SUSTAINABILITY AT A CHOCOLATE FACTORY

January-February, Vol. 29, No. 1, p. 10

A Vermont building wins LEED recognition, as employees enjoy the skylights and extra windows plus outdoor patio and 17-foot acrylic mural -
not to mention the chocolate truffles.

Molly Farrell Tucker

Jim Lampman, founder and president of Lake Champlain Chocolates (LCC), kept his employees in mind when he renovated a former broom bristle factory in Burlington, Vermont for LCC's new packaging, warehousing and distribution facility. The building is one of a handful in Vermont that is being evaluated for LEED® certification (Leadership in Energy Efficiency and Design). LEED is a national standard developed by the U.S. Green Building Council for constructing energy-efficient, sustainable buildings.
The new LCC facility is located in half of the former Specialty Filaments manufacturing plant in Burlington, Vermont. When the gourmet chocolate company bought the building in February 2006, it was filthy and dilapidated. “The ceilings were contaminated with metal filings and dirt, and we had to blow it all down with a high pressure hoses,” Lampman notes. “The factory was making plastic bristles for brooms so there were lots of dirt and grime. We had to have all the flooring ground down and sealed,” adds John Anderson, the architect for the project. “The exterior siding, which was corrugated metal with fiberglass insulation, had deteriorated and shrunk and the metal was pockmarked. The windows were also cheap and leaking heat like a sieve.”
Now, the renovated chocolate-colored building is filled with natural light from skylights and windows, and fresh air flows into the building through the HVAC system. A colorful, hand-painted mural about chocolate hangs in the employee cafeteria. The company has made it easy for employees to ride their bikes to and from work by providing bike racks, showers and changing rooms.
Lampman started looking for another facility for his growing company a few years ago, but wanted to stay in Burlington if possible. “The community has supported us by buying our chocolate and the City of Burlington has been good to us,” says Lampman. “It originally helped us with some low-income loans and has been responsive to our concerns and issues and our growth. I think it's really difficult to keep businesses in Burlington and the state of Vermont because unfortunately, it's not a really business-friendly state. But it's a wonderful place to have a business. It's not all about the bottom line. It's also important to have an inspiring environment to work in and quality of life.”
Bruce Seifer, assistant director for economic development of Burlington's Community and Economic Development Office (CEDO) helped keep LCC in Burlington. “I've worked with Jim Lampman for 20 years,” says Seifer. “He told me that he needed more space and parking and was looking for a space out of town.” CEDO had several reasons for wanting LCC to stay in Burlington. “CEDO's goal is to keep employers in town,” says Seifer. “Lake Champlain Chocolates has done an extraordinary job of hiring refugees and a lot of them live in Burlington. It reduces congestion and commuting times if their employer stays here. Lake Champlain Chocolates does business with other businesses in Burlington, so the dollars stay. Jim is also a great retailer and has provided workshops for other businesses on how to retail.”
In May 2005, Specialty Filaments announced that they were closing and Seifer told Lampman that the building was available. He also connected Lampman with several local and state agencies that could help him make the move, including the Burlington Electric Department, the Greater Burlington Industrial Corporation and the Vermont Manufacturing Extension Center. LCC's new renovated 47,000 square foot building is located just down the street from LCC's manufacturing facility which also houses the company's administrative offices, factory store and café.
Chris Burns and Jake Yanulavitch at the Burlington Electric Department (BED) started working with LCC last February 2006 on the LEED certification. “Jim called us when he was looking at the Specialty Filaments building and said come over and tell me what you think,” says Burns, director of energy services for BED. “In renovating the building, he had to meet the City's energy efficiency code, but Jim said he would like to do a little better than that. We told him that if he really wanted to go to town, he could go for LEED certification. He wasn't familiar with the LEED program but he looked it up on the Internet and made the decision that day to go forward. Jim needs to be congratulated on being so innovative and willing to go that extra step.”
This is the second building that Anderson, owner of John Anderson Studio, Inc. in Burlington has designed for LEED certification. The first was the recently-completed University of Vermont Department of Nutrition and Food Sciences building. Anderson also designed Lake Champlain Chocolates' factory store on Pine Street in 1998. “At the time, I was doing work for Alan Newman, the owner of Magic Hat Brewery, and Alan and Jim are friends,” says Anderson. He went on to design Lake Champlain Chocolate's retail stores in Burlington and Waterbury Center, Vermont.
“When Jim and I first talked, it sounded like we were not going to do too much to the building,” remembers Anderson. “I was going to help design the employee lounge, the changing rooms and the cafeteria. At the time we saw a big existing factory and were just going to walk into it. As we got into the project, we realized that there were a lot of things wrong with the building. Once Jim made the decision to go for LEED certification, we looked at the envelope of the building and energy efficiency and it became more complicated. The building needed new siding, new windows and a new roof, and it became almost a new building.”

