(Credit: Boston Materials)Boston Materials has opened a new sustainably built headquarters in Billerica, Massachusetts. The custom designed facility provides a manufacturing footprint that can support nine-digit revenues, enabling a bigger production scale. Known for its patented Z-axis Fiber technology, a lightweight material with “significant energy dissipation properties that is produced from reclaimed carbon fiber,” Boston Materials enables manufacturers of industrial and consumer products to create highly differentiated, energy-efficient products that have a low carbon footprint, the company says.
The new 40,000-square-foot, two story facility features an open floor plan layout with exposed ceilings and high bays, and 270 degrees of windows providing natural light. The first floor houses the factory, which includes Boston Materials’ proprietary production lines, downstream conversion processes, warehousing, and machine shops. The second floor features office space and labs.
Amazon is another large company developing sustainable headquarters; last year, the e-commerce giant unveiled plans for the buildings that will house its new headquarters in Arlington, Virginia. The company says it will develop 2.8 million square feet of new office space across three 22-story buildings that will “prioritize areas for collaboration, natural light, and a constant interaction with nature.”
The buildings are designed to be LEED Platinum. They include an all-electric central heating and cooling system that will run on 100% renewable energy from a solar farm located in Pittsylvania County in southern Virginia. This will align with Amazon’s Climate Pledge to be net-zero carbon by 2040.
Amazon tasked architecture firm NBBJ to incorporate unique architectural and ecological elements in order to create a “sustainable, healthy environment for Amazon employees and the local community,” according to Architectural Digest. “Increasingly, we see leading companies invest in these strategies,” the project’s lead architect, Dale Alberda, told the magazine.
