In celebration of the Jewish holiday of Tu B’Shevat, the National Library of Israel is offering four sustainability tours all week.
Conducted in Hebrew, they showcase innovative features that make the library an outstanding example of green design. Highlights include an advanced energy-saving system using a below-ground stone repository (the “Rock Store”); the reading hall, designed to maximize natural light; and an in-depth look at the Mediterranean gardens surrounding the library that reflect Israel’s diverse vegetation.
The “Rock Store” is an extraordinary system of 270,000 stones housed on the parking level of the library building. This system acts as a natural air-conditioner, reducing annual energy consumption for cooling by 20% to 30%. At night, cool Jerusalem air flows into the stone reservoir through a large shaft, lowering the temperature of the stones. During the day, cool air from the Rock Store is integrated into the building’s air-conditioning system, lowering temperatures by two to six degrees Celsius.
The first underground stone repository in Israel, it is among the factors that earned the new library building LEED Platinum certification, the highest standard for sustainable construction. Only three similar cooling systems exist: two in the United Kingdom and one in South Africa.
LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is the world’s most widely used green building rating system. The building’s planners set out to achieve LEED Platinum, whose goal is to ensure minimal environmental impact for the immediate and distant future.
On Nov. 5, NLI was awarded the LEED Platinum certificate in a ceremony attended by representatives of the library, the Israeli Green Building Council and the United States Green Building Council, which awards LEED.
The sustainability tours are made possible thanks to support from the Beracha Foundation.
To learn more about tours and other information, click here.
