United States
             Environmental Protection
             Agency
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Office of Administration and Resources Management's Newsletter on Energy Conservation
                                                                and Sustainable Facilities
                                                                                                     November 2002
 EPA has embarked on a

new initiative to improve

water efficiency in its lab-

oratories and office build-

ings, as part of its ongoing

effort to improve environ-

mental performance, con-

 serve resources, reduce

 utility costs, and meet

   federal requirements

 under Executive Order

   13123, Greening the

  Government Through

     Efficient Energy

Management. From reduc-

ing leaks and eliminating

 irrigation to upgrading

 mechanical systems and

employing recycling tech-

 nologies, the Agency is

 committed to increasing

water conservation across

    all of its facilities.
                            EPA Laboratories  Conserve to the  Last  Drop
                            Chelmsford,  Fort Meade Lead Water Efficiency Initiative
                                    Executive Order (E.O.) 13123 requires all
                                    federal agencies to report baseline water
                                    use at their facilities and establish goals
                                for water conservation. The Executive Order
                                requires each agency to reduce potable water
                                use by implementing the Order's 10 best man-
                                agement practices—including low-flow sanitary
                                fixtures, optimizing cooling tower systems,
                                reuse/recycling, and water-efficient landscap-
                                ing. By the end of 2002, EPA must have water
                                management plans incorporating at least four
                                of the 10  best management practices in 5
                                percent of its facilities (or two of the labs it
                                owns and operates). Labs in Chelmsford,
                                Massachusetts, and Fort Meade, Maryland,
                                are leading the way in implementing these best
                                management practices and implementing
                                water management plans that meet the criteria
                                in E.O.  13123.
                                   EPA's New England Regional Laboratory
                                in Chelmsford, Massachusetts, exemplifies sev-
                                eral of the best management practices called
                                for in E.O. 13123. To reduce water needs
                                before the facility opened in October 2001,
                                EPA worked  with designers to specify a number
                                of conservation technologies. All the restrooms
                                have low-flow sinks with automatic flush
                                valves, and some of the men's rooms will soon
                                have waterless urinals. EPA also installed a
                                rooftop rain  recovery system that diverts water
                                from storm drains to onsite wetlands. The
                                Agency reduced the area of lawn on the site
                                covered with grass and landscaped mostly with
                                native plants and organic mulch, and a well
                                on the site supplies nonpotable water as need-
                                ed for irrigation. In addition, facility employees
                                and janitorial staff are trained in water conser-
Native plant landscaping in Fort Meade, MD.

vation measures, such as reporting and imme-
diately correcting leaky faucets.
   EPA's Environmental Science Center in
Fort Meade, Maryland, opened in February
1999. Native plants were planted or main-
tained on the 24-acre site, reducing the need
for irrigation.  Low-flow toilets, urinals, faucets,
and showerheads were installed throughout the
facility, and leaks are reported and handled
immediately through a facility hotline. Use of
single-pass cooling has been eliminated from
laboratory processes and point-of-use closed-
loop chillers are used in labs where water cool-
ing is required. On the mechanical side, the
cooling tower system is carefully maintained to
achieve a high degree of water recycling.
   Following  are a few more examples of ways
EPA labs have cut back on water use and  pro-
moted water efficiency:

•  New RTP Campus. EPA incorporated
   water-efficient fixtures throughout  the labo-
   ratory campus that was dedicated in May
   2002 in Research Triangle Park, North
   Carolina.  Lab sinks have flow-restricting
   nozzles, automated shutoff, and automatic

