The restroom retrofit helped the airport take a significant step toward saving water, but it was just the first step in a much stronger sustainability program.
One year after the restroom project, the airport replaced its steam chillers with electric chillers. The airport expects to save more than 10 million gallons of water a year because of the change.
Another water conservation project involves rainwater harvesting and low-water-use landscaping. The airport's maintenance department installed three 2,500-gallon cisterns to capture water run-off from a roof to use for irrigation purposes on the property.
Reclaimed water also is responsible for 80 percent of the airport's water used for washing the fleet of rental cars. The airport use storm water collected from the new international terminal that opened in 2012 for harvesting and irrigation purposes.
The initiatives are part of the airport's sustainability plan to curtail energy savings 20 percent by 2020.
Included in that plan is a water audit that is looking at ways to save water not only in the concourses and terminals, but also in the airport's buildings.
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