Men and Women in Blue Go Green

Johnson Controls helps police department become LEED-certified

Many a police department’s motto is “To Serve and Protect.” But the Dallas, Texas, police force can add “… and protect the environment” to its credo. That’s because the municipality’s police department capitalized on an opportunity to provide green-building initiatives as part of construction of its new headquarters. And, of course, Dallas’ Finest found a perfect partner in Johnson Controls to develop its environmentally conscious building.

On the Move

When given the chance to move from its dilapidated and outdated headquarters into a state-of-the-art facility, the police department seized on a “blank slate” wish list and drew up a number of objectives. While some objectives focused on unifying disparate departments to maximize operational efficiencies, the department also realized that careful planning could maximize energy efficiencies as well. So department officials developed a lofty goal of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Silver certification for its new construction.
LEED is a nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high-performance green buildings, promoting a whole-building approach to sustainability by recognizing performance in five key areas:

Sustainable site development
Water savings
Energy efficiency
Materials selection
Indoor environmental quality

Arresting Opportunities

And that’s where Johnson Controls got involved, helping the department achieve LEED goals. To this end, the construction project restored open areas with native landscaping, developed a system to reuse collected storm water for the project’s irrigation system, reduced potable water use by 50 percent, diverted more than 80 percent of construction waste from landfills, and created an energy-efficient design that saved the City of Dallas $246,000 per year in energy costs.
Part of the savings initiative involved the use of occupancy sensors, reflective roofing materials, optimization of HVAC systems, insulated window glazing, and the recovery of latent heat from exhaust and outdoor air streams.
Beyond LEED-certification measures, the police department undertook an extensive public education campaign about the green initiative, creating an interactive portion of the City of Dallas’ website with information on the project and the green features of the building.

Best yet, the project’s success has spawned more green dividends: The city now is working to develop environmentally conscious goals for new municipal construction projects.