                      continued on page 2

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                                             ENERGIZING  EPA    page 2
                5 Recycles  /; Any thing  That  Rips'
     EPA's Region 5 and the General Services Administration
     (GSA) have united to create a closed-loop paper recycling
     program for the federal Metcalfe Building in Chicago.
Through a paper recycling program known as Anything-That-Rips,
the approximately 2,200 federal employees at the Metcalfe
Building can recycle all of their paper (high- and low-quality)—lit-
erally, anything that rips.
   Recycling was already commonplace in the
Metcalfe Building, but the sorting and maintenance
of the high-grade paper was cost-prohibitive and
participation was limited. "Imagine that you're the
manager of a  26-story, multi-tenant federal building
attempting to persuade 2,200 tenants to separate
white paper, mixed paper, corrugated cardboard,
newspapers, magazines,  bottles, and cans for recy-
cling," said Rich Hoffman, a program analyst and
recycling coordinator for EPA's Region 5. "Not only that, but the
janitorial employees must keep those items separated all the way
to the loading dock. That's a lot of work for the limited amount of
money these commodities fetch in today's recycling market."
   By making participation easy and collecting all grades of
paper, EPA and GSA have increased the building's collection rate
by 200 percent over the previous year's paper separation pro-
gram, and have fully closed the recycling loop. Every month, GSA
collects 1 8 tons of mixed paper, which is sent to Kimberiy Clark
Corporation and manufactured into new products such as towels
and tissues. GSA then buys back these products to stock the
Metcalfe Building.
   A month-long  study conducted by Region 5 found that the
quality of these new towels and tissues exceeds the material that
was previously purchased. According to Hoffman, "The response
             from our employees to these new products was
             outstanding."
                The new recycling program is also saving
             money. Under the previous collection program,
             janitorial staff had to sort paper three hours per
             day  to achieve various levels of collection purity.
             GSA now saves nearly $5,500 each year avoiding
             this task. In addition, GSA realizes the financial
             advantage of purchasing paper products made
from the building's recycled  material—the recycled products are
less costly—and its contractor saves $12,900 a year in avoided
disposal fees by reducing paper waste. According to Hoffman,
through this closed-loop program EPA is helping to keep the
majority of its paper materials out of the waste stream and has
become a  model  for other recycling programs.
   For more information, contact Rich Hoffman at 312
6116 or .
EPA Labs Conserve Water
   temperature controls for hot and cold water. The restrooms
   have sensor-operated metered faucets that regulate water
   flow, which saves water and the energy needed to heat it. In
   addition, the campus is landscaped with native plants and
   wild flowers that grow naturally in the existing climate, requir-
   ing little maintenance and reducing the need for watering.

•  Region 10 Laboratory. Sometimes upgrades to a facility's
   mechanical systems can result in major water savings. In June
   1998,  EPA's lab in Manchester, Washington, replaced its four-
   inch  PVC water lines with six-inch ductile iron ones. The big-
   ger, stronger lines reduce the frequency of leaks, which
   reduces the lab's overall water consumption rate. The lab
   also  replaced a 20-year-old water cooling tower in October
   1999 with a  new, more efficient tower, which reduced the
   water volume needed to run the cooling system. These
   upgrades have cut the facility's water consumption by 66 per-
   cent, from 204,000 to about 70,000 gallons per month.

•  Kansas City Science & Technology Center. EPA is build-
   ing a new lab in Kansas City, Kansas, that will "harvest"
   rainwater from the roof and condensate from the cooling
   coils in its air conditioning system. The rooftop rain recov-
                                  contimied from page 1
   ery system catches and filters rainwater to use in toilets and
   as makeup water for the facility's cooling tower. During the
   summer, it is estimated that the cooling tower will  need
   approximately 1 0,000 gallons of water per day to provide
   cooling to the building's chiller. In addition to rainwater,
   the facility will capture condensate, or the "sweat" from the
   cooling coils  in air conditioning units and recycle  it into
   make-up water for the cooling tower.

   Even with numerous best management practices in place
at several of its facilities, EPA is continuing to review its labs'
water use and look for ways to improve conservation. The Office
of Administration  and Resources Management (OARM) is assess-
ing several facilities' water  use and management practices and,
as part of the Agency's Safety, Health, and Environmental
Management auditing process for each of its buildings, OARM
also evaluates water use and recommends conservation strate-
gies. As  it strives to reach E.O.  13123's ultimate goal of water
management plans in 80 percent of facilities by 2010,  OARM
can support all major EPA  facilities in developing water manage-
ment plans. For more information, contact Dan Amon in the
OARM Sustainable Facilities Practices Branch at 202 564-7509
or .

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                                          ENERGIZING  EPA
    page  3
DER  Diversifies EPA's  Energy  Portfolio
      As a way to diversify their energy supply and reduce
      reliance on traditional energy sources, several EPA
      facilities are now using distributed electrical resources
(DER). DER, or off-grid electrical sources that cover a variety
of onsite power generation alternatives, offers several  distinct
advantages over traditional electric power:
•  Improves the reliability and quality of a facility's power supply
•  Provides redundancy or "backup"
•  Taps into renewable resources
•  Reduces emissions
•  Puts less pressure on the regional electrical grid
•  May have lower life cycle costs
   Recent changes in the electric utility industry have allowed EPA
labs to take advantage of such DER options as natural gas fuel
cells, geothermal power, and solar energy.
   As part of an energy savings performance contract (ESPC) at
EPA's National Vehicle Fuel Emissions Laboratory (NVFEL) in
Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 2001 the energy service company
installed a natural gas fuel cell to provide both  base  load power
and emergency backup power. The fuel cell generates 200 kilo-
watts of power and provides hot water. By cutting the lab's peak
load demand for energy that is dependent on the electrical grid,
this effort also reduced the charges that NVFEL pays  for electricity.
   Another ESPC project, the Robert S. Kerr Environmental
Research Center in Ada, Oklahoma, has installed  a ground-
source heat pump, which uses the Earth's heat to generate power
and will contribute to energy savings of more than 50 percent at
the facility once operational in March 2003. The system will pro-
vide an alternative source of heating and cooling for the facility for
10 months of each year, reducing the need for a cooling tower to
only July and August (the peak season for cooling needs).
   EPA's National Computer Center (NCC)  in Research
Triangle Park, North Carolina, installed a photovoltaic roof,
one of the two largest on the East Coast. Tiles on the roof use the
sun's light to generate 80 kilowatts of electricity—enough electrici-
ty to power the entire building's lights. As a  result, NCC uses less
energy from the regional power grid.
   Another way DER helps EPA is by providing  a higher quality of
energy. "Because of some of the sensitive equipment the labs use,
an interruption in power cannot be  afforded even for a micro-
second," notes Dan Amon, a mechanical engineer with EPA's
Sustainable  Facilities Practices Branch.
   In the future, the Agency may rely even more on  DER. EPA is
working  in partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy's Oak
Ridge National  Laboratory on feasibility studies for two additional
distributed generation projects at NCC and NVFEL. At the NCC,
one proposed option was to install a two-megawatt diesel gener-
ator for emergency power. After considering alternatives such as a
natural gas-fired turbine or fuel cell, however, Oak Ridge deter-
mined that a gas-fired turbine could be implemented with a sim-
  DER Efficiency—Combined Heat and Power Example
                     (Courtesy of DOE)

