Green Scene

BY PHIL HAGEN

At SH Architecture in Las Vegas, the Game Is Green

Somewhere along the way, the "Green Game" went extreme at SH Architecture. Maybe it was when Manny Contreras rode his 10-year-old son's BMX bike to work to score points. Or it could have been when another project manager, Sarah Mojzer, figured out how to get her urban home's yard certified by the National Wildlife Federation.

Either way, it happened: A little human-resources stunt designed to earn employees a couple of days off turned into a hotly contested affair, with life- and company-changing results. It would also help the Las Vegas firm earn the Nevada Chapter of the American Institute of Architects' first Sustainable Practice Award.

Sure, SH was honored for its impressive green architectural design too, such as the two Clark County schools that earned Energy Star certification from the EPA. But it was the "Green Game," which pitted SH's four divisions against each other, that really hit home.

"We wanted to take our firm a step further than just saying, 'Yeah, we're green like everybody else,'" says Eric Roberts, an SH vice president and one of the game's founders.

The answer was right there in the first line of the freshly minted corporate mission statement: "We will change the perceptions of the marketplace through our people, processes and products…." Other than pushing to get all 40 employees LEED AP certified, the first of the "Three P's" hadn't been fully addressed — at least in a holistic sense, considering that architects don't only design buildings, they live in them, work in them and drive to them.

The Green Game's purpose was "to make sustainability a part of each team member's daily routine," with points scored for meeting what Roberts admits were consumer goals from the end of Al Gore's film An Inconvenient Truth — such as lowering the thermostat and switching to compact fluorescents. But quantity and quality drove the contest.

And instead of the usual gloom-and-doom tactics, they made it fun, starting with a frog mascot named Altum (Latin for "higher"), whose wry messages ("Hey, ride your bike to work — your hair looks bad anyway") dot the office walls.

It all worked better than Roberts could have dreamed. "When you get into competition, you tap into human nature," he says. "Ideas were coming out of the woodwork."

An SH Architecture employee scans the green board in the company's break room.

SH employees removed 2,400 square feet of turf from their yards; they replaced thermostats with digital "set-back" types; they carpooled (at the height of the game, 80 percent of the staff shared rides), biked or rode the bus; they not only recycled, but they encouraged 75 friends to do so; some adopted stretches of highway for cleanup; some planted trees in the Las Vegas Wash; five hung their clothes outside to dry…. The results go on and on.

And then there was Mojzer's yard work. Not only did she meet National Wildlife Federation criteria by using only native vegetation, but she also rigged up her washing machine with gravity-powered plumbing so plants could be nourished with graywater.

Most of the spirit from what Roberts calls "the summer of love" is still around, from the Altum stickers to the "green board" in the break room. Here employees can share tips, such as "Did you know Glad makes recycled plastic trash bags?" And inspired by weekly green meetings, the employee-owned firm adds to its commitment regularly, whether that's buying each principal a hybrid car or fighting the paper-happy system.

"We tried submitting half-size documents to the City of Henderson, Nevada, and they allowed them," Roberts says. "Nobody had ever questioned the status quo before."

Now that mindset is a way of life. "If sustainability is not fully integrated into who you are," Roberts says, "it won't be successful, it'll be a fad." This summer's re-launch of the Green Game will focus on individual Architecture 2030 efforts.

In addition to inspiring employees to take action, the Green Game has helped SH to refine its green-design expertise. Those waterless urinals in its restrooms, for example, not only save the company money, but when an architect recommends them to a client, he knows what he's talking about. And as a result of employees becoming more keenly aware of how the natural lighting works (or doesn't work) in their office, they changed the glazing and shading specs on some recent projects.

Like when Cashman Equipment Company hired SH to design a seven-building headquarters to meet LEED Gold standards, it received more than the usual plans for xeriscaping and recycled materials — the design package includes teaching the Las Vegas company how to build a sustainable culture in the workplace. And yes, that's complete with instructions on how to run its very own "Green Game."

SH Architecture, 7373 Peak Drive, Suite 250, Las Vegas, NV 89128; (702) 363-2222 or www.sh-architecture.com.