The Official Website of the City of Indianapolis and Marion County

On April 20, 2010, Mayor Greg Ballard announced upgrades to the City-County Building, including energy efficiency, water conservations and renewable energy applications to reduce the City's environmental footprint, making it a model for green building in Indianapolis.

Upgrades to the City-County Building include:

• Heating, ventilation, and air-condition system upgrades, including replacement of a chiller
• Lighting improvements, such as motion sensors, high-efficiency lights and induction lighting in the parking garage
• Installation of renewable energy with a geothermal heat-recovery chiller system
• Solar thermal panels mounted on the tower roof help meet the domestic water needs of the upper floors of the building. 
• Low-flow plumbing fixtures in every public restroom
• 1.6 gallon-per-flush commodes and efficient urinals
• Turbine-driven, touchless restroom faucets powered by the incoming water stream
• Wind and solar powered plaza lights
• 3.7 kW Solar Photovoltaic (PV) system with monitoring of energy production through lobby dashboard system
• 14 bicycle racks

The upgrades are expected to:

• Decrease overall water consumption in the building by 40 percent
• Decrease energy consumption by 35 percent
• Result in a guaranteed savings of $750,000 annually for 15 years

The building upgrades are funded primarily through a guaranteed energy savings contract with supplemental funding provided by an  Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant from the Department of Energy. Some of the improvements are part of the Building Authority's regularly scheduled maintenance and capital projects.

The effort began with a team of local building and design experts selected last year to work with the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) on creating a plan for greening the building.