1. AASHE 2010 Net Zero and Water Regenerative Campus
Me Green You Green
Winston Huff, CPD, LEED® AP
Smith Seckman and Reid Engineers
MeGreenYouGreen.com

2. Campus Water Use
A recent report stated that Stanford University uses 2.7 million gallons of water per day.
University medical centers can use over 600 gallons per day per patient bed.
The typical response to this trend is to make the campus less bad on the environment and look at the plumbing fixtures.
In reality the plumbing fixtures use a small percentage of the total water usage.

3. Let’s give schools a little context.
More than 55 million students and more than 5 million faculty, staff and administrators go to school every day. More than 20% of America’s population that spends about six hours a day in a school building

4. LESS BAD CAMPUS TO A REGENERATIVE CAMPUS
Currently a typical sustainable campus is “less bad” when compared to another campus
Future Sustainable guides will move from a “Less Bad” campus to a “Net Zero” Campus.
Beyond Net Zero is a campus that can be a Regenerative campus.
A campus that heals environmental damage from pass campus activities. Or helps the campus community to be “Less Bad”

5. Biosphere and Water
“Building systems should study, replicate and respect the earth’s biospheric systems to increase the quality of life.”
Source -

6. Typical building water systems
Plumbing fixtures are not the only systems that use water and create waste water in a building.
28% of the water used in a typical office building serves the heating and cooling equipment.
Source – Water Smart Guide Book East Bay Municipal Utility District.

7. The modern municipal water system can be seen to provide a typical building with a large faucet and a large toilet.

8. Decentralize
Most communities have large, centralized water and wastewater systems.
One possible option is to move to smaller systems that reduce the strain on centralized systems.
Yet what would these systems look like?
What is the solution for the future?
Do we continue to build large, centralized wastewater treatment
systems that treat every possible waste material known to man?
Some municipalities will act as if there are no problems and
build large, costly centralized infrastructures to handle more and
more water and wastewater systems. Other cities do not have the
funds to continue development or even maintain their antiquated
waste systems. As a result, these systems will fall into decay and
could place populations and natural areas at risk of exposure to
the toxic waste cocktail if it is not treated properly.

9. Alternate Water Source: Rainwater Plumbing fixtures Condensate Supply:
Irrigation
Flush Fixtures
Vehicle wash
Graywater
Graywater systems collect water from showers, laundries, and
lavatories and recycle the water back to an irrigation system or the
flush fixtures. LEED 2009 requires a reduced flow for public lavatories
as the baseline and requires a 20 percent water reduction as a
prerequisite. As a result, there is a new focus on graywater systems.
New codes now describe how to store, color, and filter the water.
Several companies can provide graywater equipment and chemicals
to treat and maintain safe water.
Rainwater Catchment
Removing storm water from a municipal combination sewer
system brings many benefits to a community. Rainwater can
be collected and used inside buildings for irrigation and other
building water systems, which reduces the amount of water in the
municipal system. Some city storm water departments offer incentives
for building owners to build these systems in a facility. These
systems are designed by landscape architects, irrigation designers,
civil engineers, and some plumbing engineers. Many manufacturers
provide the tanks, filters, and monitor systems. ASPE currently
is developing a new standard called Rainwater Catchment Design
and Installation Standards. When complete, this will be an excellent
resource introducing plumbing engineers to the design of
these systems.
Using rainwater catchment systems can help qualify for LEED
water-efficiency credits. Under LEED 2009, such building water
systems must be installed to obtain credits.
Once rainwater is contained on a facility site, it can be used for
irrigation. This is a relatively simple system to design. Although the
water is used outside the building, when it is sprayed, the airborne
water can be ingested by people. As a result, it is important to
design a system to minimize the growth of harmful materials in
the water storage and distribution system.
Rainwater to flush systems, which collect rainwater for use in
plumbing flush fixtures, are growing in acceptance. They are now
the responsibility of the plumbing engineer to design.
Reclaimed Water (Purple Pipe)
Some places are doing this now with water reuse, or purple pipe, systems, usually on a community or campus scale. Water is treated from a wastewater treatment facility to a lesser standard than drinking water and distributed for use in irrigation, mechanical, or fire protection in buildings. These systems are becoming a common solution and usually are designed by civil or wastewater engineers.
Source – City of New York Water Conservation Manual (DDC) -

