Sunday, January 13, 2013

The World Greenest Office

Bullitt Center, a new office building of Bullitt Foundation, in Seattle will be the greenest, most energy-efficient commercial office building in the world. It combined a lot of different existing technologies and methods to create a structure that’s a showpiece for green design--and a model for others to follow.

According to Bullitt Foundation, the goal of building the center is to change the way buildings are designed, built and operated to improve long-term environmental performance and promote broader implementation of energy efficiency, renewable energy and other green building technologies in the Northwest of U.S.

The center will be a self-sustainable building using solar PV system for 100% of the energy consumption, all water will be provided by harvested rainwater, natural lighting, indoor composting toilets, a system of geothermal wells for heating, and a wood-framed structure. All these made the center the greenest and most efficient office building in the world.

Bullitt Center is the first conventional office building in the U.S. to get all of its water from rain. The rainwater collected will be stored in a 56,000 gallons cistern located in the basement. Tenants are expected to use about 500 gallons of water per day, so the cistern should be able to keep the building hydrated during a 100-day drought.

The composting toilets come with air compressors, a soap solution, and water. Once a toilet has been used, the waste will be moved down into one of its 10 composters located in the basement. The waste decomposes with help from wood shavings and water.

It is expected that tenants will begin moving into the Bullitt Center this month.

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