The First Facility Management Blog

The Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) International announced it has been approved as a U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) Education Provider. USGBC has approved the technical and instructional quality of two of BOMA’s education series, the BOMA Energy Efficiency Program (BEEP) and the Sustainable Operations Series (SOS). BEEP’s six on demand Webinars have been approved for a total of 12 GBCI CE hours and the four Webinars in the SOS series have been approved for a total of six GBCI CE hours, all counting toward the LEED Credential Maintenance Program.

The BEEP series gives building owners and property managers information, strategies, technologies, how-to guides, and resources to reduce energy and costs in their buildings. It was developed by the BOMA Foundation in partnership with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s ENERGY STAR® program and is supported in part by a grant from EPA. SOS builds on the BEEP program by clearly demonstrating how green operations can effectively enhance the bottom line, improve tenant satisfaction and benefit the environment. Each course features practical strategies and case studies on buildings that have employed green operating practices.

BOMA is committed to enhancing the ongoing professional development of the building industry and LEED Professionals through high-quality continuing education programs. As a USGBC Education Provider, BOMA has agreed to abide by USGBC-established operational and educational criteria, and is subject to annual reviews and audits for quality assurance.

All USGBC-approved Education Provider courses:

• Support the LEED Professional Credentialing Maintenance Program;
• Align with USGBC’s educational mission;
• Are delivered in a variety of formats and target multiple learning levels and audiences; and
• Are peer-reviewed to meet USGBC’s standard for instructional design and content quality.

Armstrong Ceilings offers Green Genie™, an interactive, product evaluation web tool that allows users to find sustainable ceiling options and LEED® credit information quickly and easily. Facility managers specifying ceiling, suspension, and wall system products can access this tool to evaluate their choices.

The online tool offers 24/7 access of LEED credit information at the design or submittal process, and it provides users with the ability to research, calculate, and document which Armstrong ceiling product best meets the environmental criteria of their project.

All Armstrong ceiling, suspension, and wall system products are included in the rating system. The design aid also completes the submittal process by producing a LEED documentation letter for inclusion in the specification.

Illinois has been an early leader in green building construction, currently ranking sixth in the number of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) buildings built, with the City of Chicago itself having more LEED® certified buildings than any other city in the country. This leadership continues with release of a report from the U.S. Green Building Council - Chicago Chapter (USGBC - Chicago) that provides a first look at post-occupancy performance of LEED buildings on a local scale.

The Regional Green Building Case Study Project: a Post-Occupancy Study of LEED Projects in Illinois report summarizes the first year of a multi-year study to analyze the post-occupancy benefits of 25 LEED certified projects in Illinois related to: energy use, greenhouse gas emissions, water use, construction and operating costs, cost of building green, health and productivity impacts, and occupant comfort. The study was funded by the Grand Victoria Foundation and is a collaborative endeavor between the USGBC-Chicago, U.S. EPA Region 5, the City of Chicago, Delta Institute, and the Center for Neighborhood Technology, which was the lead researcher for the project.

The study found that sustainability does not stop with building design and construction. While a building may be designed to be sustainable, it is often ongoing operational issues that affect the amount of energy, water, and other resources it consumes. Accordingly, ongoing performance evaluation is a key component of long-term sustainability.

“Sustainability must be integrated into ongoing operations and maintenance practices,” says Kathy Tholin, CEO of the Center for Neighborhood Technology, whose Chicago LEED Platinum building was a part of the study. “Constructing to LEED Platinum was a natural choice, given CNT’s long standing commitment to sustainable development,” explains Tholin. “But our job is far from complete. Now that we’re utilizing the space, sustainability means focusing on ongoing operations and maintenance. We’re striving for continuous improvement.”

The USGBC’s LEED Green Building Rating System is the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction, and operation of high performance green buildings. LEED provides a roadmap for measuring and documenting success for every building type and phase of a building life cycle.