COMPANY HISTORY
LCC has been located in Burlington since Lampman started the company in 1983. Lampman owned the Ice House Restaurant on the waterfront in Burlington and had been giving his staff boxes of chocolates as gifts. His pastry chef, Tad Spurgeon, bet Lampman that he could make something that tasted better. Spurgeon created some hand-rolled truffles that were, in fact better, and Lampman began serving them to his restaurant patrons. The response was so good that he and his wife Anne started the Champlain Chocolate Company in the Howard Space, an incubator for new businesses on Pine Street. “When we started, we had only 1,500 square feet and not all of it was devoted to making chocolate,” Lampman remembers. Lampman handled the business end and teamed up with chocolatiers who made the truffles.
Spurgeon was hired as the company's first chocolatier. Even though the business was focused on wholesale sales, people kept driving up to buy the truffles, says Lampman. “It was really intriguing to them, as well as to some of the cooks and chefs at the Ice House, who offered to work part-time to make the chocolates.” The company got its first wholesale orders in the fall of 1983, from two Vermont-based companies, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters and Harrington Hams. “They each ordered about $100 worth of chocolates,” remembers Lampman. “They took a chance with me, a starting-up chocolate guy, to provide them consistently with a premium product that was worthy of them selling and reselling.” The two companies are still ordering chocolates from Lake Champlain Chocolates today.
Lampman sold the Ice House in 1986 and focused full-time on chocolates. In the late 1980s, he changed the name of the company to Champlain Chocolate Company dba Lake Champlain Chocolates. Lake Champlain Chocolates' product line grew over the years to include dozens of kinds of chocolates including chocolate bars, Chocolates of Vermont, hot chocolate, and novelties. The company launched an organic line of chocolates in fall 2006.
Lake Champlain Chocolates are sold through its three retail stores in Vermont, by mail order, through its website, and at specialty shops throughout the U.S. LCC sells to more than 1,300 stores directly, including Whole Foods, Dean & DeLuca, Balduccis, Bloomingdales, and Wild Oats. Many of its wholesale customers are in California. “Our best customers,” notes Lampman, “are independent specialty food stores, many of which are local. Vermont Teddy Bear is also a huge customer.”

