For County, A Growing Green Revolution

Some Seneca Creek Elementary School toilets have two flush volumes. Teachers tagged one button yellow, the other brown. (By James M. Thresher -- The Washington Post)

Great Seneca Creek Elementary School is council member George L. Leventhal's vision for the future of buildings in Montgomery County: a heating-and-cooling system that draws energy from the earth, large windows, no-flush urinals.

"Absolutely," he said. "Saving money on light, saving money on water."

Leventhal (D-At Large) is the chief sponsor of a bill that would require any public or private building larger than 10,000 square feet in the county to include environmentally friendly, energy-saving features such as those at the Germantown school.

The council approved the measure in a unanimous vote Tuesday. County Executive Douglas M. Duncan (D) said in a statement that the bill supports "our effort to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions." His spokesman David Weaver said Duncan plans to sign the bill before he leaves office Monday.

The bill will require builders to meet Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards, a rating system devised by the U.S. Green Building Council, a nonprofit organization that promotes what it calls sustainable building design and construction.

Montgomery joins Pasadena, Calif., in being the first jurisdictions in the nation to require private and public builders to meet LEED criteria, said Michelle Moore, vice president of communications and community for the D.C.-based Green Building Council.

The District is not far behind. The D.C. Council is expected to pass a similar measure this year.

Great Seneca Creek's principal, Gregory S. Edmundson, beams when he escorts visitors around the school, which opened in September. School officials expect Great Seneca to be recognized as a LEED "silver" building -- the four categories are certified, silver, gold and platinum, depending on the quantity of environmentally friendly features. Edmundson said that would make it the first such public school in Maryland.

He's escorted educators, architects, politicians and builders through the school to show its geothermal heating-and-cooling system, low-flush toilets and features that maximize the use of natural light and recycled materials.

The geothermal system, which takes advantage of the Earth's natural ground temperature of 58 degrees, means a more even indoor climate year-round and no seasonal lurches when the boiler or the air conditioning goes on, Edmundson said.

"It's a place that makes you feel good, and you don't even know it," he said.

Granted, the no-flush urinals in the boys' room don't quite live up to their odorless billing. The filters are cleaned in the evening, so first thing in the morning the smell is not a problem. "During the day it's kind of wretched," said Edmundson, who is otherwise an upbeat promoter of his facility.

Leventhal said his legislation, co-sponsored by council member Marilyn Praisner (D-Eastern County), grew out of his realization that the public and private sector "needed an extra push" in adopting energy-efficient, environmentally friendly features.

He said he has had heard only "minor griping" from the building industry. Builder Mike Bell, appearing before the council in June on behalf of the Maryland-National Capital Building Industry Association, urged the council to adopt voluntary incentives, rather than requirements, and said no clear set of industry standards had yet emerged. Association officials, who endorse the concept of green building, did not return messages last week.

Leventhal said the county already uses some incentives -- one example is the right to build at higher density -- to promote other objectives, such as affordable housing. He said the new legislation joins other green initiatives he has sponsored, such as the county's commitment to purchase 10 percent of its energy from wind sources.

The law will require private nonresidential or multifamily buildings to meet the LEED certified standard and county-funded buildings to meet the silver rating.

Moore, the Green Building Council's vice president of community, said studies have shown that constructing a facility to meet LEED standards can add as much as 1.5 percent to the bottom line, but that lower operating costs allow developers to recover the added investment relatively quickly.

Bell, in his council testimony, said it may take 20 or more years to recover the costs of green construction through energy savings.

Council member Nancy Floreen (D-At Large), who also supported the legislation, said many green features are common elsewhere. "What's interesting," she said, "is that the rest of the world is way ahead of us."