Doug Widener, executive director of the USGBC-Chicago Chapter emphasizes that “with an understanding of operational issues, tenant behavior, and maintenance practices, building owners and managers can implement ongoing changes that lead to increased building performance and sustainability over time.” Widener adds that “this report is an important step towards achieving our mission of leading the regional transformation of the built environment to become ecologically sustainable, profitable, and healthy.”

The report compliments the USGBC’s recently launched Building Performance Initiative. Beginning this fall, it has analyzed energy and other resource use data from LEED buildings and will provide this data back to building owners to allow for ongoing sustainability improvements over time.

The study also found that resource use varies in LEED buildings. Many participating projects performed better than conventional commercial interiors and buildings, with projects that focused on energy conservation as a part of their LEED strategy performing better in relation to energy use and conservation than projects that focused on other areas of sustainability. Given that LEED is a multifaceted system that rates a building’s sustainability on a variety of factors (including site, water efficiency, energy efficiency, materials and resources, and indoor environmental quality), projects that focused on energy conservation performed better in this area than projects that did not.

All buildings in the first year of the study were certified under older versions of LEED. Newer versions of the rating system mandate, as well as incent, higher levels of energy efficiency.

The results of occupant comfort in surveyed projects were very high, especially related to indoor air quality and lighting. The study also found that construction costs varied greatly, as do construction costs of conventional buildings, and that these are largely driven by programmatic issues. The average premium reported for building green was 3.8%; in line with the national average.

For the second year of the study, 25 additional Illinois LEED projects will be added to its sample for a total of 50. “We are excited by this initial year of the study, but are even more excited for the second year when we will add buildings certified under newer versions of LEED to see if these newer LEED buildings perform better,” notes Widener. “We are also collecting a second year of data for our first year projects. It will be interesting to see if operational changes made as a result of the study will result in improved efficiencies in these buildings.”

For the full report, send an e-mail to tfm@groupc.com with the words “Illinois LEED Report” in the subject line of your e-mail.

Jeffrey A. Horn, president and CEO of BOMI (Building Owners and Managers Institute) International, has announced that the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) has approved BOMI’s Design, Operation, and Maintenance of Building Systems, Part II (Design II) course. This is the third BOMI class that USGBC has approved in the past two months.

As an approved USGBC Education Provider, BOMI is a third-party organization that offers peer-reviewed classes accepted by USGBC for its credentialing maintenance requirements. Design II underwent a rigorous review process in which a team of subject matter experts evaluated the course based on its content and instructional design quality.

Horn says the USGBC’s approval “reinforces BOMI’s consistent emphasis on providing property and facility managers with critical technical expertise in energy management and sustainability. We were teaching ‘green’ long before the subject became popular.” He attributes BOMI’s foresight to its 40 year history of developing property and facility management courses. “We trace our origins to the energy crisis of the 1970s and the birth of the environmental movement.”

The other BOMI courses that have received USGBC approval are The Design, Operation, and Maintenance of Building Systems, Part I, and Energy Management and Controls.

Design II provides information that property and facility managers need in order to make management decisions about various building systems and sites. Making these decisions correctly will increase occupant safety and comfort while facilitating building efficiency to meet the business goals of an organization.

Design II helps students understand electrical systems and lighting, elevator maintenance and modernization, and pest and solid waste management. Other areas of interest covered in this course include security issues, fire and safety systems, and energy management concerns. Students learn how to analyze and manage building systems, maintain property in top condition, both inside and out, and maintain a secure, safe building.

Because of USGBC’s status as an approved Education Reviewing Body (ERB) for the Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI), all approved courses—including those from BOMI—will be assigned GBCI Continuing Education (CE) hours, which will help Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®) Professionals satisfy their credentialing maintenance requirements.

GBCI launched the LEED Professional Credentialing Maintenance Program (CMP) on August 3, 2009. The program requires LEED Professionals to maintain their credentials by staying current and relevant in a constantly transitioning marketplace. Currently, there are over 130,000 LEED Credentialed Professionals in the United States.

