All Verdani Partners’ clients have committed to a minimum 20% water reduction goal over the next 10 years. To help them achieve their respective targets, Verdani Partners developed a comprehensive water management program. As a first step, we implement a water efficiency policy applicable to all properties that sets expectations and common procedures to reduce water usage. Our team offers in person and online trainings to ensure that property managers and employees understand the policy and are equipped with the knowledge to implement efficiency measures. Verdani developed a series of sustainability focused webinars, including a one-hour water efficiency webinar that focuses on reporting guidelines, a policy overview, best management practices, case studies, and application to green building certifications.
Best practices highlighted in the webinar include:
- Install water meters
- Replace Aerators
- Retrofit indoor plumbing fixtures with low-flow or ultra-low-flow fixtures, fittings, and equipment, such as toilets and urinals that exceed current code requirements per recommendations listed on DOE’s WaterSense website
- Implement drip irrigation
- Use drought-resistant/native plant material
- Install rain sensors on irrigation
- Perform ongoing distribution system audits, leak detection and repair
- Implement a cooling tower chemical management and water efficiency program
- Utilize recycled water when available
- Reduce water pressure
- Insulate pipes
- Recover water from cooling towers
- Steam boiler blowdown
- Educate users
Our webinar also includes strategies to improve the efficiency of cooling tower systems, single-pass cooling equipment, and boiler systems and suggests alternative water resources such as reclaimed water or rain water.
Establishing a Successful Water Management Program
In 2016, Parkway Properties’ One Orlando Centre, a 19-story, LEED-certified 355,000-square-foot office building in the city center completed building upgrades that reduced annual potable water usage by over 30 percent and annual energy costs by more than 33 percent. These upgrades also increased the building’s ENERGY STAR rating by nearly 50 percent.
To achieve these impressive reductions, One Orlando Center:
- Replaced aging chillers with two state-of-the-art 375-ton Trane® Series S™ CenTraVac™ chillers and one 300-ton Trane Stealth™ RTAE air-cooled chiller to handle peak and night loads
- Interconnected two on-site chiller plants and optimized the pumping strategy between them to reduce the total connected load by approximately 467 kW
- Installed new state-of-the-art cooling towers that incorporate a near zero bleed water treatment program
- Upgraded the building automation system to closely monitor and control HVAC, lighting, and other key systems
An Added Bonus!
In conjunction with the major HVAC system upgrades completed at One Orlando Centre in 2014, Parkway’s Director of Engineering, Bruce Hall, spearheaded an innovative approach to the disposal of the building’s original chiller plant. Rather than sending the old chiller plant to the scrapyard, Bruce worked with David Walter of Reefmaker Artificial Reefs & Marine Ecosystems and TRANE representative Chris Saint John to safely decommission and dispose of the old chiller plant at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. There, it has begun its new purpose as the anchor for one of Florida’s newest artificial reef habitats. Parkway would like to especially thank TRANE for sharing the cost of decommissioning our old chiller plant and transporting it to the new reef site.
One Orlando Centre was recognized as a “Showcase Project” in the U.S. Department of Energy Better Buildings Challenge and received the Energy Efficiency Leader Award presented by Trane for this project
Bruce Hall, who led the team completing the upgrade, also received a 2016 national EBie award from the Urban Green Council, the New York City affiliate of the United States Green Building Council, for his work transforming the building into a model of sustainability.
Resources
- IPC 2006, section 604: Design of building water distribution system. www.iccsafe.org
- UPC 2006 section 402.0: Water-conserving fixtures and fittings: sbcc.wa.gov/File.ashx?cid=221
- International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials: www.iapmo.org
- WaterSense Program: www.epa.gov/watersense
- Water Sense, a recognized emblem of approval for water efficiency similar to Energy Star. WaterSense, US EPA: http://www.epa.gov/watersense
- US Department of Energy, for water efficiency BMP’s: http://www1.eere.energy.gov/femp/water/water_bmp1.html
- DOE water efficiency bmp’s: Water Efficiency Best Management Practices from the US Department of Energy.
