Cost-Effective Green Retrofits:
Opportunities for Savings in Existing Buildings

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Each of the three Adobe Towers is LEED-EBOM Platinum. Since 2001, a total of $2.3 million in capital costs (including $483,000 in rebates) has resulted in 47% reduced electric use, 42% reduced gas use, and 48% reduced water use, which add up to an annual savings of $1.6 million.

Start with the basics. There is an abundance of opportunities, right beneath our noses, for realizing operational savings and environmental benefits at the same time. If there is a “green lining” to the recession (as EBN explored in Jan. 2009), one piece of it may be a renewed focus on low-cost and no-cost green solutions. Experts interviewed for this article provided examples like these:

• Disabling a broken irrigation sprinkler head that had poured out 100,000 gallons (38,000 l) of water over the last two years.

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