Washington, DC - Federal Triangle

photo: Federal Triangle Complex in Washington, DC

This facility features the following green attributes:
Green Power
ENERGY STAR

EPA's National Headquarters Facilities

Total Facility Area: 1,885,544 rentable square feet (RSF) (EPA share)
Estimated Personnel: 5,186 EPA personnel
Energy Consumption: 143,623,089,018 Btu per year (EPA share)
Btu per RSF per Year: 76,171
Water Consumption: 15,721,056 gallons per year
Gallons per RSF per Year: 8.34

All energy data are reported as of FY 2010.

Description

EPA moved into its current Headquarters complex at Federal Triangle over a period of five years. EPA's Federal Triangle facilities include office buildings known as Ariel Rios North and South, EPA East, EPA West, and portions of the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center. Final moves into the Federal Triangle complex occurred in August 2001. Headquarters has been working to establish a number of programs that help reduce the Agency's environmental footprint in this historic area of Washington, DC.

In addition to the Federal Triangle facilities, EPA Headquarters occupies space in several other buildings in the Washington, DC metropolitan area, including:

Awards

Tom Ashmore received a fiscal year (FY) 2010 Energy Partner of the Year Award for designing the complex, multi-building heat recovery project for EPA’s Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, campus. Once the heat recovery project is completed, EPA projects it will provide energy consumption savings of nearly 28 billion Btu, or a reduction of 7 to 9 percent compared with FY 2008.
Ryan Smith won an FY 2009 Carbon Cutter Award for providing invaluable service as a liaison with the Office of the Chief Financial Officer in working through the policy and budget implications of the Agency's scope 1, 2, and 3 greenhouse gas emissions.
The Ariel Rios South Courtyard project garnered a 2007 Landscape Contractors Association Grand Award for Commercial Landscape Installation for EPA's contractor on the project, John Shorb Landscaping. See the May 2008 issue of Groundwork (PDF) (2 pp, 817 K), a publication of the Landscape Contractors Association, for more information on the award.

Unique Environmental Features

Energy Conservation

The Ariel Rios Building (North and South) earned the ENERGY STAR^® label in 2011 with a score of 88. This accomplishment was celebrated in a ceremony with representatives from EPA and the General Services Administration's (GSA's) Public Buildings Service on May 27, 2011.
GSA, in partnership with EPA’s Facilities Management and Services Division, replaced more than 1,000 conventional incandescent light bulbs in the historic light fixtures throughout the EPA East, West, and Ariel Rios buildings. The incandescent bulbs will be upgraded with compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs). According to ENERGY STAR, switching from incandescent light bulbs to CFLs reduces greenhouse gas emissions and energy use by up to 75 percent. In addition, CFLs last 10 times longer than conventional bulbs. Bulb replacement in the Ariel Rios building began in May 2009 and was completed in June 2009. Bulb replacement in the EPA East and EPA West buildings began in April 2009 and was completed in August 2009.

Green Power

EPA offsets 100 percent of the electricity consumption at its Federal Triangle Headquarters facilities with renewable energy certificates (RECs) purchased through the Agency's current blanket green power contract. Learn more about EPA's current and past blanket green power contracts.

Stormwater Management

You will need Adobe Reader to view some of the files on this page. See EPA's PDF page to learn more.

EPA's Office of Water and Office of Administration and Resources Management, in collaboration with the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA), are demonstrating low impact development (LID) and sustainable stormwater management practices in a multi-year, multi-phased LID project at the Federal Triangle Headquarters campus in Washington, DC. The Agency hopes not only to reduce the volume, discharge rate, and pollution levels of its stormwater run-off, but also demonstrate that sustainable design and LID can be used in high-profile, urban sites with rigorous aesthetic design requirements. EPA Headquarters is incorporating several LID strategies at the Federal Triangle complex. The first phase of the project, which included bioretention cells and a soil/grass stabilization/parking area installed along Constitution Avenue, was completed in spring 2005. Construction of porous paving, native landscaping, and a rainwater collection system at the Ariel Rios South Courtyard was completed in December 2006. The third and final phase, which included the installation of cisterns in the EPA West Garage, was completed in summer 2008.

For More Information About This Facility

EPA Environmental Testing Requirements for Furniture (PDF) (20 pp, 200K). Contains the original criteria used in the furniture procurement for the EPA Headquarters, including EPA emissions testing requirements for systems furniture.

EPA's Furniture Manufacturers Environmental Assessment Checklist (PDF) (5 pp, 61K). During furniture procurement for EPA's new Headquarters, the Agency assessed environmental policies at each manufacturer’s facility(ies), including issues of global pollution, energy conservation, resource conservation, and human health and safety.

Leading By Example (PDF) (78 pp, 1.3MB). This case study describes the environmental features of the Ariel Rios Headquarters building.

Yvette Jackson (jackson.yvette@epa.gov)
1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20460
Phone: (202) 564-7231