As I was in Pennsylvania to attend SAPs Analysts Base Camp event earlier this

year, I took the opportunity to get a tour of the new LEED Platinum certified
Headquarters building. I was shown around the building by the facilities manager,
Jim Dodd, who informed me of the different steps taken to enable the structure to
achieve its an impressive LEED Platinum certification from theU.S. Green Building
Council (USGBC).

I videoed the tour and see below for a transcription of it:

Tom Raftery: Hey everyone! Welcome to GreenMonk TV, I am here in Newtown

Square at SAP Headquarters. I am with

Jim Dodd: Jim Dodd.

Tom Raftery: Jim, you are

Jim Dodd: The Facilities Manager for the campus.

Tom Raftery: Okay, now we are standing on a we are in the new building in
Newtown Square.

Jim Dodd: The new LEED Platinum Headquarters building, right.

Tom Raftery: Okay, and can you tell me about the floor that we are standing on?

Jim Dodd: In comparison to the floor in the headquarters old building, where we
used marble that was imported from Italy, what we wanted to do was to reduce that
cost and do a sustainable floor. And so this floor is a concrete floor, and it has a
mixture of seashells and glass in it on a terrazzo finish and then we polished it and
honed it up, so it would be nice and shiny. But its considerably less expensive
obviously than the marble floor in the main building and we use it in the atrium area
in a radiant floor which well talk about in a minute.

But its a less expensive solution and yet its a very attractive solution in terms of the
flooring for both the link to the new building and the atrium that runs the full length of
the floor downstairs on the promenade.

Tom Raftery: So, Jim, tell me about the floor.

Jim Dodd: Okay. In the promenade area, below us here, is a radiant floor, we have
pipes that run through that floor and we have ten geothermal wells that are drilled in
the back of our property. We take the water out of the ground where it comes as a
constant temperature and we pump it through the piping on the concrete floor
downstairs and the floor radiates heat or air-conditioning depending on what time of
the year it is. And it helps to keep this big atrium very comfortable without having to
use large amounts of air-conditioning or heating.

Tom Raftery: So its just using natural heat or cooling from the earth.

Jim Dodd: Thats correct, yes. So the water really comes out about 55 degrees out of
the ground and we can pump that through the floor and that cools the concrete and
radiates coolness in the summer time, and then in the winter time what we got to do
is heat that water up to about 72 degrees and then we pump that through the floor
and it heats the concrete and it radiates heat off the floor, and because its on the
floor, it affects the employees immediately and it keeps the atrium very, very, very
comfortable.

Tom Raftery: Okay, and youve got these nice banisters.

Jim Dodd: Yes, its an interesting situation here. When the original site survey was
done for this building, it would have wiped out of a grove of the mature Chinese
chestnut trees that are absolutely beautiful and are part of the aesthetics of the
campus. So we moved the building in order to save half of those chestnut trees, but
the chestnut trees that we did have to harvest in order to put the building here, we
had them milled into handrails for the whole building.

About 90% of whats in this building to construct it was sourced locally within 500
miles of the building and thats a sustainability feature again, it provides points on the
LEED scale because it cuts down on your carbon output because you are not
exporting things from thousands and thousands of miles away.

Tom Raftery: So Jim, tell me about the under floor?

Jim Dodd: Yeah, the difference the primary difference between the original
building and the new building is in the original building the air distribution comes
down from the ceiling plenum, and of course, thats not very efficient because heat
rises, so if you are trying to get heat down to where the people sit, its not in a very
efficient approach. In this building, we use an under floor distribution where the air
comes up through the floor and its controlled in each location with a vent, so people
can control the amount of air coming in their space and by coming up from the floor,
the treated air gets to the employee immediately and there is an immediate reaction
to that temperature adjustment.

In the other building of course the hot air comes down but it turns around and goes
right back up, so its not as efficient as this underfloor system is in this building here.
We have a wood feature in each of our hallways that separate the neighborhoods
and its made from bamboo. Again a sustainable wood thats renewable every seven
years in comparison to oak or walnut or some other wood that takes 40 or 50 years
to mature. We decided to use bamboo in this building because its sustainable.

Tom Raftery: So, tell me about the carpets.

Jim Dodd: So the carpet, in most instances when you install large amounts of carpet,
there is volatile organic chemicals in the carpet like formaldehyde that require you to
aerate the building for a period of time before you can occupy it. We work with the
manufacturer of this particular carpet to reduce or eliminate VOCs in it. So we did
not have to ventilate the building for a period of time prior to occupancy.
And it makes for a cleaner environment for the employees overall without the
organic chemicals off gassing from the carpet.

Tom Raftery: So what have we got beside us, Jim?

