By Clare Bishop-Sambrook, PTA
This week many staff have taken advantage of the opportunity to visit the IFAD roof and learn more about IFAD’s greening efforts first hand. Twelve solar panels (hot water system), four gas fired boilers (723 kW each), five chillers and 13 air handling units make up the heating, ventilation and air conditioning in IFAD’s HQ.
The visit in numbers….
Number
|
Unit
|
Comment
|
Zero
|
Tolerance
|
In the summer do not open windows
because unfiltered, moist air enters the building and can block the chilled
beam (air conditioning) unit in the offices
|
1
|
Building
|
IFAD is the only building in Italy to
have achieved the gold level of the Leadership in Energy and Environment
Design (LEED) voluntary green building certification for Existing Buildings –
Operations and Maintenance (EB:OM). No UN or IFI building has yet to achieve
this certification at the Platinum level
|
2
|
Visual inspections per day
|
Two visits per day by the maintenance
technicians to ensure all critical elements of the mechanical and electrical
installations are working properly
|
4
|
Years
|
Payback period on the solar panels
which were co-financed with Gemmo (maintenance contractor)
|
11
|
LEED points
|
If IFAD maintains the points from the
original certification in 2010, IFAD needs 11 points to move from gold to
platinum level on LEED
|
15
|
Days
|
The frequency with which the air
filters are cleaned; recommended practice is 4 – 6 weeks
|
20
|
°C
|
Base temperature for building in winter
|
26
|
°C
|
Base temperature for building in summer
|
28
|
Sq metres
|
Solar panels
|
47
|
Staff
|
Signed up for the visit to IFAD’s solar
panels this week
|
50
|
Per cent
|
Women in the IFAD Facilities Team
|
92
|
Per cent
|
Share of air travel (by staff) of IFAD’s
total greenhouse gas emissions
|
100
|
Per cent
|
All occupied areas of the building are
air conditioned and have light quality of a minimum of 350 Lux
|
100
|
Per cent
|
All hot water requirements during the
summer months should be met from the solar panels
|
202
|
Energy Utilization Index (EUI)
|
IFAD obtained an EUI of 202 kWh/m2/year
– some 40 per cent better than best practice for a building such as IFAD HQ
in this climatic region
|
240
|
Staff
|
Completed the ADM survey (at least 300
are required in order to potentially gain an extra point in the LEED
evaluation)
|
1,000
|
Sq metres
|
Area of lawn and flowerbeds requiring
watering in the summer
|
3,200
|
Litres
|
Water tanks on the roof heated by solar panels with additional tanks
in the basement to store a further 9500 litres of hot water
|
20,000
|
Litres
|
Water tanks in basement for harvesting
water from the rooftop
|
60,000
|
Litres
|
Average volume of water used per day in
IFAD
|
Thanks to the rooftop tour guides: Dave Nolan and Antonio Russo
I agree wholeheartedly - very interesting to find out how the building works and complimenti to Dave and Antonio for their hard work! Jill