Building green: states are getting involved in making new and old buildings energy efficient.

• Author: Boulard, Garry

It may be Arizona's greatest contribution to the green building movement: a $36.4 million headquarters for the state's Department of Environmental Quality that is loaded with energy-efficiency features.

"We have people coming in here all of the time on tours, officials from other states who are interested in making their own buildings back home energy-efficient," says Courtland Coleman, communications director with the Arizona DEQ. "And the one thing they are the most amazed about is the range and scope of energy-efficiency measures that have been incorporated into this building."

Nearly a year and a hall in the making, the new headquarters boasts building materials composed of recycled content, recessed light fixtures with low-energy bulbs, Energy Star transformers, solar panels on the roof, low-water use plumbing fixtures, and carpeting made from recycled materials.

"And it doesn't stop with the building itself," notes Courtland. "The landscape outside was designed to reduce what are called 'heat islands.' There is also an underground gray water tank to capture all of the blow-down water that in most buildings is either flushed down the drain or seeps into the soil."

One of the many who has visited the structure is John Giglio, executive director of the National Association of State Energy Officials. "This is proof that the states have adopted a very proactive approach to promoting and securing energy efficiency in their public buildings," he says.

And those approaches, to a much larger degree, are also including measures for existing buildings. "Through performance contracting, we have been able to reduce our consumption on the capitol campus since 1995 from 60 megawatt hours on average per day to about 40," says Washington Representative Jeff Morris, the chairman of the House Committee on Technology, Telecommunications, and Energy.

"And that savings is enough to supply the energy needs of up to 20,000 bornes."

A WIDESPREAD GOAL

Although the exact number of state public buildings that are energy-efficient or in the process of becoming so is hard to come by, there are currently more than 1,800 energy-efficiency projects in all SO states that have been registered under the Leadership in Energy Efficiency Design program sponsored by the U.S. Green Building Council.

"LEED is essentially a system for defining what a green building is by establishing a common standard of measurement," explains Taryn Holowka, communications manager with the...