Ill. police station trying to reduce carbon footprint

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CHICAGO — To some residents in Orland Park, the village’s new police station looks more like an abandoned building overgrown with weeds — one that may even be lowering their property values.

But those “weeds” are actually natural prairie landscaping — done to conserve water, eliminate the use of lawn chemicals and pesticides and reduce carbon emissions from lawn mowers.

And that has garnered the station national recognition for its “green” construction and energy efficiency.

The ambivalence over the police station is a good example of how tough it will be for Orland Park officials to persuade residents to come aboard their recently revealed plan to make the village perhaps one of the greenest communities in the country. They know their primary challenge is to get residents to think, act and live differently.

“We can’t ask the community to reduce their carbon footprint if we can’t do it ourselves,” Village Manager Paul Grimes said.

“We’re pulling out all the stops to actively help the entire community learn more about the importance of energy conservation and all that we can to make Orland Park one of the top energy conscious communities in the country,” said Village President Daniel McLaughlin, who helped unveil the village’s new ECOMAP, or Energy Efficiency and Conservation Municipal Action Plan, this week.

Called Smart Living Orland Park, the program is aimed at persuading residents, business owners and developers to adopt a host of energy conservation practices that will make the village a model of environmental sustainability for other towns to follow.

A massive education program is under way, with a “green” tent appearing at village-sponsored events and a new link on the village’s Web site explaining the myriad environmentally friendly actions homeowners can take to create blocks of “Green Star” homes.

“We need to be stewards of our environment, but people aren’t always sure of what to do and where to start,” McLaughlin said.

Village officials have led the way in the last few years by retrofitting municipal buildings with energy-efficient lighting and updated heating and air-conditioning systems.

Natural prairie plantings and porous-paver parking lots are collecting water in underground cisterns for future use. Sustainable building materials are used when possible in renovations to municipal buildings.

The new police station at 151st Street and Ravinia Avenue has been the flagship of these efforts. Officials say it is the first Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, Gold Certified police station in the country. It became fully operational in 2007.

The building was converted from an old carpet-and-tile store that otherwise would have been demolished and sent to a landfill. The parking lot features porous bricks that collect water runoff, which is stored underground. The building’s “white roof” reflects sunlight, helping reduce energy used for air-conditioning. The 66,000-square-foot building cost $12.5 million — a little more than a conventional design would have, but officials said the energy savings will eventually make up the difference.

Perhaps Orland Park’s most ambitious plan is to persuade a local developer to build a “green subdivision” of 20 to 30 homes that operates at optimal energy efficiency and water conservation and will serve as a demonstration project for other communities.

Meanwhile, building codes will be revised and financial incentives will be offered to developers who adopt green construction practices, and grant money will be available to existing business owners to boost energy efficiency in their buildings.

“This program puts our money where our mouths are and pushes the outside of the envelope,” Assistant Village Manager Ellen Baer said.

Officials put the cost of the five-year plan at about $1.5 million — with about $900,000 of that coming from state and federal grants.

The goal in the first year is to reduce the village’s energy footprint by 0.5 percent to 1.5 percent.

“That doesn’t sound like much, but the trends are usually that energy consumption increases, so that half-point is very significant,” Grimes said.

Other towns have begun taking baby steps onto the green path, but officials say revenue shortfalls during the recession are hamstringing efforts.

In East Hazel Crest, a recent renovation of the Village Hall included a new heating and air-conditioning system and “smart lighting” featuring sensors that turn lights on and off when someone enters and leaves a room.

“If you sit still for too long, the lights will go off on you,” said Ed Paesel, executive director of the South Suburban Mayors and Managers Association, which has its offices in Village Hall.

Along with similar retrofits to the Public Works and police buildings, East Hazel Crest Village Manager Pat Lazuka said, energy costs could be cut by as much as 60 percent in a couple of years.

“We’re always looking to update our codes,” she added. “But it’s going to be a little while until we can amass some more money to do something that’s going to be significant.”

Victoria Smith, executive director of the Southwest Conference of Mayors, which represents 21 municipalities, said towns are updated on the latest green innovations but many simply cannot afford to implement initiatives, even with the increased availability of private and public grant money.

“We’re fortunate to have Orland Park to follow as an example, but a lot of municipalities don’t have the staff and resources that Orland does,” Smith said.

McLaughlin said he believes residents can be counted on to retrofit their bathrooms with low-flow shower heads, change out their kitchens with Energy Star appliances or replace their water-wasting, carbon-producing lawns with their own patch of “weeds.”

He said that the realization of what can be saved through reduced utility bills and the bragging rights they could earn for doing their part in attacking climate change would help.

Plus, he said, people soon may view those “weeds” outside the station in another light.

“We keep telling people to wait a few years for the landscaping to mature,” he said. “It’s going to look beautiful.”

By Carmen Greco Jr.
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