Spectrum Health, Fortune Data Centers Go for the LEED Gold

November 9, 2009

Email this story Print this post Add your comments

Businesses across all sectors including health care, manufacturing and information technology (IT) are seeking the coveted LEED certification to ensure that their new buildings meet the highest of environmental standards. Some of the most recent LEED projects include Spectrum Health, Fortune Data Centers and Allied Tube Conduit.

Spectrum Health Hospital Group’s Lemmen-Holton Cancer Pavilion has earned LEED gold certification by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). The six-story, 284,000-square-foot facility pavilion is the first health-care facility in Michigan to receive gold certification, according to the health care facility.

Spectrum Health worked with URS Corporation and The Christman Company to build the Lemmen-Holton Cancer Pavilion to achieve LEED certification for energy use, lighting, water and material use. The companies implemented a number of sustainable strategies to meet these goals.

These included reducing water use through low-flow plumbing fixtures, rainwater collection and high-efficiency irrigation, and saving energy through the use of a high-performance building envelope, heat recovery, HVAC, and lighting design and controls.

The facility also reduced urban heat island effect through the use of underground parking, reflective roofing and vegetated roof areas, as well as reduced its impact on the environment through use of regional products and products containing recycled content. The project also used materials that minimize emissions of indoor air contaminants.

Also going for the Gold, Fortune Data Centers earned LEED Gold certification for its Silicon Valley facility. The data center is among the largest in Silicon Valley with a power capacity to serve 8 megawatts of critical load for IT infrastructure and the first LEED Gold certified data center in San Jose, according to the company.

Fortune believes its facility is the first multi-tenant data center to receive the LEED Gold Certification for 100 percent of the usable tenant space.

Some features of the facility include an overhead-down rather than the traditional raised floor-up approach to cooling servers, which enables Fortune to save energy while significantly contributing to its power usage effectiveness (PUE) rating of 1.37 at full load, compared to the industry average data center PUE of 2.0, according to Fortune.

During construction, the builders re-used materials and recycled waste during the conversion of the facility to data center space. According to DPR Construction, approximately 96 percent of construction waste was diverted from landfill, which translates into 1,137 tons of material recycled or re-used on site. The company also used regionally sourced and recycled content for construction materials.

The company also invested in a highly efficient infrastructure, selecting critical components such as uninterruptible power supplies (UPSs) based on their energy-efficiency ratings. They also implemented an education campaign with customers to demonstrate how they can benefit from making their IT operations within the Fortune data center facility more energy efficient.

In the Midwest, Allied Tube Conduit Corp., a business within Tyco Electrical Metal Products (TEMP), plans to spend $30 million for a 514,000 square-foot expansion of its manufacturing center in Harvey, Illinois. This marks the company’s first LEED-certified project. The project is expected to be completed by early 2010.

The expansion project is expected to meet enough LEED requirements for new construction to achieve a Silver certification. The expansion includes the design and installation of a high energy efficiency building envelope, heating and ventilation systems, and water heating, power, and equipment systems that will maximize performance with minimum energy usage. It also provides measurement and verification systems for continuous monitoring of cooling load, an air/water economizer, and air distribution systems. The building also meets ASHRAE Indoor Air Quality standards for ventilation with the HVAC system design.

The facility reduced potable water consumption through water efficient landscape and low-flow lavatories by 20 percent, encouraged use of renewable energy sources by purchasing Renewable Energy Certificates, and diverted construction waste from the landfill. The project recycled or salvaged up to 75 percent of the construction and demolition waste.

Email this story Print this post Add your comments

Advertisers

Stay competitive through sustainability.

Find out how at the SAP Sustainability Resource Center. >>

Unclear about the EPA's new GHG Rule?

Learn how it could affect your business. >>

EPA mandatory emissions reporting starts Jan 1st

CSA Standards can help your organization get ready for compliance. Find out how. >>

Best Practices: Product Environmental Compliance

How to achieve compliance at a significantly lower cost. Download the full report. >>

Join the Discussion

Recent Daily News [ see all ]

11/20/2009
11/19/2009
11/18/2009

Charts [ see all ]

European Paper Industry Cuts CO2 Emissions by 42% since 1990

S. America Takes Most Urgent View of Copenhagen Talks

Nike Tops Annual Climate Action Scores

Oceans May Trap more Carbon than Forests

Jobs

View All Jobs >> Post a Job >>

Comments and Discussions

Environmental Leader on S. America Takes Most Urgent View of Copenhagen Talks
"The survey respondents (the PDF report mentions 4,000 respondents in 38..."

Jake on UPS Trying New Hydraulic Hybrid Trucks
"A point of clarification: the Reuters press release referenced herein reports that 20 UPS will purchase..."

Custom Organic Shirts on S. America Takes Most Urgent View of Copenhagen Talks
"90% of North Americans believe it is urgent to get a global climate..."

peter dublin on California City’s Green Building Ordinance Applies to Commercial Buildings
"Why energy efficiebnt regulation on buildings –..."

JEONG CHUN PHUOC on EU Poised to Give Heavy Industry Free Carbon Permits
"“Competitive Intelligence in Environmenting : A Holistic Deal for..."

Philip Vandenberg on Building an Energy-Efficient Data Center Using Virtualization Technology
"Rob has implemented many best practices for data centres..."

George Hoguet on Rising Sea Levels Would Hit U.S. East Coast Hardest
"Want to add some pressure into the system? Check out the Facebook group -NO TV..."

Environmental Leader