New Chesapeake Bay Foundation Green Headquarters Near Completion

The Philip Merrill Environmental Center, which in December will become the new home for CBF’s headquarters staff in Annapolis, is designed to be a global model of energy conservation and sustainable building techniques. From rooftop cisterns that capture rainwater for hand washing and fire suppression to active solar features that produce a portion of the building’s electricity to flushless, composting toilets that reduce nutrient pollution from human waste, the Merrill Center is truly an extension of CBF’s mission.

Philip Merrill Environmental Center - The Facts

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s new headquarters facility, the Philip Merrill Environmental Center, directly responds to Bay pollution issues and stands as a global model of energy conservation and sustainable building techniques. CBF created the Center, a 32,000-square foot office building sited on 31 acres of Bay shoreline, as home to its 90-person headquarters staff (currently spread over four buildings) as well as an education and training center for students and volunteers. Based on a unique building philosophy, the Center features a wide-array of features, modern and ancient, complex and simple, to reduce the negative environmental impacts normally associated with office buildings. The Center achieved the highest rating of any office building by the U.S. Green Building Council, making this perhaps the nation’s "greenest" office building.

Bay out of balance


Despite modest improvements, the Chesapeake Bay (North America’s largest estuary) remains an ecosystem dangerously out of balance, havinglost approximately 98 percent of its oysters, 90 percent of its underwater grasses, 60 percent of its wetlands, and 50 percent of its forests.

For more than three decades, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) has worked to Save the Bay through resource restoration and protection, environmental advocacy, and education. CBF’s three main objectives are to reduce pollution, restore habitat, and replenish fish stocks.
Cradle-to-cradle philosophy


The Center’s "cradle-to-cradle" philosophy emphasizes the use of materials that are recycled, recyclable, or both. For example, the building’s beams are parallel-strand lumber, which is constructed from new growth, regenerable wood. Concrete from demolition of the site’s previous buildings is now being used in roadbeds.

The majority of materials were produced within 300 miles of the facility to reduce air pollution associated with transportation.
Reduce, re-use and restore


The building reduces air pollution by using two-thirds less energy than a typical office building of the same size. Natural ventilation will take advantage of the Bay’s breezes to cool the building without relying completely on air conditioning. When sensors determine that the outdoor climate is suitable, the mechanical system will shut down, motor-operated windows will open, and green lights will turn on throughout the building, signaling employees to open their windows.

Active solar features produce a portion of the building’s electricity using photovoltaic panels. Approximately 30 percent of the building’s energy load is provided through building-integrated or directly connected renewable energy sources. Solar hot-water heating reduces electricity demand.

Flushless, composting toilets reduce nutrient pollution from human waste; rooftop cisterns capture rainwater for hand washing and fire suppression.

Smart parking design reduces harmful runoff from surfaces by placing parking under the building and using gravel (permeable) surfacing for limited parking outside the building. Any remaining stormwater runoff will be directed through a bioretention stormwater treatment system designed to treat oils and then filter the runoff through a man-made wetland.

Posted: 10-16-2000