NC Apartment Property Gets City's First Solar Compactor
In furthering its green ambitions for its multifamily developments, Davis Property Group has decided to install a SmartEnergy solar-powered community waste compactor at Verde Vista Apartments, which it completed recently.
By Dees Stribling, Contributing Editor
Asheville, N.C.—In furthering its green ambitions for its multifamily developments, Davis Property Group has decided to install a SmartEnergy solar-powered community waste compactor at Verde Vista Apartments, which it completed recently. It will be the first device of its kind in Asheville.
According to Waste Management, which will operate the equipment, the compactor has a number of energy-efficient features to reduce electricity consumption by as much as 70 percent compared to traditional compactors. For example, the SmartEnergy Compactor’s electronic controls are powered by solar energy, while the compactor cycle is traditionally powered. The equipment thus has a “two-speed” system that “downshifts” when it needs more compression, resulting in lower energy usage than a traditional one-speed system.
The 257-unit Verde Vista Apartments includes one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments and various amenities, such as an on-site car wash, detached garages, dog park, poolside fitness and yoga classes. Verde Vista also is the first smoke-free multifamily property in Asheville.
Besides the waste compactor, the property’s green features include an electric car charge station and Energy Star appliances. It will also be certified silver through the National Association of Homebuilders’ National Green Building Standard (NGBS) for multifamily properties, an alternate to LEED certification that focuses on residential properties.
For residential buildings, NGBS offers four threshold levels: bronze, silver, gold and emerald, thus allowing builders to quantify and qualify their green building efforts. For a building to attain any certification level, all of the applicable mandatory provisions must be done correctly. In addition to the mandatory provisions, the NGBS requires the home to include sufficient green practices in each of the standard’s six categories of green building practices to meet the category minimums for each green level.
