National Office Furniture, a brand unit of Kimball International, Inc., announced that its casegoods and tables manufacturing facility in Santa Claus, IN, has been awarded LEED for Existing Buildings: Operations and Maintenance (LEED EB: O&M) Silver by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). The certification marks National’s seventh facility to earn a LEED green building rating.
National’s Santa Claus facility is the first LEED-certified office furniture manufacturing facility in Indiana and the 11th location in the state to earn a LEED certification in the industrial manufacturing category. Of the more than 12,000 LEED-certified projects globally, only 540 reside under the industrial manufacturing category.
With an ISO 14001 registered Environmental Management System already in place, National pursued the LEED EB: O&M rating to increase the facility’s sustainable performance. National’s LEED Silver certification was based on a number of green design and maintenance implementations that positively impacted the project itself and the broader community. These include:
- Increased recycling areas at individual workstations, break rooms and coffee stations where paper, plastics, metals, cardboard and other materials can be recycled.
- Implemented a Green Cleaning Policy, 97% of cleaning products used meet LEED green cleaning requirements.
- On-going maintenance of a roofing system that meets the Energy Star Solar Reflectance Index (SRI) requirement, California Title 24, and is LEED compliant. The maintenance plan calls for cleaning the roof every two years to ensure continued high reflectivity.
- Diverted 90% of construction debris from office renovation project.
- 97% of on-going consumables (e.g. paper, toner cartridges, office supplies, batteries) contain sustainable attributes that meet the LEED requirements.
- Prioritized on regional priority credits to support environmental improvement for the local environment.
Constructed in the early 1970s to manufacture electronic entertainment equipment, today the Santa Claus facility produces wood and laminate office furniture solutions. The facility is ISO9001, ISO14001 and Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Chain of Custody certified. In addition, the facility is a member of Indiana’s Environmental Stewardship Program and is an OSHA Voluntary Protection Program STAR (VPP) site.
