Saint-Gobain Products Deliver Performance and Sustainability

Challenges

IDI secured Ecolab as the warehouse tenant. Ecolab is a global sustainability leader offering water, hygiene, and infection prevention solutions and services. With the new tenant in place the design team had to promptly transition from building a standard warehouse to a lab-like facility.

The project had two primary needs: Upgrade the fireproofing for the storage of Ecolab’s flammable items, and warehouse flooring to accommodate their double rack shelving systems. These critical requirements needed to be installed in a tight-time frame, all while meeting LEED specifications.

Solutions

Fireproofing

IDI Logistics selected GCP’s MONOKOTE® Fireproofing to provide the fire protection needed for Ecolab’s materials, as it is both high-performing and met LEED requirements.

All MONOKOTE Fireproofing materials have Type III environmental product declarations (EPD). The construction industry is by far the largest emitter of greenhouse gasses, accounting for 37% of global emissions, according to a report developed by the UN Environment Program. This urgent need has led architects, building owners, and specifiers to recognize the need of EPDs as a tool to reduce the embodied carbon of their buildings.

“We like MONOKOTE as a fireproofing solution due to its EPDs,” says Steve Golumbeck, IDI Logistics Chicago’s vice president of development. “For us it was a win-win. MONOKOTE was the most economical, met all fireproofing criteria, and it had a better carbon footprint.”

It’s critical that we look beyond simply compiling documentation and start using EPDs as a tool to allow us to reduce our carbon footprint in the building industry.

MONOKOTE Fireproofing products also meet the needs of projects targeting LEED V4 or Living Building Challenge certification, with a carbon footprint that is less than half that of the industry average for similar products. All information related to the sustainability of MONOKOTE Fireproofing products has been investigated and verified by third parties.

“When IDI was evaluating fireproofing solutions we didn’t know if we were the least expensive option for the project,” says John Dalton, GCP’s fire protection technical services manager. “Competitive bids are always pretty close, but we credit Steve and IDI for understanding the value of the embodied carbon savings in MONOKOTE. Instead of sustainability being an exercise in checking boxes, to their credit this developer went a step further and made embodied carbon a conscious choice. It’s critical that we look beyond simply compiling documentation and start using EPDs as a tool to allow us to reduce our carbon footprint in the building industry.”

Engineered Slabs

IDI Logistics selected their trusted warehouse flooring solution, DUCTILCRETE® engineered slab systems from CHRYSO & GCP, to reduce the global warming potential (GWP), seamlessly provide the concrete floor surface needed for Ecolab’s racking system, and save money in the process.

“DUCTILCRETE is our preferred slab system for all of our buildings across the nation,” Golumbeck says. “We like to construct a building from both a maintenance and energy efficient perspective. DUCTILCRETE helps us meet both of those objectives with its reduced controlled joint slab, and it is the most cost effective in long-term maintenance.”

Traditionally warehouse facilities are built with concrete slabs, a process involving materials that results in high amounts of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere. Since DUCTILCRETE engineered slab systems are typically thinner than traditional concrete slabs they require considerably less cement. For example, using a DUCTILCRETE system for a 1,000,000-square-foot warehouse could eliminate roughly 1.2 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions.

The DUCTILCRETE engineered systems not only drives down carbon dioxide use, but their unique design significantly lowers maintenance costs. Traditional concrete slabs are prone to cracking due to control joints and concrete curling. By drastically reducing the number of control joints and utilizing a system that reduces the potential for curling, DUCTILCRETE engineered slabs remain flat, providing tenants with greater flexibility in racking and equipment layouts and are easier to maintain. These very flat slabs are also ideal for those using a computerized picking system or cantilevered racking systems.

“If we used a conventional slab we would have to upgrade the slab, and Ecolab would have been isolated to use their racking only in certain areas of the warehouse,” Golumbeck says. “With DUCTILCRETE we were able to give them the capability to move the racking anywhere in the warehouse as the slabs are six inches throughout.”

Installed by licensed DUCTILCRETE installer Scurto Cement Construction, the use of DUCTILCRETE engineered slabs also significantly reduced the time needed. Instead of a typical 30 weeks to install slabs, the DUCTILCRETE engineered slabs were installed in just five weeks.