The first comprehensive study to explore the impact of project delivery methods and procurement procedures on achieving sustainable design and construction goals was released earlier this month. Sustainable, High Performance Projects and Project Delivery Methods: A State of Practice Report was commissioned by the Charles Pankow Foundation and the Design-Build Institute of America. This ongoing study is being conducted by a team of researchers from the University of Colorado, University of Oklahoma, Pennsylvania State University, and Michigan State University.

The first phase of the research aimed to determine the state of practice in green building project delivery and procurement. The full report of the first phase is available here. The initial findings show that integrated delivery methods (such as design-build and construction-manager-at-risk) are superior in achieving or exceeding Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®) certification goals and that procurement procedure also have an impact on the level of sustainability achieved.

Researchers evaluated the three most common delivery methods: design-bid-build (DBB); construction manager-at-risk (CMR), and design-build (DB). Under the DBB delivery method, an owner contracts separately for the design and the construction phases, often awarding construction contracts to the lowest bidder. DB is a fully competitive project delivery system that awards contracts for both design and construction to a single entity composed of one or several firms. CMR is a delivery system in which the owner contracts separately but somewhat simultaneously with a designer and a contractor who not only performs construction management services but also has significant input during the design phase. The five procurement procedures sampled in this study were low bid, best value, competitive negotiation, qualifications-based selection, and sole source.

To understand the state of practice, the research team employed a three-tiered research approach encompassing:

1. industry survey;
2. content analysis; and
3. structured interviews

The industry survey elicited 230 responses from LEED Accredited Professionals (LEED APs) regarding the project delivery methods, procurement procedures, and certification level on specific LEED certified projects. The content analysis was based on solicitation documents from 92 public and private projects representing over $2.2 billion in building investment.

Structured interviews were conducted with members of the industry as well as with owners to help interpret the results. Responses were received from 47 of 50 states and the District of Columbia.

The study found that all project delivery methods had been used to achieve all levels of LEED certification (certified, silver, gold, and platinum). It also found that all procurement procedures (low bid, best value, competitive negotiation, qualifications based selection, and sole source) had been used to achieve all levels of LEED certification.

However, some delivery methods and procurement procedures were more successful than others. Success was assessed through the ratings by LEED APs who have completed LEED projects and by identifying those projects that met or exceeded their initial LEED rating goals. Two key facts relating to success are:

• Integrated delivery methods (DB and CMR) are used in 75% of the projects surveyed; and
• Qualifications-Based Selection (QBS) procurement was most successful procurement procedure.

The ability to integrate construction knowledge early in design is essential to maximizing sustainability; therefore, strong preferences among LEED APs for integrated delivery methods on LEED projects is not surprising. Integrated project delivery methods either eliminate price competition or include price as one of several factors that determine the contract award.

Sustainable, High Performance Projects and Project Delivery Methods: A State of Practice Report provides insights for owners seeking to achieve specific sustainability goals. While all project delivery methods are in use, integrated project delivery methods are most commonly applied to projects seeking LEED certification. If owners choose QBS procurement methods to select team members, they may increase their chances to meet or exceed their sustainability goals.

PepsiCo’s Frito-Lay North America recently announced its Plano, Texas, headquarters has been awarded LEED® Gold Certification from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) and verified by the Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI). LEED is the nation’s preeminent program for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings.

The Frito-Lay North America headquarters is the only Existing Building (EB) in the state of Texas, to receive this distinction and one of only 12 corporate headquarters to receive this distinction nationally.

“There are many challenges to retrofitting a 25-year-old building to meet LEED EB Gold standards,” said George Guck, Director of Facilities and Corporate Services, Frito-Lay North America. “Bolstered by the commitment of senior leadership, we completed a thorough analysis of our facility workings and evaluated new technologies to find strategic sustainable solutions that helped us meet LEED requirements.”

“With each new LEED-certified building, we get one step closer to USGBC’s vision of a sustainable built environment within a generation,” said Rick Fedrizzi, President, CEO & Founding Chair, U.S. Green Building Council. “As the newest member of the LEED family of green buildings, Frito-Lay is an important addition to the growing strength of the green building movement.”

