The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC)
The USGBC is the nation’s leading alliance of leaders in the building industry working together in order to advocate for buildings that are environmentally responsible, profitable and healthy places to live and work.
LEED
The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System is a nationally recognized standard of excellence for the design, construction, and operation of high performance Green buildings in the United States. Promoting an all-encompassing approach, LEED focuses on sustainability by recognizing performance in five key areas of human and environmental health:
Sustainable Site Development
Water Savings
Energy Efficiency
Materials Selection
Indoor Environmental Quality
Audubon Machinery Corporation
Audubon implemented the following measures in accordance with
LEED guidelines to obtain its Green Building status:
Sustainable Site Development
- Built on a reclaimed brownfield site.
- Negotiated new public transportation access (bus route).
- Bicycle storage and changing rooms are available in the building.
- Preferred parking has been provided for carpools.
Water Savings
- Water efficient landscaping and drought tolerant planting have been put into place.
- No permanent irrigation system has been installed.
Energy Efficiency
- Installed high efficiency lighting and occupancy sensor lighting controls in all offices and rooms.
- Put in high efficiency heating and cooling throughout the building.
- Installed variable frequency drives on building air compression and crane control system.
Materials Selection
- Diverted 103 tons of on-site generated construction waste from landfill to agencies that received and recycled those materials.
- Used salvaged, refurbished or recycled materials (ex. steel, drywall, carpeting) wherever possible.
- Regionally manufactured building panels were implemented in this project.
Indoor Environmental Quality
- All indoor paints, adhesives and sealants comply with VOC limits.
- Composite wood materials used indoors contain no urea-formaldehy