Standards & Compliance Briefing: Energy Star, UL and Eco-Institut, ISO 50001, LEED

The EPA and DOE’s Energy Star program has introduced a specification for uninterruptible power supplies (UPS). ??Using an Energy Star-certified UPS in a data center can save a company hundreds of thousands of dollars over the product’s lifetime, recouping from 25 to 50 percent of its full purchase price, the agencies say.

UL has acquired Eco-Institut, a German product emissions and chemical content testing provider. The expertise of Eco-Institut, which certifies products to nationally and internationally recognized indoor air quality standards including Blue Angel, AgBB and French emissions regulations, positions UL to test and certify to any major North American and European product emissions standard, the company said.

Materials technology consultancy Ceram in Staffordshire, UK, has launched a new sustainability service, the Carbon Management Health Check, which aims to offer compliance services for ISO 50001. The appraisal focuses on four key areas: regulation, people, systems and technology.

Cape Town, South Africa’s V&A Waterfront has been independently audited and certified for environmental compliance, earning the Heritage Silver classification from the Heritage Environmental Management Company. The tourist destination, which attracts more than 23 million visitors per year, earned its rating for programs including an aggressive waste management plan, Cape Business News writes.

Clif Bar & Company’s Emeryville, Calif. headquarters has earned LEED Platinum certification. The 115,000-square-foot office space is the city’s  first building to achieve platinum status. Built by San Francisco-based DPR Construction and designed by ZGF Architects, based in Portland, Ore., the building features low-flow faucets and showers, an on-site solar array, and use of more than 12,000 board feet of reclaimed wood, the company said.

DuPont Fabros Technology said that its SC1 data center located in Santa Clara, Calif., has earned LEED Gold certification. This is the company’s third gold-certified facility. SC1 was constructed in two identical phases, each with 18.2 MW of critical load power capacity and about 88,000 square feet of computing space, the real estate developer said.

The Omni Dallas Hotel has earned LEED Gold certification for new construction. It is the first gold-certified hotel in Texas and the largest LEED Gold hotel outside of Las Vegas. The hotel’s design includes a 25,000-gallon cistern to capture water for irrigation, a cool roof, and guest key-activated lighting and HVAC systems.

The Navy SUBASE Submarine Learning Center’s 16,000-square-foot headquarters has earned LEED Silver certification, and it is roughly 30 to 40 percent more energy efficient than the energy code standard for US commercial buildings. Features of the facility, the base’s first building built to LEED specifications, include a cool roof, optimized natural daylight strategies, recycled building materials and low-VOC interior materials, the Navy said.

Grocery and shopping center developer Regency Centers said that two of its shopping centers in North Carolina and Illinois have received LEED Silver certification. The certified projects are Market at Colonnade, a 57,637-square-foot ground-up infill center anchored by Whole Foods Market in Raleigh, N.C., and a  51,298-square-foot redevelopment at Roscoe Square in Chicago, Illinois.

Electronics Weekly has said that China is making no progress with its plan for its so-called “RoHS2” plan, in which China RoHS would have greater alignment with EU RoHS. Since 2007, when China announced phase 1 of its RoHS development, which focused on labeling and information requirements, the only requirement to emerge has been for the labeling of Electronic Information Products.