To achieve LEED EB Certification, Frito-Lay’s sustainability strategy included implementing a number of green design and construction features, water reduction technologies and practices, as well as improved waste management.

Energy reduction:

• Solar thermal water heating system uses the sun’s light to heat all the hot water in the headquarters building - including the kitchen, dish room and fitness center. This one change reduced energy consumption by 130,000 KWH and eliminated more than 154,000 pounds of greenhouse gases from being emitted into the atmosphere since installation in 2008.
• New high efficiency chillers reduce annual energy consumption by 975,000 KWH and eliminate the use of harmful, ozone-depleting refrigerants.
• New lighting control systems, including daylight harvesting, turns off indoor lights when there is enough sunlight in the area, saving 266,000 KWH per year.

Water reduction:

Landscaping with native and adaptive plants reduces water needed for lawn maintenance and impedes soil erosion. The sustainable organic maintenance program minimizes environmental impacts from storm water run off.

Recycling:

Frito-Lay is the city of Plano’s No. 1 recycling customer. More than 70% of the company’s wastes are diverted from the landfill.

Employee education:

Frito-Lay has leveraged its best practices to educate associates, and they in turn have positively impacted the community at large. Frito-Lay hosts an annual Eco Fair for its associates to showcase local green vendors. The information, services and products are resources employees can take home and to their communities.

U.S. Green Building Council

The Washington, D.C.-based U.S. Green Building Council is committed to a prosperous and sustainable future for our nation through cost-efficient and energy-saving green buildings. With a community comprising 78 local affiliates, more than 20,000 member companies and organizations, and more than 100,000 LEED Accredited Professionals, USGBC is the driving force of an industry that is projected to soar to $60 billion by 2010. The USGBC leads an unlikely diverse constituency of builders and environmentalists, corporations and nonprofit organizations, elected officials and concerned citizens, and teachers and students.

Buildings in the United States are responsible for 39% of CO2 emissions, 40% of energy consumption, 13% water consumption and 15% of GDP per year, making green building a source of significant economic and environmental opportunity. Greater building efficiency can meet 85% of future U.S. demand for energy, and a national commitment to green building has the potential to generate 2.5 million American jobs.

LEED

The U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED green building certification system is the foremost program for the design, construction and operation of green buildings. The U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED rating system is the preeminent program for the design, construction and operation of green buildings. 35,000 projects are currently participating in the LEED system, comprising over 5.6 billion square feet of construction space in all 50 states and 91 countries. By using less energy, LEED-certified buildings save money for families, businesses and taxpayers; reduce greenhouse gas emissions; and contribute to a healthier environment for residents, workers and the larger community.

USGBC was co-founded by current President and CEO Rick Fedrizzi, who spent 25 years as a Fortune 500 executive. Under his 15-year leadership, the organization has become the preeminent green building, membership, policy, standards, influential, education and research organization in the nation. For more information, visit www.usgbc.org.

Frito-Lay North America

Frito-Lay North America is the $12 billion convenient foods business unit of PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP), which is headquartered in Purchase, NY. In addition to Frito-Lay, PepsiCo business units include Pepsi-Cola, Quaker Foods, Gatorade and Tropicana. Learn more about Frito-Lay at the corporate Web site, http://www.fritolay.com/, the Snack Chat blog, http://www.snacks.com/ and on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/fritolay. PepsiCo offers the world’s largest portfolio of billion-dollar food and beverage brands, including 18 different product lines that each generate more than $1 billion in annual retail sales. Our main businesses - Frito-Lay, Quaker, Pepsi-Cola, Tropicana and Gatorade - also make hundreds of other nourishing, tasty foods and drinks that bring joy to our consumers in over 200 countries. With more than $43 billion in 2008 revenues, PepsiCo employs 198,000 people who are united by our unique commitment to sustainable growth, called Performance with Purpose. By dedicating ourselves to offering a broad array of choices for healthy, convenient and fun nourishment, reducing our environmental impact, and fostering a diverse and inclusive workplace culture, PepsiCo balances strong financial returns with giving back to our communities worldwide. For more information, please visit http://www.pepsico.com.