LEED CERTIFICATION
Lampman had a number of reasons for seeking LEED certification for the building. “Our customers appreciate Lake Champlain Chocolates being environmentally responsible,” says Lampman. “It creates a healthier workplace for our employees, reduces our environmental impact, and produces operational efficiencies for the lifetime of the building.”
The LEED Rating System was developed to provide the building industry with consistent standards for what constitutes a “green” building. Credits are awarded in several categories including sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection and indoor environmental quality. Projects are awarded either Certified, Silver, Gold, or Platinum certification depending on the number of credits they receive.
Two other properties in Burlington have received LEED certification. In October 2003, ECHO at The Leahy Center for Lake Champlain became the first, followed by the 40-unit Waterfront Housing development owned by the Burlington Land Trust. In August 2004, NRG Systems' 46,000 square foot manufacturing facility in Hinesburg became the first building in Vermont to receive Gold LEED certification.
LCC hired John F. Penney of John F. Penney Consulting Services, PC of Chester, Vermont as the commissioning agent for the project. “John was instrumental in helping the subcontractors work to the kind of standard required by LEED,” says Anderson. “There is an enormous mechanical-electrical component to LEED,” adds architect Kevin Racek, who worked with Anderson on the project. “John made sure that the building met those LEED requirements.”
“The LEED certification was a little bit tough for some of the subcontractors,” notes Lampman. “This was a new thing for all of them, and there was a little more work involved, but it's a good thing to do.” “For example, notes Racek, “the materials required for LEEDS certification are harder to get in Vermont. The plywood has to be Forest Stewardship Council-certified, which is a special kind of plywood. It is cut from specific forests and they only cut down trees that are a certain size and that don't have animals living in them. Not many companies provide this type of wood.” Timing was also an issue. “None of the suppliers here in Vermont had that type of plywood, so the contractor had to order it in from Minnesota,” he says. “That's a crucial reason why you don't see more LEED projects because they can cost 30 to 40 percent more. But it's an upfront cost. The backend evens itself out over time and there are real cost savings.”
LCC's building earned credits for LEED certification in several areas, says Burns. Energy-efficient heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems were installed. The new rigid foam panel walls and Energy Star roof have high insulation values. The water-efficient plumbing fixtures include dual-flush toilets and waterless urinals.
The interior lighting fixtures have occupancy and light sensors. “The sensors can be set to turn the lights off three to 20 minutes after a person walks by,” notes Lampman. Natural light in the building was maximized through energy-efficient skylights and windows.
Outdoors, the landscaping requires little watering or irrigation. The exterior lighting was designed to keeping light from spilling over onto neighboring properties.
Recycled materials were used to renovate the building and many of the building materials were sourced within a 500-mile radius. LCC also got LEED credit for the reuse of components of a 10,000 square foot warehouse that was torn down to make room for an employee parking lot. Approximately 75 percent of the old building's materials were reused instead of being landfilled. The sheathing behind the siding was used for flooring in a renovated inn in nearby Shelburne, Vermont, says project manager Nick Hurt of Redstone, which owns the northern half of the Specialty Filaments building. Hurt is selling the warehouse beams and other structural materials through newspaper ads, and donated smaller pieces of wood to the McNeil Generating Plant, a wood-burning power plant in Burlington.
To improve air quality in the building, contractors used low-VOC emitting sealings, paint and carpets. Smoking is not allowed on the property, and fresh outdoor air is tied into the HVAC system.
LCC also gets LEED credits for the location of the building. “Instead of moving out of Burlington, Lake Champlain Chocolates took an existing site in an urban area, where its employees have access to a park, public transportation and banks,” says Burns. It also received LEED credit for providing the bicycle rack, showers and changing room.
BED helped defray some of the costs of the LEED certification process. “BED handled the administrative duties of going through the LEED process,” says Burns. “We collected the data needed for certification and submitted it into the LEED templates, and calculated the various energy efficiencies.” BED also provided financial incentives, including payment of the $450 LEED registration fee and the $3,000 certification fee. LCC paid the cost of the commissioning agent and for the increased cost of some of the materials required for LEED certification. “It probably will be a three-year payback,” says Lampman.
LCC has enough points for Silver LEED certification, says Burns, “but our goal is to just be Certified.” Burns hopes to get the rating results soon. “Normally, you start hearing back within a few weeks after submittal,” he notes.
Burns estimates that the renovated LCC building is 27 percent more energy efficient than one built only to Burlington's code and will cost 42 percent less to operate, saving the company about $35,000 annually in electric and natural gas bills. That's a big change from the building's previous occupant. “Specialty Filaments had the highest water usage in Burlington and was the number one consumer of electricity,” notes Lampman.

