San Jose Goes Green With New Building Policy

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

By Erik Rosales

Mar. 12 - KGO (KGO) -- The city of San Jose is going green and taking it to a whole new level with a just-adopted green building policy that is expected to save energy and the environment.

Demolition crews continue to rip apart campus buildings that once housed Hitachi and IBM employees.

A 120,000 square foot San Jose police department south side substation will be built.

Michael Foster, Green Building Coordinator: "The city is now committed to designing and building very resource efficient, very energy efficient, very water efficient facilities, as a means help reduce our long-term operating expenses."

San Jose's green building coordinator, Michael Foster, says the police substation's design is open, optimizing natural sunlight.

Much the same way city hall was built, which he says saves the city $190,000 a year in electricity bills.

It will also feature a vegetative roof, capturing storm water runoff and cleaning it before its discharged into our creeks.

It's all part of San Jose's new green building policy, which requires all new municipal buildings more than 10,000 square feet to be constructed to a higher environmental standard.

Another city green building project will sit right near the corner of Santa Clara and 21st Street. The Roosevelt Community Center, a 30,000 square foot facility that will feature more open windows to bring in natural sunlight and other environmental benefits.

Chris Beekhuis, Fat Spaniel Technologies: "Energy costs are a major portion of a city's budget. This is way to offset a significant portion of that."

Chris Beekhuis with Fat Spaniel Technologies, an independent company that monitors critical performance of renewable energy systems, says he's encouraged by San Jose city leaders.

His company helped Long Beach and it's convention center go green, saving hundreds of thousands of dollars in energy use.

Chris Beekhuis, Fat Spaniel Technologies: "Since the lifetime of the system it's been over 250,000 kilowatt hours, and in California those kilowatt hours are on the order of 14 cents a piece."

Beekuis says that's money in the bank for other items, like park maintenance, and librarians.

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