The eco-conscious Ritz-Carlton, Charlotte, designed to achieve LEED® (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold certification and provide a slate of new conveniences for frequent travelers, is now open in the heart of Charlotte’s thriving uptown district. The sleekly contemporary, environmentally-friendly hotel features 146 technologically-advanced guest rooms, a 13,000 square-foot penthouse Wellness Center with Aqua Lounge and saline-treated swimming pool, a street-side BLT Steak restaurant, and more than 12,000 square-feet of meeting space utilizing recycled aluminum conference tables, on-property purified and bottled water, and green meetings as a standard. The Ritz-Carlton, Charlotte is the first Ritz-Carlton hotel in the Carolinas, the 73rd Ritz-Carlton property worldwide, and the first domestic new Ritz-Carlton hotel to be unveiled in 2009.

Highlights of the Ritz-Carlton, Charlotte

Environmentally-focused operation and design:

• A green roof vegetated with 18,000 plants insulating the building, slowing rain runoff and cooling the air through evaporation of water from leaves
• Select employee uniforms made of fabric derived from regenerated plastic bottles
• An in-house water purification and container system that will divert 73,000 plastic bottles from landfills, save more than 104 barrels of oil, eliminate nearly 49 tons of CO2 emissions and save almost 605,000,000 BTUs of electricity each year
• A state-of-the-art air transfer system which circulates outside air into guest rooms at 60 cubic-feet per minute
• A hotel Bike Valet, featuring 150 bicycle parking spaces, complimentary trek bikes for hotel guests to use, and bicycle maintenance and safety training for hotel staff
• Complimentary parking for hybrid vehicles
• Complimentary weekday morning guest transportation via hybrid vehicle

Frequent-traveler conveniences:

• The Nook — complimentary private offices for guests, offering computers, printers, office supplies, teleconferencing, wireless Internet, and copy/fax access
• Travel Lite, eliminating the hassle of having to pack toiletry essentials in TSA-approved plastic bags for airline carry-on purposes. With Travel Lite, hotel guests may pre-select from a menu of nominally-priced daily grooming essentials to be delivered to the room upon check-in.
• Desktop-on-Demand, the technology version of room service. Guests may have printers, disks, phone chargers, surge protectors, cables, keyboards and office supplies delivered to their rooms, which are already pre-outfitted with business essentials and electronic jack-packs.
• Guests who stay a minimum of four nights per month may enjoy Luggage-Less Travel, checking in their clothing and personal items and leaving them at the hotel at the end of each stay.  Their items will be held for them until their next arrival or, for an optional added charge, their clothing can be cleaned and preferred personal toiletries replenished.

The Wellness Center:

• Aqua Lounge with saline-treated swimming pool and whirlpool, plus floor-to-ceiling windows and panoramic views of the Charlotte skyline
• Four treatment rooms with private shower, floor-to-ceiling windows, Tempur-Pedic® memory foam mattresses and all-organic products
• Specialties: Green Your Body Eco-Treatment, Lunch-Break Re-Nourish experience, Drift to Sleep for the sleep-deprived, Techno-Stress Relief for computer and PDA overuse,  facials, massages, skin treatments
• Fitness Center, movement studio, yoga/pilates classes

Dining:

• BLT Steak, Chef Laurent Tourondel’s signature modern American steakhouse, offering prime cuts of beef and fresh fish, as well as a wide variety of tempting side dishes and classic American desserts. The 140-seat restaurant serves breakfast, lunch and dinner daily, and is accessible through both the hotel lobby and a separate entrance.
• The Lobby Lounge, offering sustainable organic cuisine; signature martinis, cocktails, wines, coffees and flavored iced teas; complimentary wireless Internet access; and boarding pass kiosk

This Web exclusive to FacilityBlog comes from Kelly F. Duke, vice president for pre-construction services at Calabasas, CA-based ValleyCrest Landscape Development.

