The RFAB site office building is a three-story, 220,000 square foot structure. This is where support and administrative teams will work in an office environment. In the concept phase, the design team used an energy model to demonstrate how the orientation and general shape of the building could reduce operating expenses with no additional cost.

Sustainable features of the office building offer four distinct benefits:

Energy Savings

• Passive solar orientation—placement of a building’s walls, windows and overhangs in a manner that reduces energy requirements—minimizes unwanted sunshine
• Exterior shade screen minimizes summer heat
• Light shelves reduce the need for indoor lighting by bouncing daylight deeper indoors
• Reflective roofing reduces the urban heat island effect
• Quality window glazing provides a balance of good insulation and good visible light transmission
• Smart lighting has a built in motion sensor and photo sensors so they can respond to indoor conditions. It also gives employees control of area lighting through their work computer
• Solar water heating
• Water turbine-powered hand wash faucet sensors
• LCD monitors for all computers

Water Savings

• Waterless urinals save 40,000 gallons of water each per year

Improved Air Quality

• CO₂ sensor controlled ventilation provides the intake of fresh air as needed
• Ventilated copy rooms
• Safer building materials, including paints, sealants and adhesives made with more benign materials
• Locally manufactured materials shipping pollution
• Shuttle buses, free annual mass transit passes, a carpool matching program and other benefits will be available to employees to discourage single occupant commuting, which contributes to smog in the area

Reduced Material Use

• The recycled content of all materials used in building construction is greater than 20 percent
• Ceiling tiles used in the building have a recycled material content greater than 80 percent
• The carpet is made from recycled materials and has very low emissions
• Fly ash used in the site’s concrete helped conserve energy, saved about one barrel of imported oil, and equated to about a ton of CO2 savings. Fly ash also improves the performance and quality of concrete
• Recycling centers make it easy for employees to minimize and sort wastes
• Certified wood and wheatboard used throughout the building ensured the wood we purchased was extracted in a sustainable manner and contribute to the preservation of old growth forests
• High-velocity hand dryers conserve paper towels