Site Visit - Texas Regional Water District

Site: Texas Regional Water District - Fort Worth Office
Host: Laura Blalock
http://www.trwd.com/home.aspx

Building Details and Features:

• Built in 2009
• First building in Tarrant County to achieve LEED Gold
• Solar array located on roof
• Efficient fluorescent lighting system run off a sensor and timer system
• Drought-resistant landscaping
• Irrigation system fed with collected rainwater through soaker hoses
• Interior finish outs including fly ash in concrete, cork flooring, recycled plastic used in carpet product
• Low-E windows double paned windows

This relatively brand new building in north Fort Worth is an important building in the recent history of sustainable buildings in the North Texas. Although there have been more recent buildings in North Texas that have achieved LEED Platinum such as UNT's Football Stadium (http://web3.unt.edu/news/story.cfm?story=12353) and various other projects that can be found within the USGBC searchable database (http://www.usgbc.org/LEED/Project/CertifiedProjectList.aspx). The building is incredible visually appealing and it's clear that the architect took immense pride in it's design. Further, Laura has done an excellent job keeping with the sustainability theme with the way that the building is operated by offering a recycling program, setting appropriate temperature controls during low usage periods, conserving irrigation water used, and other tactics.

In one of my questions, I asked the on-site employees what the most impactful element of the design is. According to Laura, the most impactful element of the building is the solar panels. There are currently 1157 solar panels in place on the roof. The solar panels are able to produce enough electricity to cover about 50 - 75% of the buildings usage overall. Much like the Bedford Public Library, the building owners are not able to sell back their excess usage to the grid due to some complications of signing up as an 'Energy Provider.' In addition, Reliant is the only provider at this point who currently buys back power from sources such as private solar panels.

I have been increasingly paying attention to the drought-resistant landscaping at the properties we toured as well as others around town. As I look at the drought-resistant landscaping, it makes me think back to my time in multifamily property management. Many months, our irrigation bill would exceed $4000 per month during the summer on a 300-unit three story property. Installing drought-resistant landscaping is a sustainble idea that not only improves water conservation as a whole, but can also save a building owner significant money and maintenance costs over time. Drought-resistant landscaping can be very attractive and colorful so installing does not mean curb appeal will suffer as a result. Based upon savings to irrigation and the reduced amount of maintenance needed for hardier landscaping materials, building owners could save literally thousands of dollars every month during the summer by choosing drought-resistant products.

As beautfiul as the building was during our tour, I kept wanting to see and dig into the development and operational numbers.  According to Laura, the Tarrant Regional District building cost over $9 million to develop prior to completing any interior finish outs. Because of the nature of their business, the Tarrant Regional Water District knows with relative certainty that they'll be in the facility for a long time, which more easily allows them to justify some sustainable features that will create savings over a much longer term. In order to close the loop on sustainability and really become a believer, I am going to need to spend a significant amount of time reviewing individual feature ROI and measurable savings. Almost to a fault, I always go back to what can be measured quantitatively to determine success. I am very excited to spend some time reviewing projects like this one to fully understand the economic feasability of some sustainable features like the ones we saw at this building.