((PKG)) GREENEST OFFICE BUILDING IN THE WORLD
((Banner: Building Green))
((Reporter: Natasha Mozgovaya))
((Camera: Aleksandr Bergan))
((VOA Russian))
((Adapted by: Zdenko Novacki))
((Map: Seattle, Washington))
((NATS))
((Denis Hayes, President, Bullitt Foundation))
In a standard office building, with a conventional set of tenants, you can dramatically reduce your environmental footprint. And by dramatically, we use about one fifth as much energy per square foot as a building that is built to code. And we use, maybe, eight percent as much water per square foot as a building that is built to code. It’s not saving a little bit here or there. It’s saving at least half across the board.
((NATS))
((Denis Hayes, President, Bullitt Foundation))
That drove down our energy consumption, drove down our water consumption, forced us to look for things that were non-toxic, non-carcinogenic, non-mutagenic, non-endocrine disrupting. Stuff that would not harm anyone that was a tenant in the building, or anyone that was building the building.
((NATS))
((Denis Hayes, President, Bullitt Foundation))
Buildings consume about three-quarters of all electricity, and (production of) electricity is the biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions. And if we don't want to broil the planet, then we have to dramatically change the built environment.
((NATS))
((Denis Hayes, President, Bullitt Foundation))
You replace about 3% of your buildings in any city in a given year. That means 97% of the buildings that are there next year are already there today. If you want to get savings fast, you have to have a program that makes it possible to finance the retrofitting of the existing structures.
((NATS))
((Denis Hayes, President, Bullitt Foundation))
Super-efficient buildings have to be designed for particular locations. This is a building that was designed for Seattle. It would not work well in Moscow. It would not work well in Rio De Janeiro. It works perfectly in Seattle.
((NATS))
((Denis Hayes, President, Bullitt Foundation))
When we set out to build the building, it was with the hopes that we would prove that it was possible to build such a building, and to do it in a way that was economically feasible. We talked to a number of developers and said, “Could we build a six-story building that is net energy neutral in Seattle?” and every single one of them said that not only was it not possible, it was not close to possible.
((NATS))
