A Case for Green Badger: In Conversation with ZC Sustainability’s Vikki Tucker.
Original Post on Green Badger’s Case Study page, as they interviewed Vikki Tucker.
Q: Thank you so much for joining us today! I think to start things off I’d like to ask you about your first time using Green Badger?
Photography via LPA Design Studios
VT: West Hollywood Park Phase 2 was the first project in which ZC Sustainability (ZCS) utilized Green Badger for Building products disclosure and optimization (BPDO) & Low emitting materials platform.
As it turns out this was also my first project with ZCS. I had just transitioned from being the in-house interior designer for a boutique US- based hotelier family. So, at first it was a bit overwhelming to understand and keep track of all the submittals coming in at once. But once I became familiar with Green Badger’s platform, and through researching their updated resources and templates available on their website and app I was able to streamline through the BPDO and Low-emitting submittals by simply entering the product names and manufacturer information into the Green Badger app. Green Badger’s database took it from there and confirmed which credit and option each product complied with. Green Badger was also able to confirm that the project could achieve the MRc4 Option 2 credit, which can be a difficult point to achieve. Gaining that additional point so easily and quickly was a dealbreaker for us and we were officially impressed with Green Badgers’ capabilities. In no small part, due to Green Badger, we were able to readily submit for LEED Gold certification for West Hollywood Park Phase 2.
Q: How useful do you find the Central Project Dashboard?
VT: For my workload (currently working on 10 projects at any given moment), Green Badger has become a very useful tool for researching compliant construction documentation. It’s a life saver to go back and forth using Green Badger’s Central Project Dashboard, which allows me to reference all the projects at once to see how materials and documentation can be used with other projects.
Q: Is it safe to say that this ability to reference all the projects at once also results in significant time savings?
VT: Indeed it is! Green Badger is a real time platform which simplifies our team’s ability to make changes and add documents that everyone can track on a project. It has streamlined our project load considerably.
Also, Green Badger makes searching for EPDs, HPDs and VOC certifications quick and easy with their up-to-date material database. Tedious, endless searches through submittals to find required documents have been reduced to a few clicks of a button.
Q: What impact has Green Badger had on project team collaboration and communication?
VT: Green Badger has especially helped with better communication between our team and the general contractor. Whenever we request the general contractor of a project to reach out to Tommy Linstroth (founder of Green Badger) directly for an overview of the Green Badger platform, he never hesitates to make that happen. Tommy also has a natural ability in explaining and showing how the Green Badger platform is user friendly and easy to use and understand.
ZCS is now including Green Badger into our charrettes so that we can foreground an efficient process up front. We encourage the GC to use the tool for BPDO & Low-emitting materials documentation and explain that the project can achieve these credits if we use most of the products on their database. The GC can also save time by having the calculator and all the required documents in one place.
Q: Have you utilized any of our trainings through Green Badger Academy?
VT: The ZCS team has taken many of Green Badger’s contractor LEED trainings and webinars. We feel they are useful for better understanding and using Green Badger’s available tools so that we can streamline our projects. Not only for our team, but we also encourage the GCs to attend these trainings. Green Badger Academy is a great start for any of the project teams.
Q: Has Green Badger helped improve the efficiency with which you stay current on any changes to credit requirements?
VT: The LEED addendum changes constantly because solutions are being made in real time and the LEED system must align with the changing landscape. However, from a user perspective this makes it much harder to stay current with requirements. That is why Green Badger’s LEED resources are phenomenal. We use Green Badger’s resources and cross reference them with other tools and research for credit documentation.
Q: Is there anything about the Green Badger platform that you think others might not assume?
VT: Definitely! The tool is so easy to use and organizes data in a user-friendly way that we have found that Green Badger’s platform is not only a great tool for LEED, but for most of the other green building rating systems that we use on other projects, such as WELL & CHPS. The tool complies with the LEED criteria, which means that it is also likely to comply with the other green building rating systems.
The ZCS team has committed itself to understanding as many green building rating systems to stay on top of the most innovative ways to advise our clients in building a healthy, efficient, and equitable future. We believe that tools that make the process more transparent, and hold the potential to cross platforms and support all green building systems is the only way forward. So, we’re certainly grateful for you folks at Green Badger who approach your product in a similarly transparent and innovative way!