At a time when climate action often feels abstract, the Forest Preserves of Cook County has brought it down to earth in North Riverside with a building that quietly produces as much energy as it uses. The new Salt Creek Landscape Maintenance headquarters is a much-improved workplace for the regional team and, with a target for net-zero energy use, a working example of infrastructure designed for efficiency, durability and environmental responsibility.
The 10,675-square-foot facility replaces two badly aging buildings with a single, modern hub to store equipment and coordinate the crews that keep the Preserves clean. “Whether it’s plowing and salting, blowing leaves, working on picnic tables, cutting grass, or going on huge garbage runs, I just feel like we did not have the facility prior to support those activities,” says Salt Creek Landscape Maintenance Division Superintendent Lindsay Ivanyi. “It’s a new chapter.”
Funded in part by $4.4 million in Build Illinois bond support through the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, the $8.1 million project is also a long-term investment in the health of the preserves themselves.
“As part of our mission to protect and preserve public lands, the Forest Preserves is committed to incorporating sustainable operations and reducing our own organization’s greenhouse gas emissions,” says Forest Preserves Sustainability Coordinator Renee Patten. “With our new Salt Creek Landscape Maintenance Headquarters, we have a building with no onsite building heating emissions from burning fossil fuels, which reduces climate warming emissions, and saves costs for taxpayers with efficient and renewable systems.”
The building is all-electric and designed to achieve net-zero energy use through a simple but powerful approach. First, it reduces energy demand. High-efficiency LED lighting, HVAC systems and a tightly insulated building minimize how much energy is needed to operate day to day. Beneath the surface, a geothermal exchange system works in tandem with heat pumps, using the stable temperature underground to provide heating and cooling as needed by season, reducing the energy use compared to a traditional air exchange heat pump mechanical systems.
On-site renewable energy generation has less work to do to offset the resulting reduced energy demand. A rooftop solar array will supply electricity back to the facility, producing enough energy over the course of a year to balance what the building consumes.
It’s estimated that annually the facility will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 34 metric tons of carbon dioxide annually—the equivalent of the GHG created by driving more than 86,000 miles in an average gasoline-powered passenger vehicle.
Together, these systems create a facility that will perform, day in and day out, to support the crews who maintain one of the busiest landscape divisions in the county. Ivanyi says the new facility has boosted morale of her team: “I feel like this helps us respond better to the public.”