Green Is Keen, But What Does It Mean For My New Maintenance Facility?

Building “Green Facilities” is a responsibility of bus and paratransit operators. The focus of this paper is to illustrate what sustainability features and “green” components will work in a maintenance facility, whether rehabilitating an existing building or constructing a new one. The authors will first provide a brief overview of the US Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification programs. Incorporation of sustainability features into building design can be accomplished whether or not you may be applying for a LEED certification. Next, the authors will go over sustainability design concepts and features that can be incorporated into the building design. Examples include: “vegetated roofs”, solar panels, wind turbines, recycled building materials, heat exchange and recovery systems, and lighting control sensors and maximizing the energy efficiencies of systems (i.e. HVAC and lighting, etc). A review of typical maintenance equipment items and sustainable features being incorporated in tomorrow’s equipment will also be included. The final sections will cover use of available design tools to evaluate integrated sustainable concepts, including examples of cost savings (actual and projected), along with an actual design example. After reading this paper, we hope the reader comes away with a “keener” awareness of the interactions of sustainability technologies, and realize the benefits of “green” by reduced operating costs and an improved environment.