Energy Star Buildings
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) provides an innovative
energy performance rating system that uses benchmarking to
rate the performance of a building on a scale of 1-100 relative
to similar buildings nationwide.
The rating system accounts for the impacts of year-to-year
weather variations, as well as building size, location, and
several operating characteristics. Buildings rating 75 or
greater may qualify for the ENERGY STAR.
Boulder County is benchmarking 12 County buildings and has been
able to achieve the Energy Star label on the following
buildings:
- Courthouse Annex, Boulder
- Simpson Building, Lafayette
- Sindelir building, Longmont
Visit Energy Star’s Web Site for more information on
products and services that carry the Energy Star Label:
www.energystar.gov.
LEED certification for new buildings
Boulder County has been incorporating
sustainable building practices in its facilities for many years,
employing strategies for improving site ecology, water
efficiency, energy conservation, indoor air quality and use of
recycled materials.
As part of this effort, Boulder County is committed to attaining LEED
Silver or Gold equivalent on all new projects.
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is a
national "green" building ratings system that sets the benchmark
for the design, construction and operation of environmentally
sustainable buildings.
The program addresses sustainability for the building as a
whole, including five key areas: site development, water
conservation, energy efficiency, materials and indoor
environmental quality.
The program provides a tiered ranking system based on a series
of performance credits that buildings may earn; projects must
meet certain prerequisites, and
are awarded Certified,
Silver, Gold, or Platinum certification depending on the number
of credits they achieve.
County Detox Facility
The Boulder County Detox Facility, completed in the fall of
2007, is Boulder County's first pursuit of a LEED-rated
building. Designed to achieve a LEED Gold Certification, the
10,000-square-foot facility incorporates the following key sustainable building
elements:
Sustainable Sites:
- Providing erosion and sedimentation control, and reducing stormwater runoff.
- Providing bicycle storage and changing rooms
- Reducing heat island effects thru lower level covered parking
and Energy Star high emissivity roofing
- Reduce exterior light pollution.
Water Efficiency:
- Reducing exterior water usage by 50% using native grasses and
indigenous plants.
- Reducing indoor water usage by 40% with low flow fixtures,
dual flush fixtures, and sensored faucets.
Energy and Atmosphere:
- Optimizing energy performance by using high efficiency
building materials, high performance heat mirror glazing, high
efficiency equipment, heat recovery coils, daylighting, dimming,
and occupancy sensors.
- Ensuring building performance by pursuing additional
commissioning, and implementing measurement and verification
features.
- Engaging in a two-year contract to purchase green power that
uses renewable sources such as wind power.
Materials and Resources:
- Recycling 50% of construction waste
- Using a majority of materials with a high recycled content,
regionally produced, and using at least 50% FSC Certified wood.
Indoor Environmental Quality:
- Monitoring Carbon Dioxide
- Implementing an indoor air quality management plan during
construction and prior to occupancy. Off gassing building
materials prior to occupancy.
- Using adhesives, sealants, paints, coatings, flooring, and
wood products that emit little to no VOC’s.
- Providing operable windows in all exterior spaces, maximizing daylighting, and providing views to the exterior from 90% of the
spaces in the building.
Parks and Open Space biomass-heated facility
When Boulder County set out to build a new
Parks and Open Space facility in Longmont, the Commissioners
wanted it to stay in line with the County's dedication to
environmentally sustainable practices. Rather than using
traditional gas or electric heating, the new facility was
constructed to utilize biomass fuel for heat.
The biomass furnace
A state-of-the-art
biomass furnace burns wood chips collected from forest thinning
projects on open space lands to heat the on-site buildings. This
process reduces utility costs and makes use of an abundant
natural resource - wood chips - collected on public lands.
These wood chips are generated by necessary forest thinning.
Rather than disposing of the chips, the County burns them at
high temperatures to heat buildings.
Chipping the slash now generated by the
county's forest thinning efforts and using it to fuel boilers
reduces the amount of air pollution generated when those slash
piles are burned. Moreover, the small volume of waste ash
created by a wood chip boiler can be easily be disposed of in
the trash.
Other Resources:
Build Green
Boulder Green Builders Guild
City of Boulder Green Points Building Program
Community Office for Resource Efficiency
National Renewable Energy Laboratory
U.S. Green Building Council
Sustainable Design Resource Guide: Colorado & the Western
Mountain Region
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Boulder County strives to meet the highest standards in creating
and operating buildings that are energy and water efficient,
reduce waste and provide a quality environment for employees.