility for Populations Under 25,000 Award goes to Morenci Community Center

Group14 performed the energy modeling, identified efficiency measures, and developed a narrative and presentation to communicate our findings. Eric performed the commissioning design and submittal reviews for the Morenci Recreation Center.

• ENR Mountain States 2014 Best Project – Small Project (Under $10 Million) goes to The Source, with Arvada Police Community Stations receiving Merit Honors

Group14 is providing LEED coordination, energy consulting and analysis, and measurement & verification services.

• Aquatics International 2014 Dream Designs Award – Leisure Pool/Family Aquatic Center goes to The Salvation Army Ray & Joan Kroc Corps Community Center, Phoenix

Group14 provided full LEED support services, energy consulting.

Group 14’s Sustainability Consultant, Rachelle Macur is a leading expert in occupant awareness and resident engagement programs. Group14 was selected with Energy Outreach Colorado and Enterprise Green Communities to develop and facilitate 2-day workshops for affordable housing developers on how to engage residents and implement behavior change programs within their communities. Rachelle has delivered trainings for several housing agencies throughout the nation – including Portland, Denver, New Orleans, Philadelphia, and Washington D.C. Rachelle has also delivered a webinar on the same subject through Enterprise Green Communities’ education and outreach program.