Introduction | Impact of Decisions | Key Concepts & Best Practices | Commercial Buildings | Residential Buildings | Industrial Buildings | Acknowledgements
Industrial Buildings
Industrial buildings include warehouses, distribution centers, and greenhouses, the latter of which has seen a boom in Colorado to accommodate cannabis grow operations. Like large-scale commercial and residential properties, industrial buildings tend to have a larger building footprint and a high electricity load. Fortunately, even industrial complexes can drastically reduce their impact through increased efficiency, grid interactive buildings, and electrification.
Best Practices Include:
Reduce Emmissions: Adding solar panels to the roof or planting urban gardens can prevent or offset emissions.
Use Electric Space Heaters and Coolers: For a large industrial space, consider relying on electric heating and cooling mechanisms for smaller spaces, as opposed to heating and cooling the whole area. This can help mitigate building emissions.
Create a More Efficient Building Envelope: In addition to ensuring the building envelope is properly sized, the structure itself can also incorporate strategies such as using reflective roof coatings to help minimize energy requirements.
Reduce Energy Demand: Implement demand management strategies and energy management systems to ensure energy is used efficiently. An example of this is upgrading lighting and HVAC systems.
Industrial Building Case Study
REI Distribution Warehouse:
In 2016, REI opened a new distribution center in Goodyear, Arizona that supports over a third of the company’s sales. Distribution centers typically consume a massive amount of energy due to their large size and intense operating schedules. Accordingly, REI prioritized efficiency outcomes from the onset of design to minimize the impact of the new building. The result is one of the most sustainable distribution centers in the U.S. It is a LEED Platinum certified structure and produces all the energy it consumes via a 280,000 square foot, 2.2 MW rooftop solar installation. The facility also minimizes water waste with a non-evaporative cooling system which maintains the internal building temperature while saving millions of gallons of water. With their Goodyear Distribution Center, REI demonstrates how companies can balance business outcomes with efficient operations and clean energy goals.
“The building’s design was a collaborative project that’s meant to provide an example for other companies and manufacturers to learn from and leverage.”
Learn more about this project HERE.