Historic Vine Street Village Grand Opening

Go Green!

The new buildings in the Vine Street Village will help to make the Cincinnati Zoo the second LEED Platinum certified Zoo in the country.  The LEED Green Building Rating System emphasizes state of the art strategies for sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency materials selection, and indoor environmental quality.  Some of the highlights include:

The buildings in the Historic Vine Street Village will be 60% more energy-efficient than standard buildings thanks to:

• 10 kW of solar panels that reduce the demand for coal-fired power by 15%
• Geothermal heat pumps that meet all of the heating and cooling demands
• Spray foam insulation that reduces heating and cooling demands
• A solar water heating system that reduces coal-fired power to supply the restrooms
• Renewable energy credits that make the Membership and Ticketing building a Net-Zero carbon usage facility

The Historic Vine Street Village will manage rainwater to eliminate runoff through the use of:

• Over 30,000 square feet of pervious pavers and an extra thick layer of porous gravel underneath that stores hundreds of thousands of gallons of rain water
• A rainwater harvesting tank that collects water from the roofs
• The existing elephant moat as an overflow mechanism to handle excess rainwater

Reduce, reuse and recycle are important connects of the Historic Vine Street Village design as:

• 30% of the building materials were recycled
• Over 60% of the building materials were purchased locally, reducing the fuel costs of shipping
• More than 80% of the wood used is certified by the Forest Stewardship Council as sustainably harvested
• About 80% of construction waste was sent to recycling centers for reuse
• Waterless urinals and highly water-efficient toilets and faucets use 50% less water than standard facilities
• Captured rainwater is used to irrigate landscape