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July 11, 2007

Rumsey Engineers Awarded Second LEED Platinum Building, Tahoe Center for Environmental Sciences

Oakland, CA - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Rumsey Engineers today announced that Tahoe Center for Environmental Sciences (TCES) on the Incline Village campus of Sierra Nevada College has been awarded a LEED Platinum rating by the United States Green Building Council, making the firm one of only two engineering firms worldwide to have two buildings awarded a Platinum rating. The building is also Nevada's first LEED Platinum building, and one of only four laboratories worldwide to receive Platinum designation. LEED, the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings, recognizes and measures building performance in five key areas: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection, and indoor environmental quality.

Rumsey Engineers was the mechanical engineer on the design team, which included Collaborative Design Studio (formerly Lundahl & Associates) in Reno, Nevada, architects; Integrated Design Associates in San Jose, California, electrical engineers; and David Nelson & Associates in Littleton, Colorado, lighting designers. The building has achieved energy savings of 60% over ASHRAE 90.1 and 65% water savings over traditional systems.

Rumsey Engineers has been steadily gaining a reputation internationally as a pioneer in the design of low energy laboratories: projects designed by the firm show that labs can be built that deliver the highest levels of safety and user comfort while dramatically reducing energy and water consumption. A unique combination of innovative designs achieved this result for TCES:

• Chilled Beams: Rumsey Engineers was the first to use chilled beams (or induction diffusers) in a laboratory in the U.S. Chilled beams, widely used for commercial office buildings in Europe, are a highly energy efficient technology ideally suited for labs, and can be installed for no additional total system cost over traditional laboratory ventilation systems.
• Radiant heating and cooling
• Lab exhaust heat recovery, chilled water storage, and solar hot water)
• Daylighting: careful use of natural daylighting significantly reduced lighting energy use
• Innovative water efficient plumbing design features, include waterless urinals, low-flow toilets, and a unique snowmelt and rainwater catchment system that captures water for use in toilet flushing and trap primers.

The project was developed as a partnership between University of California, Davis and Sierra Nevada College (SNC), to be a leading environmental science and education center. The three story, 45,000 square foot facility houses classrooms and laboratories for students and research facilities for Sierra Nevada College, the University of California, Davis, Tahoe Environmental Research Center, the University of Nevada, Reno, and the Desert Research Institute. The programs developed by the collaboration of these institutions serve as models for public/private partnerships focused on researching and solving our pressing environmental problems.

According to Peter Rumsey, president of Rumsey Engineers, "The fact that TCES has achieved a LEED Platinum rating at relatively low additional construction cost will have a lasting impact on how we build sustainable labs in the future. The combination of innovative design features in every aspect of the project - architectural, mechanical, electrical, lighting, and plumbing - has resulted in significant reductions in energy and water use as well as optimal user safety and comfort and building performance."

About Rumsey Engineers
Rumsey Engineers, Inc., is a Bay Area-based design engineering firm that specializes in innovative HVAC system solutions for the most demanding commercial installations and critical environments, including green buildings, data centers, cleanrooms and laboratories. The company's philosophy is based on the premise that the best design is simple and elegant, and results in substantially lower energy costs.

Contact: Clifton Lemon 510 663 2070 x 217 clemon@rumseyengineers.com .