Management June 18, 2010, 3:41PM EST

A Religious Experience in Sustainability

For the sisters of Holy Wisdom Monastery, constructing a new facility represented a spiritual bond with nature and a good financial case for going green

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For years, the Benedict House sat upon the serene 130 acres of land belonging to Holy Wisdom Monastery, an ecumenical religious and spiritual community overlooking Lake Mendota near Madison, Wis. From an eco-friendliness perspective, however, the 60,000-square-foot building, used for retreats, meetings, Sunday services, and conferences, was rather unholy. Burdened by an inefficient heating and lighting system, it cost some $100,000 a year to operate.

The sisters who run the monastery, led by Sister Mary David Walgenbach, felt that spirituality and harmony with the earth were interdependent, so they made a bold move. In 2007, they tasked Hoffman, an Appleton (Wis.) commercial planning, architectural, and construction management firm that specializes in sustainable design and construction, with tearing down the old building, Benedict House, and replacing it with an energy-efficient one. Fortunately, the plan was easier for Holy Wisdom to realize because, as an ecumenical entity, it is not under the jurisdiction of the Roman Catholic hierarchy. The monastery has one Protestant sister and two Catholic ones and opens itself up for use by other religious groups. Jewish groups have held events at the monastery, and the Dalai Lama has visited.

At project's end, the monastery had a 30,000-square-foot building filled with natural light, which means a smaller boiler and air-conditioning system. The new structure accommodates all the functions the old one did, costs 75 percent less to operate, and came in under the $8 million construction budget. It received the U.S. Green Building Council's highest designation, Platinum, under its building-rating system, Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) certification.

Sister Mary David and Paul Hoffman, chief executive officer of Hoffman, recently discussed the project with Businessweek.com's Patricia O'Connell and Rebecca Reisner. Edited excerpts of their conversation follow.

REBECCA REISNER: It sounds as though your motivation had nothing to do with money. You wanted to do the right thing for the environment. And at the end, did it turn out to be a good business decision as well?

SISTER MARY DAVID WALGENBACH: We knew we wanted to do something that was specifically caring for the earth in whatever way we could. We didn't know it was going to be the Platinum building. But one of our criteria was, was it going to be sustainable and fit our budget? Hoffman helped us recycle or reuse 99.75 percent of the old building. And that fit into our concern about the earth, because it wouldn't all go into landfill.

PAUL HOFFMAN: Even though this was a monastery, this was a business decision they had to make. Right now they're saving 75 percent compared with the energy they were using before the new building was built. And that number should continue to go up all the time. We think at some point the monastery will become a zero-net energy building, meaning it will produce enough energy to sell some off to others.

REISNER: You hear about how traumatic renovating can be—even people who get their kitchens remodeled say they're ready to tear their hair out. You weren't afraid of taking the plunge?

SISTER MARY DAVID: We are risk-takers, and I say that because we are the first Roman Catholic community in North America to become ecumenical, which means we stepped out of the jurisdiction of the Roman Catholic Church in order to receive a Protestant member.

REISNER: Was it a challenge for you to go green within the budget?

HOFFMAN: Well, to put the budget in perspective, the U.S. Green Building Council has the program for LEED certification.