All of Thurston County, Tumwater, Olympia, and Lacey’s wastewater is cycled through the LOTT alliance. Methane is a natural bi-product of the entire water treatment process. This methane needs to be either used or disposed of, most companies doing the latter. The LOTT Alliance chose to recycle this methane using an innovative technology, the Co-Generation System that turns the methane into electricity. To permit this system, it first had to meet several key requirements.
The Bullitt Center aspires to be the “greenest commercial building in the world” by pursuing the Living Building Challenge which includes a net-zero energy goal to produce all the energy the building uses. The Northwest’s variable amount and intensity of daylight affects solar production values, so scaling the system to meet the needs of a six-story building required a 244 kW array with 575 solar panels, which installed cover an area larger than the footprint of the building, creating a solar canopy overhanging the sidewalk 6 stories below. Normally this would not be allowed, but a land use interpretation helped them gain approval.
The Blakeley Manor project was one of several similar projects consisting of a full exterior wall rehabilitation to improve building envelope performance of an existing 4-story 70-unit senior housing facility owned and managed by the Seattle Housing Authority (SHA). Existing exterior wall cladding of stucco installed over wire lath and building paper was removed and replaced with an innovative assembly of new plywood sheathing, continuous, higher density mineral wool insulation covered with fiber cement siding to provide 1-hr fire rating for both “outside-in” and between floors. This was reviewed and approved through a code modification request.