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Hazelwood Green

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Quantified and evaluated, technical, financial and environmental potential of achieving carbon neutrality at a community scale.

60% Energy Savings Relative to Code

3M square foot mixed-use community

Carbon Neutral

Hazelwood Green District Energy Business Case, Hazelwood Green Energy Integration Model

Scope

Program: Mixed-Use

Scale: 178 acres

Status: Masterplan Complete

What We Did

District Energy Business Model, Masterplan Support, Regulatory and Utility Advisory

The Hazelwood Green (formerly “Almono”) Site is a world-class, sustainable, mixed-use innovation district on Pittsburgh’s waterfront. It aspires to be a leader in low impact community design. When the development partners decided to explore net zero energy and carbon neutral, they engaged Urban Equation to lead a team of globally-renowned consultants in fully evaluating the site’s potential.

Our first step was to prepare a district geothermal business case that considered technical, financial and end-user impacts. We were then asked to lead the technical experts in evaluating multiple site-wide energy strategies and various performance targets. The end result identified a balanced solution for achieving carbon neutral on-site while optimizing user experience and mitigating the owner and developer’s risk.

Since completing the site-wide analysis, we’ve been engaged to evaluate how the first building could either plug into district systems or operate on its own while maintaining the carbon neutral goal. Throughout the process, we were able to leverage our understanding of the opportunities and challenges faced by developers and our extensive experience in bringing other like high performance communities to market.

“[Hazelwood Green] is a world-class sustainable mixed-use innovation district on the Pittsburgh waterfront. While the partners are committed to world-class sustainability initiatives, it was equally important to understand the how to bring these innovations to market. BuildGreen took a personal interest in helping us understand and refine our guiding sustainability principles through rigorous financial and technical analysis. In particular, they helped to align a complex group of investors and consultants around the project’s financial and sustainability goals.”

Donald F. Smith Jr. - President - RIDC