Marching in step with the construction industry's growing sustainability ethic, the U.S. Army announced this month that it will install waterless urinals in the construction of all new facilities beginning October 2007.
The move will be big step forward in achieving higher sustainability standards at Army facilities, says Annette L. Stumpf, an Army architect at the U.S. Army Engineer and Research Development Center, Champaign, Ill. Stumpf says the waterless urinals save water, require no freeze protection, eliminate electrical need for pumps and potable water infrastructure, and they also reduce septic and water treatment loads, and reduce installation costs.
The directive does not mandate retrofitting existing facilities with the waterless urinals, he notes, says John Havens Jr., energy manager at the Washington Military Department, Washington, D.C. But urinals that use more than one gallon of water per flush will be replaced with the waterless urinals, he notes.
It is the latest development in the Army's aim to employ green building methods through its Sustainable Project Rating Tool (SPiRiT) program instituted five years ago. The program is a green rating system, similar to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), to establish best practices for environmental sustainability in construction of new facilities. The Dept. of Defense and other military branches have similar sustainability programs. "The Navy, Marines Air Force and the Dept. of Defense are all attempting to build green," Havens says.
Comments
Oct. 13, 2006
The Army has adopted LEED-NC 2.2 with a target rating of silver beginning with the program year FY08. So that means starting Oct 1, 2006, we are using LEED instead of SPiRiT. If you wanted to do an article on that, I could refer you to the key decision makers who would talk about it.
Annette Stumpf
Research Architect
Engineer Research & Development Center
Construction Engineering Research Laboratory
Post a comment to this article
Report Abusive Comment