The Bertschi School Living Science wing is an award-winning building located in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle, completed in 2011, which includes a small classroom, science lab and ethnobotanical garden. It was the first building certified under the Living Building Challenge V2.0, considered the most stringent green building certification in the world. Among other deep green features, the project reuses greywater from handwashing sinks to irrigate an interior living wall. This helped the project achieve “Net Zero Water” as defined by the Living Building Challenge, i.e. a building that collects, treats and infiltrates all water used on the site. To meet state and local code requirements, the greywater system had to have a conventional overflow connection to the city sewer but under normal operation, no water is sent down these pipes.
Washington Middle School Rain Water Harvesting
Washington Middle School installed a rainwater catchment system. There is a large fiberglass cistern in the ground used to collect rain water from the roof. This system uses the water from the cistern to flush toilets throughout the school. Although no permits were obtained for the school to install the system, the catchment system was installed as part of the Washington State Senate Bill 5509.
Seattle’s Hope Church gets 100% Rainwise Rebate for Cisterns
Seattle’s Rainwise program found that large buildings capture and treat stormwater more efficiently than single family homes. The city’s innovative rebate program awarded 100% of the cost for a cistern and irrigation system at a South Seattle church, covering both design and installation, to capture 142,000 gallons of stormwater per year and effectively reduce the force of peak storm flows.