Embassy of Finland
3301 Massachusetts Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20008
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The Embassy of Finland in Washington, D.C., has been a part of Washington's famed Embassy Row since 1994. The four-story building houses the offices of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and other Finnish actors operating in the United States, such as the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation and Finpro, a trade promotion organization. The total number of Finns working at the embassy's premises varies between 30 and 40.
The Finnish Embassy is well-known in Washington for its innovative architecture that combines moss-green granite, glass, and wood, forming a modern, Nordic architectural design. However, in the mid-1990s, when the building was designed and constructed, environmental aspects were not as widely considered as they are today. To decrease the building's environmental impact, the embassy began investigating ways to increase recycling and improve energy and water efficiency.
The Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) ENERGY STAR program proved an invaluable tool in this "greening" process, as it provided the embassy with a clear and detailed framework to achieve superior energy performance. When the embassy was awarded the ENERGY STAR in 2008, it became the first embassy in the United States to earn this prestigious recognition.
By managing energy strategically across the entire organization and by making cost-effective improvements to its building, the Finnish Embassy now saves more than $150,000 in annual energy bills and prevents greenhouse gas emissions equal to the electricity use of 90 households annually.
As a first step, the building management team assessed the embassy's baseline energy performance using EPA's Portfolio Manager tool. After benchmarking the building's energy performance, the team looked for efficiency gains that could be accomplished through improved operations and maintenance and other low-cost practices. The team reviewed the property's energy management system (EMS) settings to ensure that the building automation reflected the actual needs of the tenants. The operating times were adjusted to correspond closely with the building's actual use and occupancy, and temperature set points were determined to moderate the use of the HVAC system.
A significant step in the energy efficiency improvement process was the introduction of a free-cooling system that halved the use of electricity-powered cooling. This increased the working life of the mechanical cooling facility by more than half. Several overlapping features of the heating and cooling systems were eliminated. The heating management operating system was replaced with a better, more modern system that took more into consideration the outside temperature and its effects on the building's indoor environment. Variable frequency drivers were installed on HVAC pumps.
The Finnish Embassy has gained overall savings of 50 percent in electricity costs and 65 percent in heating costs through these measures.
The Embassy received LEED Gold certificate in 2010 and when renewing it in 2014 the Embassy received LEED Platinum. The Embassy is the first LEED Platinum Embassy in the US.
Communications:
Unavailable
Testimonial:
Unavailable
Please note: Narrative information in this profile has been provided by Embassy of Finland or a representative of this facility. Other building information was verified and submitted to EPA at the time of application. Building energy performance, operating characteristics, and ownership/management may be subject to change over time.
Building Owner:*
Embassy of Finland
Property Manager:*
N/A
Year(s) Labeled (Rating):
2008 (75)
2009 (79)
2010 (80)
2011 (86)
2015 (89)
2016 (86)
Facility Type: Office
Total Floorspace: 50278.2 sf
Year Constructed: 1994
Contract Type: None
Technologies Used:
Unavailable