Green roofs are easy and effective ways to beautify facilities while enhancing a building’s energy efficiency. These types of structures include vertical landscapes, green walls and roof-top gardens; they are currently playing a vital role in the development of LEED-certified buildings across the country.

Architects and building owners are increasingly understanding and embracing the value of sustainability in their developments, and today, roof-top level gardens are being incorporated into nearly every type of commercial structure including high-rise offices, hotels and resorts, residential, mixed-use, and retail properties.

There are really three types of roof-top gardens:

1. Intensive: An accessible, park-like roof garden with conventional trees and plants requiring irrigation, feeding and maintenance.

2. Extensive: A traditional blanket of green material, such as sedum, or select ornamental grasses or ground covers, not accessible to the general public, requiring little maintenance.

3. Semi-intensive: A combination of both types.

Some of the direct benefits of green roofs include:

• Ability to moderate roof-top storm water runoff
• Supplement a building’s insulation, reducing heating and cooling costs
• Offer new outdoor amenity space
• Moderate daily solar heat gain to reduce urban heat island effect
• Improve air and water quality by filtering and reducing pollutants
• Create aesthetic value
• Increase wildlife habitats and biodiversity in urban settings
• Lower the temperature of the water that is eventually returned to the watershed

Here’s a look at three green roofs and roof gardens recently installed by ValleyCrest Landscape Development around the nation:

Eaton Vance Green Roof, Boston, MA
Eaton Vance Corporation, a Boston-based investment firm, relocated its headquarters to the Financial District in downtown Boston. This 310,000 square-foot office building underwent a full retrofit including the addition of an outdoor entertaining space and landscaped roof deck. Included in this renovation was an intensive roof garden that affords employees and their visitor’s views of Boston Harbor and the newly constructed Rose F. Kennedy Greenway. The 13th floor green roof includes square and round pre-cast concrete planters filled with Skyline Honey Locust trees as well as 200 perennials and 350-square-foot blanket of sedum material.

Optima Biltmore Towers, Phoenix, AZ
Optima Biltmore Towers helped transform the Phoenix skyline with its environmentally friendly design. A green roof caps the towers where a trellised sky bridge links condominiums to a recreation area offering residents a natural view. The property integrates solar systems that compliment an environmentally sensitive green roof and retreat. The landscape and irrigation system include a pool and spa as well as arbors for shade. Nearly 300 boxed trees and 2,000 shrubs were planted on the 17th floor.

The Prologis Corporation, Denver, CO

Prologis, one of the largest global providers of warehouse and distribution space, expanded and added a roof-top garden bridge above an atrium that connects two buildings at a Denver-area campus. Plants and trees native to the region were planted in a 16″ deep tray, while a special drip irrigation system runs from inside the building and distributes water directly to the root of the plants. Pavers made from recycled concrete onsite line the walkways for pedestrians. The building is now registered as LEED Silver and is awaiting certification.

These green solutions are prime examples of how green roofs can help bring nature closer to urban settings, improve insulation and air quality, and work to deliver both economic and social benefits to their communities.

At the end of last month (July 2009), Jones Lang LaSalle announced that it had surpassed its 2009 goal of employing 500 sustainability accredited professionals six months ahead of the stated goal. At the start of July 2009, the firm documented that 544 employees in 14 countries worldwide had attained the status of LEED Accredited Professional (AP) or equivalent designation, signifying advanced knowledge and expertise in green building practices.

As part of the Global Sustainability Commitment, Jones Lang LaSalle in April 2008 pledged to increase its sustainability accredited professionals—including LEED, BREEAM, IEMA, NABERS Energy (formerly ABGR), and Green Star—to 200 in 2008 and to 500 in 2009. The firm ended 2008 with 333 sustainability accredited professionals and added another 200-plus APs to its ranks in the first six months of 2009.

