Sustainable Facilities Tool General Services Administration

Building Systems Upgrades

The following are Sustainable Strategies to consider as your space undergoes a building system upgrade to improve energy, water use, and occupant comfort. For federal facilities, these strategies can also help your building become aligned with or meet the Guiding Principles for Sustainable Federal Buildings. Refer to the Share Section for a representative project Case Study to discover key practices, benefits, results and checklists.

When considering upgrading building systems, such as lighting, HVAC, or plumbing, calculating cost savings associated with different products can help you make the best choice. The Department of Energy’s Cost Savings Calculator compares products based on relevant specifications and compares the savings to both the Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP) baseline and top-of-the-line models.

Also consider predictive maintenance technologies, an emerging systems upgrade. Read about some of the most useful types, such as thermography and ultrasonic analysis, in the Operations and Maintenance Guide released by DoE.

Sustainable Strategies

Lighting and Lighting Controls

• Use Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) environmental and energy guidelines for product and service purchases
• Replace old fluorescent lighting with LEDs from the DesignLights Consortium Qualified Products List
• For highest performance, design a lighting scheme with daylight photo-sensors, dimming electronic ballasts, light shelves, occupancy sensors and automatic shades
• Use proper daylighting in a workplace to increase worker productivity and morale while reducing lighting and cooling energy costs
• Reroute direct sunlight with light shelf strategies to the ceiling and allow it to be diffused over a large area as a way to handle glare issues for workers
• Use dynamic systems such as automatic shades to block, control, or filter sunlight to avoid negative effects of glare and heat and maximize good daylight
• Use on interior offices and shared spaces to maximize access to daylight and views from all locations and provide privacy with opaque glazing or applied polyester opaque film up to 48" height.
• Consider lowering the height of the workstation panels to approximately 48" in an open office ennvironment, allowing for views while still providing visual and acoustical privacy
• Use lighting fixtures that are either indirect, direct-indirect pendant lighting, or indirect lay-in fixtures to reduce glare and visual stress
• Choose lighting systems to accommodate both office and workstation arrangements without modification
• Enable occupant control of lighting levels with task lights or individual controls
• Consider using occupancy sensors to control dedicated power receptacles for task lighting in offices and workstations
• Provide feedback to occupants on energy use through the use of a dashboard or other display methods

HVAC & HVAC Controls

• Maintain acceptable temperature and relative humidity
• Enable occupant control of ambient conditions in their workspace through individual or zone control of ventilation and temperatures
• Educate occupants when new controls are provided
• Consider using wireless thermostats for variable air volume (VAV) boxes allowing them to be easily relocated and managed remotely
• Provide feedback to occupants on energy use through the use of a dashboard or other display methods
• Retrofit existing cooling systems to run on environmentally friendly refrigerants

Plumbing

• Use Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) environmental and energy guidelines for product and service purchases
• Use high efficiency plumbing fixtures in lavatories, such as aerators on faucets (0.5 gpm), high efficiency showerheads (2.0 gpm), and dual flush toilets (0.8/1.6 gpf) or high efficiency toilets (1.2 gpf)
• Consider waterless urinals to save significant amounts of water; ensure that cleaning and maintenance staff receive training in the specific maintenance regimes and training required
• Install automatic fixture sensors on lavatories for water savings, but avoid automatic flushes on toilets because they often result in double flushing and are not recommended
• Consider high-efficiency water fountains, with a wider range of acceptable temperature to encourage use of tap over bottled water. Incorporate taps into the design to make them user friendly

Acoustic Systems

• Use Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) environmental and energy guidelines for product and service purchases
• Incorporate a blend of design, treatments, and behavioral programming to address acoustic issues systematically
• Improve acoustical quality through the minimization and isolation of noise levels and vibration relative to the space use to ensure speech intelligibility in conference rooms and speech privacy for offices
• Provide modular or removable panel extensions to workstations that can be used when more privacy is needed
• Insure the installation of sound-rated walls and insulation meets end user privacy requirements
• Install acoustical ceiling tiles with higher noise reduction coefficienct (NRC) in the open office areas
• Implement sound control strategies and properly tuned sound masking systems
• Use carpet and sound absorbing materials to dampen sound
• Reinforce acoustically quiet areas with appropriate visual cues such as opaque walls or signage.

References/Resources

• Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Part 23: 23.703 Policy: Government policy on the acquisition of environmentally preferable, energy efficient, and water conserving products and services, including EPEAT-registered products
• LEED Building Operations & Maintenance (O+M) Rating System
• California Commissioning Collaborative
• US Environmental Protection Agency I-Beam Forms
• Green Seal
• Carpet and Rug Institute
• Sound Matters