LEED BENEFITS FOR EMPLOYEES
Lampman could have done a lot less, and spent a lot less, to make the building energy efficient, but he had other goals in mind: keeping his employees happy, and creating a facility that reflected LCC's brand. “The LEED process dovetailed with Jim's desire for a healthy environment,” says Anderson. “We put in several skylights because people work better with natural lights. At the end of the day if you don't have an environment that people like to be in and that improves quality of life, you can't say you've achieved sustainability.”
“For a lot of the employees, their work here is a big part of their life,” says Lampman. “It's more than a work space to them. That's why we provided the extra windows and skylights, and an outdoor patio so the employees can eat lunch outside or get some fresh air.”
“The employee cafeteria is a really wonderful space,” notes Anderson. He designed and painted a 3-foot by 17-foot mural in acrylics for the cafeteria that tells the story of how cacao pods become Lake Champlain Chocolates. It starts with cacao pods on cacao trees in a tropical environment. The pods fly off the trees and transform into boxes of Lake Champlain chocolates. The boxes fly into the back of a delivery truck that drives off into the Vermont landscape. The mural is being installed above a row of cabinets in the employee kitchen, where it can be seen by everyone in the cafeteria. “It's fun, colorful and fanciful,” says Anderson. “We thought the employees would relate to it more than if we just hung up abstract art.”
“As we got further into it, the notion also evolved that the building would reflect Lake Champlain Chocolate's brand and have certain design elements that are consistent through all his buildings,” says Anderson. “We kept improving the outside to radiate LCC's style, color and spirit. Throughout the whole process, Jim was committed to spending the money needed to do it right.”
“Jim is one of the great stewards of properties in Burlington,” says Seifer. “He reused and upgraded an old building and added a lot of value by doing that. The design of the new space is exemplary and he has taught other area businesses how to be an exemplary Burlington retailer.”

LCC'S EMPLOYEES
During its peak season which runs from early September to Mother's Day, LCC has more than 120 employees, including 40 in packaging and shipping; 30 in the three retail stores, 20 in production, and the remaining in administration, sales and factory support. About half of those employees will move into the renovated building. Some of the employees in shipping moved to the new facility in October, and 30 more employees in packaging are scheduled to move there in mid-November. “Everyone is a little jealous of the two departments, I think,” says Rita LaPlume, the company's payroll/benefit coordinator. “After all, it is a beautiful and much bigger, brighter area they will be working in.”
Eight percent of LCC's current workforce of 127 employees are Vietnamese, and one-third of the employees in packaging and production are Vietnamese. The company began hiring Vietnamese workers about 15 years ago through Vermont's Refugee Resettlement Program. “We were looking for responsible, sober people to do blue-collar, soft manufacturing jobs and we loved how they worked,” says Lampman. “They're responsible and show up to work on time. They understand our goals and work as a team.” “We haven't used the resettlement program in the last eight years or so,” notes Kathy Germain, LCC's Chief Financial Officer. “We have been able to get new employees through word of mouth.”
Lampman says employee turnover is low at LCC. “We're in the business of taking care of our employees,” he explains. “We provide excellent benefits including covering 75 percent of our self-insured health plan.” LCC also provides 100 percent dental coverage for employees and their families, up to four weeks of vacation time and one week of sick/personal time, says LaPlume.
LCC hosts an annual summer party for its employees at a local public beach each summer. In January, the company rents out a local nightclub and hires live bands for its annual holiday party. Employees also receive a 50 percent discount on purchasing chocolates. As a result, new employees have been known to gain a few pounds. “I've seen that time and time again,” Lampman laughs. “Eventually, the employee starts to understand how to manage it.”
After all these years, Lampman still eats chocolate every morning. “I love it,” he says.

Molly Farrell Tucker is a contributing editor to In Business.

Copyright 2007, The JG Press, Inc.