Skanska USA’s Atlanta Headquarters: Employing Southern Hospitality through Sustainability

By Bob Jaderberg, Chicago-based syndicated writer

Skanska USA’s Atlanta headquarters provides visitors with a hands-on 21-stop corporate “Green Tour” reflecting the vast impact of sustainable design and construction. Copyright Robert Thien, Inc.

As an eco-friendly builder, Skanska USA Building (the United States division of Skanska-the international, Swedish-based construction company) has renewed its green, Southern roots.  In 1994 the company acquired Beers Construction, a stalwart, nearly century-old Atlanta builder.  Since then they’ve occupied nearly 80,000 feet at 70 Ellis Street.  In 2007, the sixth floor of the Ernst & Young building at 55 Ivan Allen Jr. Boulevard was built-out and became home to Skanska-Atlanta.  For good reason, the company is proud of its Georgia Peach-Skanska USA’s Atlanta Headquarters, a space which employs Southern hospitality through sustainability.

John Reyhan, Executive Vice President of Skanska USA’s Georgia division Credit: Courtesy of Skanska USA

The history of the Swedish-based construction behemoth (currently 60,000 employees worldwide) dates back to 1887 when the company was primarily a manufacturer of concrete products.  In the 1900’s, Skanska became a full-fledged construction firm with international customers and projects.  The company’s original name was Aktiebolaget Skånska Cementgjuteriet and the firm helped establish Sweden’s infrastructure throughout the twentieth century. Renamed “Skanska” in 1984 following several major international market moves over several decades, the company was poised for its greatest period of growth in the 1990s.  Within a few short years, sales doubled.  Today the emphasis of the Fortune 500 Company has shifted from growth to profitability.  To that end, addressing the challenges of today’s green movement may be working to Skanska’s advantage. 

Leading visionary companies recognize needs, gaps, and voids, and act quickly to fill them better than others, making that niche their own; these select companies work diligently to stake their claim in that market. 

Doubtless, the company is helping itself by addressing critical environmental issues, and asking the same of its partners and vendors.  Companies such as Jova/Daniels/Busby (Architect of Skanska USA’s Atlanta Headquarters), Corporate Environments, and manufacturers like Knoll, Steelcase, and Shaw adhere to green methodologies, and combined their talents, products, ideas, and ideals to create a space all are proud of. 

Natural daylight reaches 90% of non-core space in Skanska USA’s Atlanta Headquarters; reducing lighting power density by 25% earned this space 2 LEED points. Copyright Robert Thien, Inc.

If ever in the Atlanta area, one can see why this sustainable office is a healthy space for the environment and Skanska USA’s employees, clients and prospects; the space even promotes the green industry at large.  Skanska offers a Green Tour—that is, a 21-point walk-through of their Atlanta office. “It [The Green Tour] is a positive, educational tool,” John Reyhan, Executive Vice President of Skanska’s Georgia division told Green Space Today.  “It allows us to showcase our initiatives and shows how others can incorporate these initiatives,” said Reyhan.  Initiatives such as the harvesting of natural sunlight, the use of energy efficient lighting fixtures and Energy Star Qualified lighting controls, (keep lights off when rooms are not in use, and turn lights on only when natural light is insufficient); waterless urinals; and a HVAC system 17% more efficient than standard are just a few of the tour’s noted highlights. 

Rafael E. Diaz, ASID, Principal, Director of Interiors, Jova/Daniels/Busby Copyright Robert Thien, Inc.

Other highlights include the use of regionally obtained (less transportation = less carbon emissions) natural and recycled materials, (cork in wall coverings, rubber base moldings, recycled-base carpet tiles), and materials with low VOC emissions throughout the space. 

“Skanska is a construction company and we wanted to focus on using construction-type materials such as light finished plywood and cork paneling.  We used construction materials as finished enhancements within the interior of the space.  We used a selection of cork materials for a mosaic on the walls to help with the aesthetics of the space.  Rubber cork flooring in the break and storage rooms, and a recycled flooring material by Shaw was used.  The glass for the project was manufactured regionally in South Carolina.  We looked hard to find out where the products were manufactured and where the materials were coming from,” Jova/Daniel/Busby’s Director of Interiors, Rafael Diaz, ASID, told Green Space Today.

During construction, 90% of what is normally considered waste was kept out of landfills by separating materials into appropriate bins designated for recycling.  This earned the project two LEED points.

Environmentally responsible finishes were utilized throughout the space including this dynamic ornamental cork wall, eco-friendly carpet tile, and naturally produced rubber. Copyright Robert Thien, Inc.

Often, the company goes beyond minimum LEED requirements, choosing instead to lead by example. Skanska-Atlanta employs 28 LEED Accredited Professionals in the new office. 

In addition to the company’s eco-friendly build out, the site itself was carefully considered and chosen.  Built on a Brownfield site with easy access to Atlanta’s rapid transit system, selection of the office’s location not only earned the space additional LEED points, but also has other far-reaching carbon-footprint-reducing-ripple-effects.  Instead of wasting gas and emitting pollutants into the air, Skanska USA offers its employees free monthly passes to the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority system.  Skanska USA’s staffers feel well, knowing they are doing their part to proactively promote sustainability. 

Skanska’s new space promotes sustainability too, providing employees, Atlanta residents, and other prospective green builders with a grand example of eco-sound design and construction.  In September 2008, the space earned the second highest possible level of Certification for Commercial Interiors, LEED Gold.  “Employees comment over and over about how pleasant it is to work in this new environment,” Reyhan said. 

Roy Abernathy, AIA, ASID, LEED AP, President & CEO Jova/Daniels/Busby. Copyright Robert Thien, Inc.

Architectural company Jova/Daniels/Busby, in extensive collaboration with Skanska USA and Corporate Environments, helped design a new home for the company and its employees that is pleasant, healthy, efficient, and eco-friendly.  It took a lot of innovative planning, reorganizing, and execution to move 300 people from an 80,000 sq. ft. space into one roughly half that size.   Increased productivity is a result of thoughtful, sustainable design.  Roy Abernathy, AIA, IDSA, ASID, LEED AP, President and CEO, Jova/Daniels/Busby, told Green Space Today, “Studies show that people that have access to daylight and better indoor air quality are more productive.  The space speaks internally on who Skanska is and what Skanska represents.”  Since working for Skanska USA on the build-out, Jova/Daniels/Busby was hired by Butler Snow, Mississippi’s largest law firm to design a large LEED pre-certified space.

Skanska USA is so convinced that green is vital to improved productivity and employee well being they plan to have all of their offices achieve some level of LEED certification.  Already, nationwide more than ninety Skanska employees are LEED accredited professionals.  Jova/Daniels/Busby’s Abernathy said of Skanska, “Skanska was green before green was cool.”  Skanska has allocated a lot of green--$45 million over three years to focus globally on sustainability in the construction industry.  

Incorporating environmental stewardship as part of Skanska USA Atlanta’s redesign initiative helped re-established Skanska as a leader and administrator of sustainable work practices. Copyright Robert Thien, Inc.

There can be no denying that there is at long last a green movement underway in the United States.  In fact, “Some investors,” said Reyhan, “are only investing in green building initiatives.”  In his book Hot, Flat, and Crowded; Why we Need a Green Revolution and How it can Renew America, Author Thomas L. Friedman calls Green the new Red, White, and Blue.  Companies like Skanska are leading this green groundswell, showing that sustainability is profitable with rewards both immediate and long-term.