Share this page → Building Green Our new Animal Community Center will reuse more than 90 percent of the materials from the building previously on our new site. We're also building in water savings and massive energy-efficiency to create a high-performance, sustainable “green” structure that meets Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards set by the national Green Building Council, a level of sustainability never before achieved in an animal welfare facility. How We're Building An Environmentally Friendly Animal Community Center Installing heat recovery technology on all heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems. This technology reduces the amount of energy utilized by the buildings climate control systems. Installing a number of PV (photovoltaic) arrays on our building roof, over a portion of our dog park and over a number of our parking areas. These arrays will generate roughly 40% of our facility's power needs, while at the same time providing shade and further reducing the heat 'island effect' of our facility. Installing a highly efficient cleansing system for kennel maintenance, which helps to reduce water utilization while ensuring appropriate cleaning and disinfecting of kennels. Installing synthetic turf in our dog park and exercise areas to eliminate the need for regular watering of sod. This, in combination with the use of low-flow showers, sinks, urinals, etc., allows us to achieve an estimated 45% reduction in water usage over similar sized facilities not taking these steps. Achieving a 45% water savings by installing low-flow lavatory, shower, kitchen sink and urinals. Installing occupancy sensors throughout the building to aid in the control of our lighting systems so they shut off if no one is in the room. Replacing a number of server and client computers with new units that are more energy efficient and consume less power. 'Virtualizing' our computer servers wherever possible so we use fewer physical servers to draw on power. Utilizing stained concrete floors in much of the facility to reduce the amount of building, cooling and heating required. This will also lowering maintenance costs and eliminate the need for certain chemical cleaning and polishing agents. Installing a cool (reflective) roof. Cool roofs reduce the roof surface temperature dramatically, thereby reducing the heat transferred into the building resulting in reduced energy consumption (HVAC), reduced 'heat island effect,' and increased comfort for the building's occupants. Taking additional steps to implement a green cleaning policy, recycling program, and policy that favors green vendors and shows preference to environmentally friendly products. This is an example of HSSV's Photovoltaic Parking Structure