“This was an ambitious goal, but we have a firm-wide determination to be the sustainability leader in the real estate industry and are very proud of all of our employees who have put the time and effort into earning this prestigious accreditation,” said Lauralee Martin, LEED AP, global chief operating and financial officer of Jones Lang LaSalle. “The future of commercial real estate is in sustainable buildings, and LEED accreditation reinforces our commitment to being the energy and sustainability leader in the real estate sector.”

“We recognized the importance of green buildings early on, completing our first LEED certified project in 2003, and have continually led the industry in terms of the number of accredited individuals and certified buildings, as well as innovative approaches to sustainability,” said Dan Probst, chairman of energy and sustainability services at Jones Lang LaSalle. “More and more people each day are adopting the message we have emphasized from the start: Sustainable buildings make good business sense in addition to being environmentally responsible.”

Jones Lang LaSalle has sustainability accredited APs in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Mexico, Poland, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, the UK, and the U.S.

In keeping with its integrated approach to service delivery and firmwide commitment to sustainability, the company employs APs in a wide range of business units, including: project and development services property and facility management; construction; energy and sustainability services; retail property management; tenant representation; investment management; agency leasing, strategic consulting; and public institutions, as well as infrastructure groups such as finance and marketing.

Properties certified with Jones Lang LaSalle’s assistance include office buildings, R&D buildings, multi-family, educational institutions, corporate headquarters, bank branches, and commercial interiors.

The firm’s experience in LEED New Construction (NC), Commercial Interiors (CI) Existing Buildings - Operations & Management (EB-OM), and Core & Shell (CS) certification ensures that its professional staff can assist owners and occupiers in all phases of building development and operations.

Jones Lang LaSalle has assisted clients in managing and gaining certification on 28 LEED properties to date, more than any other real estate services firm. In addition, Jones Lang LaSalle has played a major role in high,profile projects such as:

• Two of the first three projects to gain Platinum certification under the newly instituted Existing Buildings: Operations and Maintenance standard
• The first multi-tenant office building to gain LEED Platinum certification under any Existing Building standard
• The first LEED Platinum high-rise office building in the U.S.
• The first LEED certified project in Mexico
• The first LEED Platinum certified retail bank branch
• LEED Platinum certification for McDonald’s Corporation’s headquarters campus in Oakbrook, IL
• LEED certification for existing multi-tenant office buildings in Manhattan, Boston, Denver, Chicago and the Washington, D.C. area

In April, the firm announced it would spearhead an initiative to gain LEED Gold certification at the Empire State Building in New York.

LEED Professional Accreditation distinguishes building professionals with the knowledge and skills to successfully steward the LEED certification process. LEED Accredited Professionals (LEED APs) have demonstrated a thorough understanding of green building practices and principles and the LEED Rating System. More than 75,000 people have earned the credential since the Professional Accreditation program was launched in 2001.

In the U.S., Jones Lang LaSalle currently has 280 buildings, or 85% of its U.S. multi-tenant portfolio, enrolled in the Energy Star program, and has achieved an average Energy Star score of 68, 18 points better than the average building score of 50. Energy Star is the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s widely recognized program for benchmarking energy performance in buildings.

Last week the United States Green Building Council awarded Hannaford Supermarkets with Platinum LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification with the opening of its store in Augusta, ME. Out of approximately 85,000 supermarkets in the U.S., Hannaford is the first supermarket in the country to achieve Platinum level LEED certification.

This Augusta, ME supermarket has earned LEED Platinum certification.

Some of the store’s energy features include a state-of-the-art GreenChill refrigeration system, which uses 50% less refrigerant gas than a traditional system; doors on nearly all freezer and refrigerated cases; and water from two geothermal wells located 750 feet underground, which help regulate the building’s temperature.

The new store is expected to use about half as much energy as a typical supermarket of comparable size and amenities. The new store will offer more than 3,500 natural and organic products and hundreds of local products.