Factors For Achieving Water Conservation Excellence:

Why-and What-Today's Architect Should Know About Plumbing and Its Relationship to Sustainable Design
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Advanced electronic hand dryers dry hands in 10 to 15
seconds and use 80% less energy than traditional hand dryers while providing a 90% savings vs. paper towel costs.

In fact, additional water waste can be accounted for in applications with manual faucets because water may continue to run when the user reaches for a towel to dry their hands or use the towel as a buffer between hand and fixture to turn off the faucet and avoid re-contamination. Also, because users are now accustomed to sensor-operated faucets, manual faucets are often left running out of habit.

Conclusions

Architects have a variety of tools at their disposal to achieve water conservation objectives. In a recent survey of building owners and managers, participants were asked which areas of the building they thought had the greatest potential to negatively affect a visitor's impression of their facility if not properly maintained or updated. The second most cited area was the restroom. In fact, restrooms were judged the most frequently visited common area of the building by employees and/or visitors alike.

It makes good design sense to take advantage of new strategies that promote water conservation because they benefit both the bottom line and the environment. In fact, owners of LEED-certified buildings receive financial incentives in terms of return on investment. In October 2003, California's Sustainable Building Task Force released a 134-page report titled, "The Costs and Financial Benefits of Green Buildings," which confirms the economic viability of "green buildings" as an investment. The report states, that on average, a normal increase in up-front costs of two percent to achieve "green design" will result in life cycle savings of 20 percent of the total investment-10 times the initial investment.

Today's architect has the opportunity to take water conservation to the next level-and help their owner-customers achieve realistic results.

 

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Originally published in Architectural Record.
Originally published in May 2005

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