Design & Construction Services
GEM building science professionals help our clients envision, design and construct projects that successfully achieve project objectives based on an owner’s project requirements, basis of design and other construction documents. We can cover any of your project needs, from verifying compliance to achieving more aggressive green building and high-performance energy goals.
Permit-Related
GEM’s permit services help design and construction professionals identify cost-effective energy saving strategies early in the design process when solutions are least expensive to implement. Using sophisticated energy modeling software, we deliver the latest knowledge in building science to the project team to successfully achieve client project objectives. Our meticulous project management processes and know-how provide a valuable tool set for the project team to achieve more energy efficient features that are built to comply with California Building Standards Code. Our team reviews project plans and specifications to verify that the latest energy and green building codes are integrated. Maintaining our independence, we also provide the necessary documentation needed to ensure a smooth permitting approval process.
Services
Title-24
CALGreen
HERS
Commissioning
Affordable Housing Tax Credit Services
Rebuild Services
ENERGY EFFICIENCY
Closely collaborating with the project team, GEM’s customized consulting services provide a blueprint for project teams to optimize energy performance, increase building resiliency and implement economically viable green building solutions.
As California continues to reel from the impacts of climate change, the compounding effect of increasingly common hazardous events highlights the importance of the state’s goal of significantly reducing its emissions. Much of the untapped potential to reach its carbon reduction goals is being met by doubling down on its efforts to increase building energy efficiency standards. This has brought many changes to the way buildings are designed and constructed. Using sophisticated diagnostic tools, we identify discrepancies between a building’s predicted and actual use of energy. Our commitment to providing accurate, independent and objective advice provides clear actionable steps to cost-effectively implement energy efficiency and green building solutions meant to address any areas of inefficiency and optimize future operational costs.
Services
HERS
Commissioning
Retro-Commissioning
Zero Net Energy
ENERGY STAR Certification
ENERGY STAR Benchmarking
Residential Auditing
Single and Multifamily
HERS II & BPI-based
ASHRAE Level 1
ASHRAE Level 2
ASHRAE Level 3
Life-Cycle Cost Analysis
Affordable Housing
Tax Credit Services
Rebuild Services
GREEN BUILDING
California is the first-in-the-nation to employ a mandatory green building standards code. As collaborators, GEM’s team assists our clients by working with a project’s developers, owners, architects, engineers and contractors to integrate green building solutions from design through building operations. Delivering real results, we offer everything from California mandated third-party verification to nationally recognized green building certification programs, customized to fit your project’s needs.
Delivering detailed program management from a base of well-informed project requirements, we streamline the latest energy systems and green building knowledge to make sure a project runs as planned, on time and budget. We lay a firm foundation for project success by carefully curating a plan in close collaboration with a project’s design and construction team to define a vision and implement a strategy on how to best achieve high-performance energy goals, and more ambitious green programs.
Services
CALGreen
LEED Certification Consulting
Living Building Challenge
Build-It Green GreenPoint Rated
Affordable Housing Tax Credit Services
Rebuild Services
AFFORDABLE HOUSING
At GEM, we believe a strong community is a place of opportunity for everyone. Dedicated to our local residents, our team assists owners and developers overcome disincentives, lack of available funds, and any insufficient knowledge of the rapidly evolving construction delivery processes. While not every affordable housing project faces these obstacles, each can impede the integration of energy efficiency and other green features.
Our dedicated analysts are here to help! Maintaining our independence to best serve our client’s needs, we methodically strategize and support the design and construction teams efforts to generate innovative solutions to issues that have the potential to impede project development. Offering turn-key solutions, our consulting services provide well-informed strategies to implement solutions that reduce operational and energy costs for project owners, or their future occupants. If your project is pursuing any low income tax credit funding we know how to leverage project-specific energy efficiency and green features to make it more likely to secure any available funds, on time and budget.
Services
Energy and Green Building Charrettes
Building Performance Testing: BPI, Title 24, CALGreen, HERS
Green Building Certification Programs: LEED, GreenPoint Rated, ENERGY Star, IndoorAirPLUS, WaterSense
Funding Support: Optimize energy and green building programs to meet funding criteria
Zero Net Energy
Energy Audits and Modeling
Solar-PV System Sizing
Tenant Utility Allowance Reporting
CLIMATE CHANGE
At the vanguard of climate change policy, California is taking actionable steps towards making a meaningful impact in the human activities responsible for the increase in greenhouse gas emissions. GEM provides climate change consulting services by working with cities, providing a detailed roadmap to meet emission reduction goals.
Working with our local Bay Area cities, we provide strategic direction, tools and a practical plan to support a cities vision to meet its emission and sustainability targets. Our comprehensive services bring the latest design and building knowledge to the field, providing quantitative analysis of energy consumption patterns to assist the wide range of solutions needed for cities to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Making it easy to support cities with their needs, we offer a wide variety of services to fit a city’s diverse needs.
Reach out to us to start the process!
Services
Municipal Climate Action Planning
Municipal GHG Implementation Support
California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Greenhouse Gas Emmissions Analysis