Animal Shelters Going Green

Green buildings aren't just for humans anymore!

By Pam Freni, Best Friends Volunteer

Green buildings have been primarily constructed for humans—houses, offices, hospitals, and other public buildings. A movement exploding across the country is exploring housing companion animals in green buildings. Higher fuel prices and rising costs in general have hit animal shelters hard and these hardships have spurred the industry to find ways to save money while still giving quality animal care to their residents. Even more compelling than the practical incentives, a vast concern of many animal caretakers is that of global warming and many are searching for ways to stop it. One way is by going green. A buzzword that has been used far too much in the last few years, what does going green actually involve?

Going green means creating a shelter and operations that are ecologically sustainable. All environmental impact can be defined in terms of air, land, and water use. Successful green design demands that utilization of these three resources be done in an efficient manner while impact on the environment must be kept to a minimum. Until recently, that’s easier said than done. But for many reasons, products are streaming onto the market that at last are making it easier to stimulate a green philosophy in the animal welfare world.



Old style of animal shelters is being abandoned

Depending on the products chosen, savings in fuel, electricity, water, time, animal illnesses, and volunteer energy should begin to accrue soon into the life of the new facility. Many shelters are demanding the use of Forest Stewardship Council-certified (FSC) products or wood that comes from managed and renewable forests. Other agricultural products being used in green structures include linoleum, jute and cork fabrics, and finishes from organic cotton, wool, and sisal.

Innovations in animal sheltering are springing up in numerous locations across the nation. The new Dallas Animal Services and Adoption Center has furniture that is mostly recycled material and has a parking lot wastewater treatment system that can clean and reuse nearly 10,000 gallons of water a day. This keeps the shelter off the city water grid, while providing enough water for daily use required in the 52,000 square foot building. A wind turbine used to generate electricity will be added to create less of a dependence on carbon-based fuels. The building design pursued by the program’s planners had two recycling objectives— 50% of the construction waste was to be diverted from the landfill and approximately 50% of the material used for building was to be derived from recycled content. Both were met.

Occupied since late-November 2007, natural daylighting was a key feature that the designers emphasized. Robert Van Buren, Dallas building project manager, noted that there has been great enthusiasm from the community surrounding the green attributes. Other innovations include motion detectors that turn off lights in areas not in use and environmentally safe paints for inside the shelter. Multi-function rooms (as opposed to spaces designed for a single activity) were created so that large educational spaces rarely go unused. Noting that nothing is ever perfect, Van Buren remarks that even though the shelter has been functional for only a few weeks, the designers are finding that there could have been better solutions for maintenance in the individual holding kennels.

Middletown, Rhode Island’s the Potter League for Animals is in the midst of an extensive building campaign for their new green shelter. Pat Heller, Director of Development and Outreach for the shelter says that despite many planning hurdles, this shelter has been a joy to watch rise from the earth. Placed on the original shelter’s footprint, the organization is carefully preserving the local marsh environment. The old-style kennel system is being abandoned for common cat rooms and dog runs. Radiant heating in the floor will make part of the shelter more animal friendly and fuel-efficient. Heller notes that one of the most exciting innovations will be the steeply sloped roof over part of the new shelter that directs rainwater and melting snow to gutters connected to a 15,000-gallon cistern. Water from this catchment system will be recycled and used on site for most things except for hand washing and drinking. Native landscaping materials will be used in the surrounding area to ensure that the building is visually grounded with its surroundings. The use of natives ensures that past the establishment period, watering will only be done by nature.

The massive green roof, used to insulate a significant part of the shelter against heat and cold, will give parts of the shelter roof a jaunty air with plants sprouting out of the roof. Photovoltaic cells, converting sunlight to electrical energy, will create some of the electrical energy required to run the shelter. Officials of the shelter are very excited to be building in accordance with the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System established by the US Green Building Council. It is in fact Newport County’s first LEED building. This system benchmarks the development and operation of green buildings. LEED design and development emphasizes human and environmental health, sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection, and indoor environmental quality. The Potter League green shelter will be completed late in 2008 and is expecting to qualify for a gold LEED certificate, making it one of the most energy efficient shelters in the US.



