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At Synergi, sustainability is a business method we practice to ensure the safety, efficiency, and responsibility for the well-being of our employees, clients, partners, communities, and the environment, now and in the future.
We believe that we have an obligation to operate in a sustainable manner to benefit not only the environment, but to best serve our clients and partners, secure profits, and drive long-term prosperity. Our daily operations align business performance with a commitment to environmental stewardship. By considering the environmental impact in every operational decision, Synergi is committed to not only reducing carbon output in the near-term, but reaching net-zero carbon by 2030.
For over 30 years, Synergi has designed, fabricated, and installed railing systems and architectural products comprising of metal, glass, stone, and wood. As the fabrication of these components is historically associated with significant carbon output, Synergi has given major consideration to how to operate in an environmentally sustainable manner and makes every effort to reduce the carbon footprint of our projects. In an industry that’s notoriously problematic for the environment, we’re committed to delivering impactful solutions.
As our business keeps growing in scale and influence, we’re harnessing our unique capabilities in engineering and design to be a positive force of change.
OperatingSustainably
Material Sourcing
We use quality-centric, environmentally sustainable processes during fabrication. Low VOC paints are utilized to improve indoor air quality and reduce urban smog. A computer-controlled machine in the factory measures and cuts our glass railing systems parts, reducing energy and eliminating waste. The engineering and quality of our railing systems ensure a long-life cycle, maximizing efficiency and reducing the need for untimely replacement. The materials used are maintenance-free, abolishing the need for harsh chemicals, stains, or paints. Because metal and glass have innate recyclable properties, our products can be recycled when the time for disposal arises. We aim to source materials from within 500 miles of a project site and adhere to a minimum total recycled content for the parts we use.
• 25% minimum recycled for stainless steel
• 60% minimum recycled for aluminum
• 95% minimum recycled for brass and bronze
All steel products are exclusively sourced from recycled steel manufacturers, including Nucor, North America’s largest steel recycler. While historically over 80% of Synergi’s projects have been LEED Certified, we strive to achieve the highest levels of LEED certification for all future projects.
Minimizing our environmental impact means finding ways to reduce embodied CO2 emitted in carrying out our work on your project. A hidden challenge for effective climate change mitigation, embodied greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (also known as embodied carbon) include CO2 emitted in producing and delivering materials. It's estimated from 1). the energy used to extract and transport raw materials, and 2). the emissions produced from manufacturing processes.
Our sustainability experts determine how to reduce embodied carbon emissions by focusing on two key areas.
The manufacturing process for several commonly used building materials, especially steel, has an extremely high CO2 output. The amount of CO2 emissions from steel manufacturing is almost double the amount of steel created: 1.85 tons of carbon per 1 ton of steel. In fact, steelmaking releases more than 3 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide each year, corresponding to an astonishing 7–9% of all human-made GHG emissions, according to the World Steel Association, and making it the industrial material with the biggest climate impact.
By engaging early in the process, we’re able to optimize the design and reduce carbon-intensive materials such as steel. One of the key ways we do this is through prefabrication. Through our engineering process, we explore reduced-steel design options that still meet engineering constraints while honoring the design intent to make a determination whether prefabrication is possible for the project. Not only does prefabrication keep us in line with sustainability initiatives by reducing the amount of steel used, but it offers several additional benefits, as well.
Because prefabrication takes place in a controlled environment, the final stair product is typically of better quality than its traditional onsite “stick-built” counterparts. And, because the entire stair section is already assembled upon arrival to the job site, installation time is reduced. The difference in time spent onsite diminishes from an estimated two to three weeks per stair section for traditional installation approaches to as little as two to three days. Collaborating on the design early in the project also helps decrease change orders down the road, further reducing construction waste.
Synergi’s proven benefits of engaging early provide valuable time for the prefabrication and modularization process, which result in less transportation emission and less onsite construction waste. By prefabricating our materials offsite and adhering to a rigid logistical plan for all material shipments, Synergi achieves maximum shipping efficiency to ensure the fewest number of truck shipments possible are needed for products to reach a job site, thus reducing carbon emissions. This “just in time” delivery method not only keeps carbon-intensive trucks off the road but requires significantly fewer man-hours on-site, helping further reduce a project’s carbon footprint.
Transportation of monolithic steel components is traditionally cost and pollution heavy, and each truckload produces CO2, contributing to embodied carbon emissions. Traditional “stick-built” stairs require many shipments to be made to the jobsite to transport the building materials, crew members, and left-over materials and construction waste away from the job site upon completion. Prefabricated stairs, by comparison, can be transported to the job site in fewer and more compact shipments. By minimizing the number of truckloads, transportation’s contribution to embodied carbon emissions is diminished.
A Better Tomorrow
For over 30 years, Synergi has designed, fabricated, and installed railing systems and architectural products comprising of metal, glass, stone, and wood. As the fabrication of these components is historically associated with significant carbon output, Synergi has given major consideration to how to operate in an environmentally sustainable manner and makes every effort to reduce the carbon footprint of our projects. In an industry that’s notoriously problematic for the environment, we’re committed to delivering impactful solutions. As our business keeps growing in scale and influence, we’re harnessing our unique capabilities in engineering and design to be a positive force of change.
We believe that we have an obligation to operate in a sustainable manner to benefit not only the environment, but to best serve our clients and partners, secure profits, and drive long-term prosperity.
