The FAA’s Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center in Oklahoma City continues cutting energy costs – one building at a time.
The newly renovated Base Maintenance Building uses high-efficiency mechanical and electrical systems along with LED lighting.
The modern, eco-friendly building houses most of the 300-plus federal and contract employees in the MMAC’s Facility Management Division – bringing them under one roof. The building gets its name for being the "home base" for HVAC monitoring across the Aeronautical Center.
The building reopened last year, and in July 2024 the Center’s Energy Team had enough data to certify it as sustainable.
"We had data showing a 37 percent reduction at the building," explained Russ Goering, MMAC Energy Program manager. Goering and his teammates have cut energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions at MMAC in a variety of ways. One way is to design and certify environmentally friendly buildings. The team won a Department of Energy award earlier this year for their success.
The MMAC now has 62 percent of the FAA’s 29 certified sustainable buildings. The Energy Team certified five green buildings in 2013 and has added 13 more in the last 11 years.
The renovation of the 54,000-square-foot Base Maintenance Building is the team’s latest step in further reducing electric, natural gas and water consumption across the Center’s 1,100 acres. The team has slashed overall energy consumption at the Center by nearly 17 percent since 2015.
"If we had not reduced energy use since then, we would have spent an additional $900,000 on utilities this fiscal year," Goering said.
One of the main functions performed in the Base Maintenance Building is monitoring and controlling the heating and cooling systems of buildings at the Center. A team of technicians responds to calls around the clock and troubleshoots any problems with HVAC systems, according to mechanical engineer John Akin, who works on the maintenance team.
Until the renovation, the Base Maintenance Building had no significant upgrades in its 60 years of existence. The overhaul included a complete update of the interior and exterior, and replaced original mechanical and electrical systems with high-efficiency systems. The structure now has better insulation, efficient heating and cooling, and LED lighting with occupancy and daylight sensors that turn off the LEDs when not needed, according to Zeke Hill, Deputy Director of MMAC Facility Management.
The building also maximizes usable space, with workstations designed to foster collaboration. "In addition to bringing the building up to code and making it energy-efficient, it provides a state-of-the-art environment – a workplace of the future – for our employees," Hill said. "This renovation was a great success."