The New Potter League shelter roof is angled for catching rain water.

Abandoning its old-style cinder block building, the Dearborn, Michigan Animal Shelter has begun a fund-raising campaign for a new 25,000 square foot shelter that will use green products. Not only are the animals better served by an environmentally friendly building, the management group for the Dearborn facility, Friends for the Dearborn Animal Shelter, believes that the volunteers and companion animal-seeking public are also better served. The atmosphere presented by newly conceived state-of-the-art animal housing, not the chain link fences of the past, will provide an inviting atmosphere for anyone wishing to adopt an animal. The Maddie’s Pet Adoption Center associated with the San Francisco SPCA goes even further with its brightly colored walls, recycled floor coverings, and floor to ceiling windows showing animal play areas at city street level.

The Regional Animal Campus in Las Vegas, Nevada specified the use of FSC-certified wood in their new facility. Tate Snyder Kimsey Architects, the shelter designers, in an effort to transform the industry, developed small dog bungalows that are made of mostly recycled or recyclable materials. Wide windows for abundant natural light, long overhangs to shelter each bungalow from the summer heat gain of the sun, and light-colored heat reflecting materials on the outside of each building cut summer cooling requirements—significant in the Las Vegas area.

The Humane Society Silicon Valley (HSSV) broke ground in October 2007 on a new 48,000 square foot shelter in the Santa Clara, California area. This shelter is also following the LEED Green Building Rating System, noting in its press release that 90 percent of the old shelter structure will be recycled and used in the construction of the new facility. Laura Fulda, Vice President of Marketing and Communications, indicated that they were going for a gold LEED designation, making them one of the highest rated buildings in their locale. With water and energy conservation as two of the main design criteria used by architect George Miers and Associates, their building fund includes $17M for construction of systems that will ensure the design criteria are met. Estimates of energy savings show that their electricity usage will most likely be more than 10% lower than the very stringent California Title 24 requirements. They will have an extensive recycling program that will include plastic, aluminum, paper, metal and hazardous disposal of products such as batteries and fluorescent lights. Solid animal waste will be flushed in special animal toilets rather than trashed to guarantee that there is no unintended soil and ground water contamination from the local dump.

HSSV will also have a doggie park, to be used by the public, ensuring that open space is provided as part of the entire facility treatment. Making their shelter a destination was an initial goal for the planners, creating an opportunity for amenities such as a coffee and snack bar as well as other animal shopping venues. In another exciting innovation, the organization is encouraging alternative transportation for its employees, providing showers and bike racks for bike riders and preferred parking for hybrid vehicles, carpools, and vanpools.

Claiming the title of being the “first” green animal shelter, the Dorothy and Roy Park Pet Adoption Center of the Tompkins County SPCA in Ithaca, New York has designed dog playroom floors of recycled tires, a water-collection system for recycling rainwater, and large doors to be used for natural ventilation in its new 10,000 square foot building. A main issue for animal shelters world-wide, water consumption at the Tompkins shelter is 35% less than that at a non-green shelter by virtue of its waste collection process. Instead of hosing down each dog run, the shelter gathers the waste and flushes it directly into the local sanitary system.

Creating a dedicated recycling system for all disposables used on site is a must for a truly green shelter. Mountains of animal food containers are tossed each year because in many locations it costs money to recycle them. All budgets should have a built-in loss column that allows them to pursue certain experiments. If a dozen tin cans are used each day while distributing animal food, over 4,000 are used each year. Recycling these and other materials can make a significant dent in the waste stream in landfills. Hybrid vehicles, environmentally site-sensitive building placement on the land, and natural landscaping finishes the animal care system and creates excitement at being able to contribute shelter ideas that are supporting a better environment for the animal residents, workers, and visiting public.

Lead photo of a Coast Redwood Tree courtesy of the National Park Service

Photos used in the story taken by Pam Freni, Best Friends Volunteer

Article posted by Brandi Bennett, Best Friends Network