Chartway Federal Credit Union Corporate Headquarters | Virginia Beach, Virginia

Chartway purchased an older office building and moved their headquarters from Newtown Road to the Cleveland Street site in 2016. Chartway has focused on sustainability in all aspects of their corporate business model in the last few years. Internal operations have shifted to paperless systems and a major recycling program, Chartway has begun to look at their main corporate sites as well as center sites for opportunities to reduce maintenance procedures in an effort to reduce their carbon footprint. WPL Landscape Architects met with Chartway corporate leadership and educated them on sustainable landscapes and green infrastructure systems. At the competition of a site analysis of the Cleveland Street Chartway campus, WPL provide an in-depth study regarding opportunities on the site for a general reduction in landscape maintenance, rainwater quality improvements, and riparian buffer enhancements for stewardship of the VDOT/City of Virginia Beach owned lake due east of the property. As part of this overall project WPL redesigned the front entry to the headquarters building and associated entry sidewalks. WPL developed a new planting design that converted more managed turf to planting beds, created masses of plantings requiring considerably less pruning than the existing plantings, all while enhancing the aesthetics of the headquarters building. A new irrigation system was installed which is tied to NOAA and responds to anticipated rainfall events with a reduction in water applications when not required. This has greatly reduced the annual water usages on the corporate headquarters site.

WPL educated the Chartway leadership on the use of managed meadows for rainwater quality improvements within the riparian buffer zones around the lake edge. The landscape contractor for Chartway mowed the lake edge weekly at a height of 2”-3”. In addition to poor water qualities from this practice, geese intrusion into the Chartway property was a major issue. The educational process took some time but in the end Chartway agreed to begin the process of converting managed turf to managed riparian meadow. WPL offered management options of turf natural succession or the enhance the naturalization with the installation of native grasses and perennials. Chartway opted for the enhanced approach so Southern Branch Nursery was engaged to install the riparian buffer plantings. In addition to the installed 6’ containers of native grasses and perennials, the 25ft upland riparian area was deemed a “No-Mow Zone” and succession has taken place. The result of this sustainable initiative is less mowing per cycle, an increase in wildlife habitat, rainwater quality improvements, a reduction in geese traffic in-site, and a beautiful natural lake edge.