The first BREEAM USA In-Use certified building is The Oaks Shopping Center in Thousand Oaks, California.
The green building standard, administered by BRE America, measures and monitors environmental performance in existing facilities.
BREEAM, which has been used in the UK and Europe for almost two dozen years, launched in the US in June 2016. BRE says the BREEAM USA In-Use standard is designed to address the 5.6 million pre-existing non-residential structures in the US that are not currently benchmarking their sustainability efforts using a “scientifically-based green building certification” such as LEED for Existing Buildings.
The Oaks owner-operator, shopping mall developer Macerich, says it upgraded the 1.3 million square-foot property, which includes Nordstrom, Macy’s, JC Penney and Muvico Theatres, with a range of features to minimize the facility’s environmental impact. These include 6,000 solar panels producing 1,652 kW of power, LED lighting and a new HVAC system to minimize energy consumption. The shopping center also recycled more than 500 tons of mixed materials every year.
Macerich worked with Healthy Buildings to implemented the BREEAM In-Use standard at The Oaks and says it plans to plans to work with the building auditor to certify other properties in its portfolio.
In other green building news, sports and entertainment company AEG and MGM Resorts yesterday said that their joint venture, T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, was awarded LEED Gold certification. The 20,000-seat facility is the first sports and entertainment venue in Las Vegas to receive the US Green Building Certification rating.
To reduce energy consumption, LED lighting is used throughout the arena, and high efficiency HVAC systems are used in the restaurants.
An on-site well provides all of T-Mobile Arena’s irrigation water, reducing the amount of water taken from the city’s water supply. In addition, low-flow fixtures have been installed throughout the facility, bringing the estimated water consumption to 40 percent below what is required by code.
Additionally 80 percent of construction waste was recycled and much of the facility was made with pre- and post-consumer-recycled material, including 7,000 pounds of recycled steel.
Venues that incorporate LEED into their buildings increase cost-savings, decrease annual operating costs and see a higher return on investment overall, according to a USGBC report released last month.
This echoes an earlier study, the 2015 Green Building Economic Impact Study, which estimated from 2015-2018 LEED-certified buildings in the US will have saved more than $2.1 billion in combined energy, water, maintenance and waste savings.
