GSA’s New England Region continues to be committed to the development and implementation of sound environmental practices. This Innovation Entry focuses on recent activities that have been enacted in this region. The buildings highlighted include John F. Kennedy Federal Building, John J.Moakley United States Courthouse, the A. A. Ribicoff Federal Building, and the James C. Cleveland Building.
The John F. Kennedy (JFK) Federal Building in Boston, MA, is the largest and most prominent Federal facility in the New England Region. The JFK Federal Building continues to have a vigorous recycling program. One 30-cubic-yard dumpster each week is diverted from the landfill stream. This program shows a savings of approximately $25,000 per year in hauling and tipping fees. Not only paper, but also cardboard, cans, bottles and plastic are recycled. A great success in this area was achieved in 2002 and 2003 by working with industry to buy recycled carpeting. Used carpet is returned to the manufacturing process, through the Interface America ReEntry Program. Over 225,000 pounds of carpeting have been diverted from the landfill back into the manufacturing process. The work with Interface also qualifies as a Green Purchasing Initiative.
Through partnering with Work, Inc., the cleaning contractor, green cleaning has been initiated at the JFK Federal Building. Recycled-content paper products and nontoxic, citrus-based cleaning agents are being used. In addition, high traffic public restrooms have electric hand driers installed to eliminate the use of paper towels. This cleaning program has also been enacted at the A. A. Ribicoff Federal Building in Hartford, CT, by partnering with Easter Seals of Connecticut.
Since 2000, JFK has been rated an Energy Star Building. The JFK Federal Building is operated on electricity and purchased steam with a small amount of gas for cafeteria use. Within the last year, a chiller replacement, lighting automation and condensate reuse project was completed. A 900-ton chiller with R-11, a CFC based, ozone-depleting refrigerant, was replaced with two 500-ton, R-123 refrigerant chillers, eliminating 1500 pounds of ozone-depleting substances and making the chiller plant more energy-efficient and creating system redundancy. Condensate from the purchased steam has been turned into an ice melt system during winter and a domestic water heating system for the remainder of the year. The system has saved energy, conserved water, and at the same time eliminating the potential for thermal pollution in the sewage system.
The 135,000 square foot James C. Cleveland Federal Building in Concord, NH, has just completed a major renovation. Some 2,500 cubic yards of material were diverted from landfills during the renovation. The majority of this material was duct, air handlers, studs, ceiling grid, wiring, gypsum, fiberboard and rug. An additional 150 cubic yards of reusable material was dismantled in the building and kept out of landfills. It is estimated that 60 percent of materials demolished on this project were recycled or reused. In addition to materials salvaged by local municipalities, specialty items such as cipher locks, electric strikes and alarm systems were salvaged by the Buildings Manager for future use.
A project to recommission the John J.Moakley U.S. Courthouse in Boston, MA, was undertaken working through the Area-wide Electric contract with NSTAR Energy of Boston. The seven year old building is a high energy user due to its complexity, need for humidity control to maintain its valuable wood panels and its public activities that take place in the evenings and on weekends. It operates an ice storage plant that makes ice off peak to save on electric demand. The effort undertaken through NSTAR concentrated on the control system and setting parameters around which the ice storage system operated. New parameters were established for the systems allowed for the taking advantage of free cooling by reworking the operating sequences. This effort has resulted in a reduction of 14 percent or 125,997 BTUs per gross square foot in 2003. It is expected that this will increase to a 20 percent reduction for 2004.
For more information, contact Mr. James E. Devir at (617) 565-7902 or via e-mail at james.devir@gsa.gov