10. Green Site vs Standard Site - Which Costs More?
CASE STUDY
Green Site vs Standard Site - Which Costs More?
Johnston Memorial Hospital, Clayton, North Carolina
The green design would also allow stormwater to flow into the swales and reduce the amount of curb and guttering. Concrete car stops would be provided at the end of the parking areas where the front of the cars would protrude over the swale area. As a result there was less pavement needed in the parking lot.
Diagram Hawkins Landscape Architects

11. HVAC Condensate Collection
Vanderbilt - Medical Research Building III Biological /Sciences
System has been in operation for 5 years.
The system has collected over 1.9 million cubic Feet of water.
Saved $30,000 in municipal water charges.
It cost $60,000 to install during the building construction.
There are 5 collection units.
Air temperature of the units are running at 51 degrees with chilled water at 41 degrees.
The building has 4 units with a total of 450,000 cfm capacity.
360,000 square feet building.
(4) 1,000 ton chillers
Graphic Source – City of New York Water Conservation Manual (DDC) -

12. Gray Water Systems
Gray water systems collect rain water or waste water from air- conditioning systems, showers, laundries, building process or lavatories and reuse it for landscaping irrigation or the plumbing flush fixtures.
The water reduction methods described to this point are inexpensive options that can be installed in a typical building by slightly modifying the plumbing design. If an owner wants to apply for silver, gold, or platinum LEED certification, plumbing designers might have to use more complex systems that add front-end cost to a project.
Source – City of New York Water Conservation Manual (DDC) -

13. Blackwater System
Blackwater Systems collect water from the flush fixtures and processes the water for other non-potable water uses.
Building scale packaged systems are now available on the market today.
These systems can decentralize the waste water municipal system.
Source – City of New York Water Conservation Manual (DDC) -

14. Waste Mining – Urine Collection
Urine contains nitrogen and phosphorus to produce fertilizer.
A building can have a separate urine piped system to collect the urine.
The urine is collected, processed and the micropollutants are removed.
The end product can be used for agriculture fertilizer.
How is the urine separated from the waste??
Dr. Tove Larsen Urban Water Management Überlandstrasse Dübendorf, Switzerland

15. Urine Collection No-Mix Toilet
The Novaquatis study investigated water closets using NoMix technology.
The fixture has two compartments.
The front compartment collects urine.
The back compartment operates like a conventional toilet.
This way, one fixture can separate the urine from the main waste stream.
Dr. Tove Larsen Eawag Urban Water Management Überlandstrasse Dübendorf, Switzerland

16. How they work
The system consist of a seat that resembles a typical toilet
waste enters a sealed composting area usually located in the floor below the toilet
a vent fan pulls air from the toilet room into the bowl and out the building
The system consist of a seat that resembles a typical toilet without the water tank. The waste enters a sealed composting area usually located in the floor bellow the toilet. A vent fan pulls air from the toilet room into the bowl and out the building.
Photo from: Clivus Multrum

17. Eco-Restroom Bronx Zoo
Photo from: Clivus Multrum

18. Systems That Reduce Water Use

19. Education Building Facebook Dashboards
Buildings on campus can have a facebook page that can track water and energy use.
Buildings can compete with each other.

20. Education Widgets Water and energy widgets can be used for:
Education tools
Teach water and energy usage

21. What To Do Next? Education program to educate water use.
Water/Energy How to manual for:
Architects/Engineer Designers
Contractors
Operators
Green Master Plan
Develop a Green Master
Stars
Set a goals when your campus:
Less Bad
Net Zero
Regenerative

22. For more information, please contact:
Speaker’s contact information
Winston Huff, CPD, LEED® AP
Plumbing/Fire Protection/Project Manager/Sustainable Coordinator
2995 Sidco Drive
Nashville, TN 37221
Smith Seckman Reid, Inc.
fax