Citadel Saves 50,000 Wild Honey Bees!

Citadel’s beliefs and ethics were called into action when they suddenly became the home to over 50,000 wild honey bees. Just like any other company, Citadel was alarmed at the idea of wild bees being so close in proximity to its employees and pedestrians and their safety possibly being threatened. As an environmental company, Citadel not only works with many companies to bring safety and sustainability to the forefront, but they practice it as well.

Citadel was aware of the option to bring in an exterminator and have them removed and killed, but then that would be going against their company ethics, so they pursued other alternatives. They found help from a bee specialist, Chris Carr who works at Shangri-La (Citadel’s client) who was more than willing to help in this quest to save the wild honey bees. The process took more than 9 hours and after a few stings, Mr. Carr was able to get the bees to their new home at C & C’z Beez where they are continuing to make wild honey.

Citadel is more than proud to say that they did not contribute to the current honey bee hive shortage by only relying on one option. With a little time, research and in Citadel’s circumstances, luck, they were able to stick to their ethics and beliefs and remain a positive example.

California Governor Orders State Buildings and Agencies to Reduce Energy Consumption and GHG Emissions

Effective immediately, California Governor Jerry Brown issued executive order B-18-12, which requires all state agencies to reduce entity-wide GHG emissions by at least 10% by 2015 and 20% by 2020, as measured against a 2010 baseline.  Also, by 2025, all newly constructed or renovated state buildings must be constructed as zero net energy facilities.  Additionally, the executive order requires a minimum of U.S. Green Building Council “Silver” LEED certification for all newly constructed or renovated state buildings of 10,000 square feet or more.  State agencies must also reduce overall water use at the facilities they operate by 10% by 2015 and by 20% by 2020, as measured against a 2010 baseline. To read more regarding this executive order, please click on the link executive order.

Citadel’s Sustainability Service line can help businesses take their companies to the next level with a re-investment in the environment. Corporate environmental responsibility has become a major tool for product/service differentiation. Consumers are increasingly choosing environmentally responsible providers of goods and services as the new Green movement takes hold worldwide. Our services help companies develop Green policies and procedures, characterize and reduce waste, increase energy efficiency, and evaluate the environmental impact of their products, all of which all reduce their net carbon footprint. 

If you would like to learn more about going Green, please contact us. 

Specs+Spaces Article - Citadel Environmental Services: Greening the Workplace

An article was published from Dunn-Edwards Specs + Spaces, recognizing Citadel not only for its work in helping companies Go Green, but also for setting a great example as to how beneficial being Green can be!

Specs+Spaces Citadel Environmental Services: Greening the Workplace

EHS&S Consultant by Day - Financial Prognosticator by Night

While I practice Environmental, Health, Safety and Sustainability (EHS&S) consulting by day, I’ve been forced to become a financial prognosticator by night. As the Principal of Citadel, a mid-sized, employee-owned EHS&S firm, I’ve always had to make forecasts about the economy, identify industry trends, and formulate corporate strategies. The basis for my decision making could be as sound as making conclusions relying on established business and trade journals or as weak as consulting with the swelling in my trick knee. Either way, it was hard for me to go wrong. 

Before the last major recession, “all boats were rising” - I could always dial in growth into the planning process, as we had grown steadily for 15 years. Conversely, for 2008-2010ish, I could forecast reductions or no growth as the entire economy was either in a tail-spin or treading water – “all boats were sinking”.

But a couple of weeks ago, I was given a challenge by a valued Citadel business consultant, Dr. Kim Huynh, to conduct a webinar to a university audience. My responsibility was to share my insights into the EHS&S industry as to its stability, potential for growth, trends, and industry drivers. My challenge was that I was presenting to a mature, international audience that likely wouldn’t merely accept “because my trick knee is never wrong” predictions, and were looking for fact-based assessments. And we all know, anyone making predictions the last couple of years were, either, fools or someone who was going to soon made a fool. But, here I was, being forced to make predictions in the transparency of fog.

I turned to three trusted sources to measure the state of the economy for the EHS&S industry: (1) our existing pipeline, (2) IBISWorld’s August 2011 Report, and (3) our insurance broker.

Unrecognized by most, the environmental industry is a good leading indicator about the strength of the economy or at least investor confidence. We represent several hundred clients in numerous industries including real estate, retail, entertainment, education, energy, manufacturing/aerospace, defense, health care, government, etc. Often, environmental firms, especially those similar to Citadel that service the entire life-cycle of real estate, are the first in on deals, working with the “smart money” before architects and engineers, and well before contractors. Therefore, my first indicator was looking at work in progress, backlog, opportunities, and the telltale billable hours metric. Having reviewed those measures, the first indicator for an economic upturn was a “go.” 

The second source was IBISWorld’s August 2011 Report for our industry. After reading about 50 pages of the report and all of the entertaining charts (zzzz), the conclusion was that we could expect 9.4 % annual growth for the next several years. The second indicator was a “go.” So far, so good. 

The third source, while ostensibly an odd source, was our insurance broker. For the past 20 years, I’ve turned to our broker as a bellwether as to the state of the economy. Similar to Citadel, his firm represents clients from a cross-section of different industries and are intimately familiar with their clients’ business operations. In the case of our broker, it doesn’t hurt that he is the West Coast President of an insurance brokerage owned by one of the nation’s top-ten largest banks. Having his insight into his customer base and access to his parent company’s economists, he reported back that almost all of his clients were adjusting their strategic plans upward or currently hiring new staff to service existing business or expected business. Our experience is similar to many of our broker’s - we’ve been hiring additional staff (announcements will be forthcoming), investing in real estate and equipment, conducting extensive staff development, and re-tooling our practices of how we work.

The conclusion for my preparation for the webinar was that the EHS&S industry was on solid footing and that a recovery was underway. Now, I recognize that there are some destabilizing factors and some looming threats to the economy such as the presidential election, national debt/spending cuts, Europe’s sovereign debt crisis, and a series of bad options for dealing with Iran, however, it’s time for the bear (at least a timid bear) to come out of hibernation. In won’t be a quick, gangbuster recovery, but it will steadily improve over time.

Now, I just have to hope that I’m not tomorrow’s fool.

Loren Witkin

Principal

BIOGRAPHY

Citadel Relocates Corporate Offices to Sustainable Facility; Seeking LEED CI Platinum Certification

1725 Victory Boulevard 

Glendale, California, 91201

Citadel is proud to announce the relocation of its corporate headquarters to 1725 Victory Boulevard, Glendale, California 91201.  The 8000 square foot structure was originally built in 1973 for light manufacturing use, and was eventually occupied by Knucklehead's Inc., the retail licensing arm of the firm founded by The Three Stooges.  The tenant space 1725, which occupies 4,446 square feet of the building, has been vacant for an extended period of time, and upon purchase was neglected and in despair.  Citadel has invested $2.5 Million to transform the space into a first class sustainable office building, re-designing it into an inspirational landmark that both complements and improves the up-and-coming, mixed-use neighborhood.

The goal of the building renovations was to demonstrate to the business community that "going green" makes sound economic sense.  The office space features many innovative sustainable design solutions that reduce operating costs, energy use, water consumption, and carbon footprint; which enhance marketability, increase employee productivity and well-being, and serve as an asset to the entire building and neighborhood-at-large.  The sustainable vision was incorporated in every aspect and area of the re-design, including the tenant space at 1727 Victory.

Because of this vision, Citadel is currently seeking the highest possible certification level for LEED for Commercial Interiors (version 2.0), Platinum Level.  If awarded, Citadel's building will be the first privately held LEED certified building in Glendale, the highest LEED-level certified building in Glendale, and only the 5th Platinum level Commercial Interiors Version 2.0 certified building in the State of California.

Major improvements and sustainable design features include:

• A solar array forecasted to provide 45,000 khw of power per year (enough to power all of Citadel’s and their tenant’s space, and net meter an additional 16% back to Glendale Water and Power to supply the community 
• New energy efficient double-paned exterior windows and storefronts for both tenant spaces 
• Skylights over both tenant spaces for increased daylight  
• Low-emissivity cool roof 
• New energy-efficient lighting design to reduce lighting power density by more than 35% below the standard 
• Native, drought-resistant landscaping with drip irrigation system 
• New packaged air handling systems (SER 14) to reduce utility costs, increase building operational efficiencies by 37% and provide improved interior air quality and climate control 
• Use of low-VOC paints, adhesives, and carpet systems 
• Abatement and removal of existing asbestos 
• New water-efficient interior plumbing and bathroom fixtures including waterless urinals able to reduce the water use for the Citadel space by 62.69%  
• New designated preferred parking for carpools, low-emitting and fuel-efficient vehicles  
• Awnings to reduce urban heat island effect  
• Though Fundamental Commissioning is a prerequisite on a LEED project, Citadel decided to also go through Enhanced Commissioning because it can detect MEP systems that were designed to be highly efficient but were either not installed or are not working to full design potential  
• Recycled Content - 20%-30% of the materials used on this project are comprised of recycled content. Additionally, between 50‐95% of the waste created during the construction process was recycled 
• At least 10% of materials used on the project were extracted and manufactured locally within 500 miles of the site  
• Between 50‐95% of the wood used on the project was FSC certified  
• Above And Beyond LEED True Sustainability - Whole Building Improvement‐ Went above and beyond LEED by actually doing improvement on entire building including tenants, not just Citadel space 
• Achieved more points than able to use‐ SSc1 allows for 3 points. We achieved more than 4 points because the building was designed to be as efficient and sustainable as possible, regardless of how many of these points were being used for LEED purposes 
• Located within a 0.25 mile radius of two bus routes, and eight different stops, to encourage alternative transportation  
• Green Power‐ Though the highly efficient design of the building coupled with the installation of such a large solar array will create all of the power needed for the entire building, Citadel is still purchasing Renewable Energy Credits for 50% of the power needs for 2 years
  

Call us to schedule a viewing of our new facility today!  818-246-2707

Citadel's New Space!

Citadel is excited to announce the recent acquisition of an 8,000 square foot office building in the City of Glendale. The site was previously the headquarters for Knuckleheads, Inc., the retail licensing and merchandising arm for the Three Stooges.  Renovations are currently underway, with an estimated completion date of November, 2009.  The goal of the building renovations is to achieve certification at the LEED-CI v2.0 at "GOLD" or "PLATINUM" level.  Upon completion, Citadel's building will be the first privately held LEED certified building, and the highest level certified building, in Glendale, California, Los Angeles County's third-largest city.

Major planned improvements include increases to building energy, water, and overall operational efficiency.  Stay tuned for more detailed information on this exciting project, as well as a tentative open house to be held in November, 2009.