Prompted by its merger with Heinz, Kraft decided to move from a sprawling suburban campus to five densely populated floors of a high-rise skyscraper to foster and build a new corporate culture. Kraft Heinz turned to ESD – a long-time advisor – to work on the new space in a building ESD’s team has decades of experience.
Over two months, the ESD project manager walked all 160,000-plus sf of the future office space. He investigated every system and pinpointed many deficiencies. Problems included antiquated systems, such as fan power boxes that could not be repurposed. In addition, walled offices needed to be removed so Kraft Heinz could adopt an open-office plan – yet each office had its own temperature control which, if left in place, could have created chaos with significantly different temperatures across each floor.
After developing a cost analysis, the project manager offered a fit-for-purpose solution: It may be less expensive to buy new systems and install them rather than repurposing existing ones – in fact, it probably could be done under budget.
Kraft Heinz took the proposal to its executives, and they agreed. ESD’s understanding of what Kraft Heinz was looking to achieve with this move as well as how it will impact their business led to savings in energy costs through the design and installation of new systems with long life spans. Not only that, thanks to thorough discovery and forensics, ESD was able to deploy the base building return air system, though the density of the space could have required six figures worth of additional ventilation and cooling.
They say the smile on the Mr. Peanut statue in the reception area grew bigger after hearing that news.