On Monday, in Seattle, there was a groundbreaking for the first of 12 livable buildings to be completed here. This six-story building is being billed as the greenest commercial building on earth. It will be the largest net-zero energy and net-zero water building ever built.The Bullitt Center will be sporting some of the following features:
- All energy will be produced by solar power
- Most lighting will be from natural daylight
- All water will be captured from rainwater and stored in a cistern to be used in toilets and/or sterilized to be used for drinking water and other potable water
- All wastewater and sewage will be collected. The water will be sterilized and the sewage will be collected for composting (the building will not be hooked up to the sewer)
- There will be no parking in the building, only bike racks
- Common building materials that contain PVC plastics, mercury, cadmium and about 360 other substances considered hazardous won’t be used
- Has "irresistible" stairs to reduce elevator usage (see image)
- Uses geothermal heating and cooling
Image courtesy of The Seattle Times (click to see more features of the building).