Today, a highlight of visiting the Treasury Department is seeing the grand Cash Room, a central meeting and function space inside the building that had more direct links with the nation’s prosperity in the 1800s, when it operated as sort of a national banker’s bank. But these days, money is not the only reason that Treasury is seeing green – or even gold.
That is because recent energy-conscious changes to the building have won Treasury a “Gold” certification from the U.S. Green Building Council for meeting standards of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.
The building received the certification based on a number of factors, including increasing the use of natural light to reduce energy consumption; establishing sustainable landscaping programs; improving the management of its heating ventilation and air condition systems; creating a green procurement program for materials and equipment. Other improvements have included enhancing the metering used to measure utility usage, increasing the amount of utilized building space and conducting audits related to recycling programs.
The Treasury building is now believed to be the oldest structure in the world to have been awarded LEED certification, according to the U.S. Green Building Council.
“The fact that the home of much our nation’s financial history has achieved this distinction for environmental leadership adds new meaning to the term 'green’ building,” Dan Tangherlini, Treasury’s assistant secretary for management, wrote in a Treasury blog announcing the new certification.
Tangherlini said the building improvements made by Treasury have resulted in a 43% decrease in the use of potable water, a 7% decrease in electrical usage and a 53% decrease in the use of steam.
When you think about a 'green’ building, you probably don’t picture a centuries-old National Historic Landmark that’s lined with columns and made of thousands of tons of granite,” he said.
