Water Harvesting: Doing some basic research on this topic has led me to believe that this is a great idea for the advancement of facilities. It is a great way to avoid some municipal costs of getting city water and avoids putting chemicals in the ground. The basic process is shown below:
As seen in the image above Rain Water Harvesting is relatively simple and sustainable.
For larger facilities, this process is genius to help conserve water costs and make sure that the landscaping is receiving natural water. For facilities that might experience droughts this system helps preserve the little rainwater that happens to fall down or can act as a long-term storage system before the drought hits. Since all of the water is being put back into the earth at some point or another, the mass production of these storage tanks shouldn’t disrupt any sort of water cycle over a period of time either.
Natural Lighting: This when a facility decides to incorporate more windows and glass structures to help light the building during the day and avoid high energy costs associated with heat. It has also been proven that natural lighting help with overall mood and energy in some facilities such as nursing homes and hospitals. I do believe that this is a great advancement with new facilities, however, it would be costly and time consuming to produce the same effect on outdated buildings. If facilities can incorporate natural lighting into their building structure then there could be a significant reduction in energy being used and that in turn will help the environment and help create a sustainable facility environment. To read further about this topic and a case study conducted by the University of Florida and Emory University, view this PDF website: