Boeing, Nordea, MRI Achieve LEED Certification

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Boeing and Midwest Research Institute buildings have received LEED certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. Nordea will receive a LEED plaque for its 14 LEED-certified buildings.

The Boeing Company recently received LEED Gold certification for its Houston site, reports Reliable Plant.

The LEED Gold certification was awarded to the Houston facility's 399,000-square-foot Bay Area Boulevard building in the category of existing buildings, according to a press release. The site also earned International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 14001 certification and an Energy Star rating for the Bay Area Boulevard building in December 2008.

Boeing said Houston is the first Boeing site to carry all three environmental certifications and one of only seven Houston-area companies to have a LEED Gold-certified existing building.

Boeing has reduced energy consumption by more than 2 million kilowatt hours annually by retrofitting the site's heating and cooling system and installing more efficient lighting and automated controls. The upgrade has also saved the site $250,000 per year in energy costs since it was installed in 2007.

The energy-efficient lighting system controls the building's lighting automatically, based on peak employee occupancy hours. During off-peak hours, employees can call an automated number to have the lights turned on in their designated work area.

The 21-acre site serves as the headquarters for Boeing's Space Exploration division, which includes the Constellation, International Space Station and Space Shuttle programs.

The Midwest Research Institute is receiving LEED Certification for the $25-million renovation of its 50-year-old Kansas City headquarters facility, reports Kansas City Business Journal. The energy-saving measures reduced the company's CO2 emissions by 600 metric tons from 2008 to 2009, according to a press release.

The two-year renovation project, completed in January 2009, also yielded nearly 50 percent more laboratory space and office space for an additional 150 employees.

MRI said the challenge for sustainability was even greater since the facility includes laboratories that require up to five times the energy of a typical office building.

Renovation features include energy-efficient windows, high-efficiency chillers, high-efficiency boilers, low-flow laboratory hoods, water-saving devices, provisions for waste recycling, insulation, day lighting, high-efficiency lighting, green products in building materials, and low VOC emitting materials.

The renovated areas save nearly 19 percent in energy costs compared to the baseline and the high-efficiency plumbing fixtures reduce the volume of water used in the facility by nearly 29 percent, said MRI. The company also encourages staff to use public transportation, energy-efficient vehicles, and carpooling.

During construction nearly 555,000 pounds of waste (representing 77 percent of the total waste) was recycled, more than 17 percent of the new material cost came from recycled material, and more than 37 percent of the new material cost was sourced within 500 miles of MRI.

Nordea, a leading bank in the Nordic region, will be awarded a LEED plaque for its fourteen LEED certified buildings, which makes it the largest project in Europe, according to the company.

The buildings earned certification under the LEED for Existing Buildings Operations & Maintenance program.

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