The next version of the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED rating system, LEED v4, will expand water-savings targets to appliances, cooling towers, commercial kitchen equipment, and other areas that consume a huge proportion of water in many buildings.
Reducing water lost through blowdown, when water is drained from cooling towers to reduce mineral and sediment accumulation, is the focus of LEED v4ās cooling tower credit. Projects pursuing the credit increase the number of cycles through which water can be re-circulated before it is removed by blowdown.
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BIMĀ school, green school: California's newest high-performance school
Nestled deep in the Napa Valley, the city of American Canyon is one of a number of new communities in Northern California that have experienced tremendous growth in the last five years. Located 42 miles northeast of San Francisco, American Canyon had a population of just over 9,000 in 2000; by 2008, that figure stood at 15,276, with 28% of the population under age 18.
