Plymouth County Registry “Green Building” Project
It has been over three years (September 12, 2005) since we abandoned our 1904 location on Russell Street and moved into our more modern, handicapped accessible, technologically efficient land records facility at 50 Obery Street in Plymouth. It has clearly been a far better and safer work environment for our employees and the general public who access the registry.
The architectural design of our new building used natural light and current electrical and heating technology throughout the building. An independent analysis by NStar at the time brought significant energy efficiency rebates back to Plymouth County.
Several months ago, we began a new initiative. Our electrical provider, NStar, connected us with Rise Engineering, an NStar subcontractor, who recently completed an energy audit of our Plymouth facility at no charge to the Registry of Deeds. As part of completing the review, a site visit was conducted which resulted in changes to our night and weekend lighting. The report concluded that, based upon the methods used in the new building construction, we were at maximum energy efficiency.
We have, however, taken some additional steps towards minimizing our environmental footprint and also have set up an internal structure through our employees to expand these efforts. Recently, after a thorough review process and a trial period of recording non-time sensitive recordings, we approved our first outside vendor for the electronic submission of unregistered recordings. A company called Simplifile has created a program, at no cost to the registry, which allows for off-site closings and recordings. While that program has been promoted primarily for its improved efficiencies for both the registry and the filer, (usually closing attorneys), as this program expands it will have a significant positive environmental impact. There will be less carbon dioxide created by the reduction in vehicle trips to our Plymouth office or our satellite offices by attorneys and their clients, less traffic on the surrounding roads, and the new program will reduce the paper use at our recording counters. The recorded document comes to us as an electronic image.
We have also begun fact finding and preliminary discussions about creating solar energy options for our roof and behind our building at our Obery Street office building. We have had informational meetings with industry leaders about potential third-party ownership options that could reduce our electrical costs significantly.
In addition, we have established an internal “Green Building Committee” which will involve our employees in hands-on, cost-effective suggestions for making our day to day operations more environmentally friendly. John Zigouras, our Director of Operations, will coordinate exploration of a variety of alternatives. Each of our departments will be included in this process along with maintenance staff, with the intent to establish a pro-active Environmental Plan for our operations. Further updates of our progress will be noted on this website.
