Email   Print   Share By Christine Luciano, DPW Environmental Outreach

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The 40,000 square-foot Spirit of Fort Hood Warrior and Family Chapel Campus is the Army’s first LEED Gold-certified chapel. Christine Luciano, DPW Environmental Outreach

The Chaplain Family Life Training Center and youth gymnasium is part of a 70,000 square-foot complex that will be completed in the spring with a LEED silver certification. Christine Luciano, DPW Environmental Outreach

The sanctuary in the Spirit of Fort Hood Warrior and Family Chapel Campus offers a place of worship for up to 600 people. The facility also features low-flow toilets, waterless urinals and efficient lighting, heating, ventilation, and air conditioning. Christine Luciano, DPW Environmental Outreach

The 40,000-square-foot worship center of the Spirit of Fort Hood Warrior and Family Chapel Campus boasts a sanctuary that seats 600 people, but also low-flow toilets, sinks and waterless urinals.

Once the doors are open for worship, all are welcome, but those who come by low-emitting and fuel efficient, eco-friendly car or bicycle get to park up close.

As the Army builds green, sustainable facilities, the Chapel Complex and Religious Education Facility is the Army’s first Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Gold-certified chapel.

“LEED and sustainability is good for the people that are going to work and use this facility and for Fort Hood as we go to the future to achieve our Net Zero goals and do the right thing,” Brian Dosa, director of Fort Hood’s Directorate of Public Works, said.

LEED is a third-party certification program and the nationally-accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high-performance, green buildings.

The LEED rating system awards points based on dozens of variables for sustainable sites, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, materials and resources, and indoor environmental quality for certification as LEED Certified, LEED Silver, LEED Gold and LEED Platinum.

The chapel actually overachieved in its LEED ambitions by reaching gold status – originally setting a goal of silver. As the construction contractor, Solis, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers were tracking everything, they realized the facility could fall into gold by earning one extra point without any additional cost to the project.

The chapel earned points for everything from efficient lighting, electrical, heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems that will help cut its energy costs by 31 percent.

More than 85 percent of the construction waste was diverted from the landfill, and 27 percent of the building materials used in the chapel’s construction was from recycled materials.

“This is a unique place. We have a brand new big chapel, a religious education facility, a Family life training center and a youth oriented gymnasium,” Chaplain (Col.) Bill Phillips, garrison chaplain, said. “There is nobody in the Army that has this. The synergy that comes from having all of this in one place is amazing.”

Tammy Matthews, a Fort Hood spouse who has been attending service since the chapel opened last fall, agreed.

“The first time we came here, it was welcoming and warm. I love the services, programs, and that the youth gymnasium will offer activities for my fourth- and sixth-graders,” Matthews said. “It’s also great that the building is green, and we should have more buildings like the chapel.”

Fort Hood is leading the way and building more green facilities to be silver certified. Some of the projects include the new child development centers, the 69th Air Defense Artillery campus. The new hospital and stadium buildings are being constructed to achieve gold status.

Lessons learned from Fort Hood’s first gold-certified facility will help future green building on the installation, according to DPW officials.

“Fort Hood always likes to push further to build more sustainable facilities that will be better for our community and environment,” said Tim McClaran, civil engineer of DPW Real Property Planning Division. “The practices we developed in the gold-certified chapel can be implemented to have consistency within other construction projects to divert as much as we can from the landfill by repurposing or recycling, using energy efficient technologies and low water use products to support our goals for Net Zero waste, energy and water.”

As part of the second phase, the Chaplain Family Life Training Center will be constructed. A gymnasium and an arts and crafts center will also be included inside this multi-purpose center. Both centers will be silver-certified. Once completed in the spring, the more than 70,000-square-foot facility will be the largest of its kind in the Army.