Jim Dodd: This is a filter water system that we put in. A number of years ago we
used to provide bottled water for the employees and then we realized how much
plastic waste was being generated, and even though it was being recycled. We
decided to eliminate bottled water from the campus and we installed one of these
Innowave water systems in each of our pantries. Its filtered and it also cools the
water and heats the water. So if you want to make tea, you can get hot water, and if
you want cold water, you can get cold water.

But it reduced our cost by over $120,000 on bottled water, and got rid of the plastic
issue.

Tom Raftery: So, Jim, where are we now?

Jim Dodd: We are in the chiller room of the new building of the Platinum LEED
building and what we do thats unique in this building in comparison to other
buildings is we actually make ice at night and store it in these very big tanks behind
me, and we use the system because at night the electricity is less expensive and the
pressure on the grid is lower. So we dont have to run the chiller during the day,
because what we do is, we melt the ice during the day when we need air-
conditioning and then we use that to cool the building and we dont have to use our
chiller during the day, when the grid is being stressed by everyone else, wanting air
conditioning.

Tom Raftery: So Jim, tell me about this garden, where are we?

Jim Dodd: We are on the roof of the new building, believe it or not, and this is a
green roof, this is a very unique approach to maintaining constant temperatures in
the building. By having a green roof we keep the building cooler in the summer and
warmer in the winter.
The other unique thing about this, as you can see we have to mow grass and we
didnt want to have to store gasoline up here, because its a hazardous flammable
material. So we sought out a company that made a very good electric lawnmower
and we mow the grass up here with electric lawnmower. In that way, we dont have
to store any gasoline up here, and its quite and it doesnt just dirt people when they
are working, its just a very unique approach to roof construction.

Tom Raftery: Jim, what have we behind this?

Jim Dodd: Behind this is the meadow as a part of our 102 acres of property here,
and what we did this year, was working with the Triskeles Foundation and One
Village, One Farm, these are non-profit organizations; we agree to put in an organic
garden. We have enough room. So we put in a 10050 organic garden with 22
raised beds and well donate the food at the end of this year to all the local food
banks.

We expect to produce hundreds of pounds of produce in this garden, and working

with organic, no pesticides or anything like that, all natural ingredients to keep the
bugs off, and then there is a 6 foot deer fence around it, because we have a lot of
deer on the property and the garden would just get eaten to nothing. So we put a
fence around it to protect it from the deer.
So were doing cucumbers, summer squash, tomatoes and peppers, and then, well
have a fall planting as well, and all of that food will go to the local food banks.

We have 80 volunteers that have volunteered to take care of the garden. So we

have plenty of people to take care of it, and its going to work out really, really well,
and its another sustainable aspect of the property.

We also have two beehives on the property as well. We have a beekeeper that
works for SAP and he had asked us if he could put beehives on the property. And we
agreed to do that, because we felt that that was another sustainable issue in terms
of pollinating and protecting the bees.

There has been a degeneration of bee colonies around the world and so having
good bee colonies is very important to the propagation of all the different plant life
that we have on the campus. So we decided to put the beehives here as well.

Tom Raftery: So what have we behind us, Sir Jim?

Jim Dodd: Okay, what you see behind us here is a 60,000 gallon cistern, buried in
the ground, and we collect our rainwater in that cistern and then we use the
rainwater for irrigation and flushing toilets, you know what, they call brown water or
gray water, and with all the rain that weve had its full.

But its another way for us to get LEED points, but its also a better way to manage
our water consumption on campus because we can use that rainwater to irrigate. We
have a beautiful courtyard in between the two buildings and we irrigate that with that
water. We also irrigate the green roof that youve seen with the cistern water. So it all
goes into that 2 million gallons of savings of water per year.

Tom Raftery: So why are we standing beside this artwork, Jim?

Jim Dodd: This is part of our social sustainability program where we work with local
non-profits to do certain things. In this particular case, we work with a non-profit
called Fresh Artists. These are young children, these are not adults, these are
children who have painted this artwork that you see behind you.

We make a donation, substantial donation to fresh artists, so they can buy supplies
and easels and paints and brushes for their children, and then we in turn purchase
their artwork to hang in this building.
So except on the executive floor, all other floors of this building have examples of
this artwork from these young children and some of them are quite attractive and
fun. But its a social sustainability thing as a part of our work with the community.

And the IT systems?

Jim Dodd: Its a dashboard.

Tom Raftery: Right.

Jim Dodd: And it tells you the consumption of electricity in this building, the
consumption of electricity in the other building, and it tells me what my PUE is in my
data center, which is a

Tom Raftery: I know PUE.

Jim Dodd: Okay, you know what that is. So it tells me how were operating, whether
theres some kind of anomaly, were using more electricity than usual. We can get
just a quick glimpse of how the building is functioning, and what its consumption
rates are in both buildings.

But then they go far beyond that and they can drill down to an individual air handler,
right to the motor and determine if its running, how fast its going, how much power
its using. We monitor over 10,000 points of information of data on all the systems in
the building.