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Case Study CH-1130

Turnkey solution saves over 200,000 gallons of water per yearWater Harvesting Project achieves 3.4 year payback; helps commercial building win LEED Platinum Status Award

BackgroundBy way of renovation projects, a commercial building owner in Seattle, Wash., sought to maintain and attract more tenants through upgrades, including a long-term sustainability program.

SituationDue to the recent downturn in the U.S. economy, commercial build-ing property owners in Seattle have suffered from high vacancy rates exceeding 20% and this Seattle building was no exception. In response, the owner’s management team drafted an ongoing Sustain-ability Program to attract more tenants for their “Class A” commer-cial office space.

This long-term program would in-clude several important building up-grades, while also seeking to attain the industry’s highly coveted Lead-ership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) status award. LEED is an internationally-recognized, green-building certification system, providing third-party verification of a building being designed and built using strategies intended to improve

performance in metrics such as energy savings, water efficiency, CO2 emissions reduction, improved indoor environmental quality, stewardship of resources and sensitivity to their impacts.

The building management team moved their vision forward by selecting an architect/engineer to perform the following: compre-hensive building study, perfor-mance-grade audit, develop plans and specifications, and assemble the right performance-based contracting team.

Because long-term sustainability and LEED certification were important components of this award-winning design, some of the upgrades included Green Roof Garden, Lighting Retrofit, HVAC Upgrades (mostly Indoor Air Quality – IAQ) and the Nalco Water Harvesting Project.

Program/SolutionNalco was asked to be a part of this comprehensive solution, mostly due to its role as current water treatment vendor and

Economic REsultsEnviRonmEntal REsults eROI

200,000 gallons of make-up water saved per year

$2,000 in annual water savings

trusted advisor. The local Nalco sales office, based in Seattle, was challenged to provide a long-term, sustainable, Water Harvesting Solution that would earn LEED credits, with all required water treat-ment being rated as “potable” in the process. Furthermore, water would meet ascetic standards, especially for the maintenance of corrosion, scale and microbiological growth (especially prevention of Legionella).

The local Nalco sales engineers gladly accepted the unique chal-lenge posed by this important project. Quite simply, Nalco had the relationship and technical resources to deliver the right people with the right solution at the right time!

Nalco’s total solution provided up-front consulting services, chlorinator chemical, sand filter, 3D TRASAR® Technology for Cooling Water with Nalco 360 Service (24/7 monitoring), and a complete turnkey installation.Nalco’s grey water system captured

year. As a result, this $2,000 annual water savings plus $1,500 per year in reduced chemical costs combined for a required payback of less than five years. Payback calculation is as follows:

$12,000.00 Capital Outlay ÷ $3,500.00 per year Savings = 3.4 year Payback

Moving forward, Nalco promised to be a future partner in all submission rounds to maintain the building’s prestigious LEED Platinum status. 3D TRASAR Technology, a industry leading, digital, state-of-the-art, automated chemical feed panel will also measure and verify water treatment data on a real-time, 24/7 basis using Nalco 360 Service.

used cooling tower water and com-bined it with Harvested Rain Water. This blended grey water was then purified and recycled through the comfort cooling system, even as it met potable water standards.

Most importantly, the offering would only pass the customer’s Internal Rate of Return (IRR) hurdle if the proposed payback was less than five years. Nalco was able to offer, substantiate and monitor a 3.4 year payback on an ongoing basis.

Environmental/Economic Results

The customer allocated $12,000 from its capital budget for the Nalco portion of this project. These cur-rent technologies and innovative applications helped to save 200,000 gallons of fresh, make-up water per

ConclusionA high-profile, commercial office building customer sought to attract more tenants through an overall sustainability program that included many important upgrades. The Nalco Water Harvesting project was able to provide a 3.4 year payback while winning the coveted LEED Platinum status, the highest award granted by the Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI). This commitment to innovation and in-vestment in long-term Sustainability allowed the building to close a $6.77 million long-term lease (10 years) with a new tenant, the Environmen-tal Protection Agency (EPA).

3D TRASAR Technology for Cooling Water #28199

3D TRASAR, eROI, Nalco 360, NALCO, the logo and tagline are Trademarks of Nalco Company©2011 Nalco Company All Rights Reserved 5-11

Nalco reports Environmental Return on Investment (eROI) values to customers to account for contributions in delivering both environmental performance and financial payback.

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