Temple Sinai is a community dedicated to being Shomrei Adamah, guardians of the land, and to upholding our community values of environmental stewardship. When designing our Renovation & Expansion plan, we worked closely with Temple Sinai’s Green Team to ensure the South Addition lived up to these values and continued the work we started when solar panels were installed on our roof several years ago.

As part of the plan, we are constructing three sections of stormwater bio-retention, going above and beyond the DC governmental requirements. These bio-retention ponds will gather over 3,000 excess gallons of stormwater annually, filtering the water through local plant-life and natural means, before discharging the water into our local watershed. This will mean Temple Sinai is doing its small part to keep Broad Branch Creek—and subsequently Rock Creek, the Potomac River, and the Chesapeake Bay—cleaner.

Beyond the water management aspects of the plan, we have also incorporated significant energy efficiency items and other environmentally friendly aspects into our South Addition: All the lighting in the addition will be energy efficient LED, much will be automated with the use of day light harvesting and vacancy sensors, the HVAC systems will be using energy efficient VRV systems for heating and cooling, the plumbing systems are designed to reduce water use, there will be higher levels of exterior insulation values included glazing units, our finish selections are environmentally friendly and eco sensitive products, and all paints and adhesives are VOC-free.

If you have questions or want to learn more about the environmental aspects of the plan, please reach out to Noah Benjamin, Director of Development, at nbenjamin@templesinaidc.org.

Below you can see the work on these environmental aspects of the plan in progress, including the digging of the stormwater bio-retention ponds and the installation of the energy efficient insulation and wiring.

Current progress of the building exterior