                   Standard Power Plant
  100% Fuel
  Input
d
                            60% "Waste" Heat
                            Rejected to Environment
40% Useful Energy
Produced for Electricity
  100% Fuel
  Input
              Combined Heat and Power Plant
                            20% "Waste" Heat
                            Rejected to Environment
40% Useful Energy Produced
for Heating and/or Cooling
Via District Energy System
40% Useful Energy
Produced for Electricity
d
pie payback period of 11  years—and significantly reduce emis-
sions compared to the diesel generator.
   At NVFEL, Oak Ridge  is looking at microturbine and fuel cell
options as alternatives to the six or more internal combustion
engines that would be needed to provide "clean power," a term
for a completely uninterrupted power supply, which is not avail-
able from the traditional electric grid. In that case, the payback
period of the additional cost over the internal combustion engines
was two years. EPA will consider these DER options as the Agency
makes its final decisions on backup power for both labs. For more
information, contact Dan Amon at 202 564-7509 or
.
  New Look for OARM Web Site
     EPA's OARM recently revamped part of its public Web site
     to provide easy access to information on sustainable
  practices at the Agency's facilities. The site now provides a
  wealth of data, such as facility square footage, energy and
  water consumption, facility manager contact information,
  and "green" building highlights.
     OARM renamed this Web site Greening EPA to reflect the
  many efforts EPA is undertaking to live its mission by  practic-
  ing sound environmental  management at its facilities. By
  updating the site on a quarterly basis, OARM is bringing the
  most current information available to the public, such as the
  latest on the Agency's efforts to procure green power for its
  facilities, and the most recent Energizing EPA newsletter.  Visit
    or contact Marjorie Buchanan
  at 202 564-8206 or .

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                                           ENERGIZING  EPA
      page 4
2002  Labs21  Conference Draws  Record  Attendance
        More than 400 laboratory designers, owners, and opera-
        tors from around the globe convened in Durham, North
        Carolina, for the 2002  Laboratories for the 21 st
Century (Labs21) Annual Conference, October 7 to 10, 2002.
Attendees worked together to devise new solutions to reduce
costs and increase laboratory design and operational efficiency
using the principles advocated by the Labs21  Program.
   Morris X. Winn, EPA's Assistant Administrator for Administra-
tion and Resources Management, opened the conference by
noting the importance of the accomplishments of Labs21 and its
partners. "Your work,  whether for a corporation, a university, or  a
federal institution, is helping to build the future of research. By
making labs energy efficient and environmentally sustainable,
you are also protecting and preserving our most critical
resource—the environment."
   Conference sessions delved into industry-specific topics,
including bio-containment facilities, large-animal  labs, aeronau-
tics labs, and automotive testing  facilities. As a new component,
this year's conference also featured a technology fair, displaying
state-of-the-art products from nearly 30 vendors.
   "As laboratories are places for cutting-edge research, they
can be viewed as leaders and agents of change," said Phil
Wirdzek, EPA's Labs21
program manager. "By
embracing aggressive
environmental and energy
efficiency goals, these
buildings can expand
their leadership role and
contribute to the commer-
cialization of advanced
building technologies and
economic growth. These
goals were successfully
pursued by each attendee
and speaker at this year's
Labs21 conference."
   Labs21  has announced
plans for its 2003  Annual
Conference to be  held  in
Denver, Colorado, from
October 20 to 23, 2003. More information is available
at  or from Phil Wirdzek
at 202 564-2094 or .
Assistant Administrator Morris X.
Winn welcomes attendees at the
recent Labs21 Conference.
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