The new administration building at the Deerfield, Illinois, Water Reclamation Facility (WRF) was awarded a Silver level LEED™ certification. The 5,000-square foot building includes offices, SCADA/map room, training room, laboratory, and lockers and restrooms. The existing WRF site location possessed several advantages in gaining certification, including its proximity to urban development, and was further enhanced by including low maintenance plantings and limiting impervious surface areas. Sustainable features of the building include its orientation, which maximizes natural daylight, a high SRI rated standing seam metal roof allowing reflection of solar heat, and the incorporation of high-recycled content and regionally manufactured materials. The building is heated and cooled through the use of heat pumps fed from a portion of the plant’s effluent discharge. The strategy is similar to a geothermal or cooling tower system and utilizes existing plant infrastructure. Energy modeling shows the building is designed to be 30 percent more efficient than the baseline/code minimum building.

The building was designed as a portion of the overall Water Reclamation Facility renovation and upgrade. Although the overall renovation increases the plant’s treatment capacity and adds new processes, it is estimated that the new plant will use 7 percent less electricity and 46 percent less natural gas than the existing plant.