Gold standard: LEED-certified building a product of collaboration - Boston Business Journal:

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The joint venture between The , with the help of architecturakcompany , resulted in a 316,000-square-foo green building that has been pre-certified to receivw the ’s LEED gold certification. National Grid’s new situated in the Reservoier Woods east campus in will include a host of greendesigb features, 34 in all, from rooftopp solar panels to systems that recapture stormwatetr and use it for sewage systems. Once completed, the $135 milliomn building will be one of the largesyt green commercial buildings in thestate (the platinum-certified Genzymed Center in Cambridge being larger). “It was clear it was goinvg to be acollaboration (with Nationak Grid).
They did have an extremelt active role throughoutthe process, and they had very ambitious goals for the environmental sustainability of the building,” said The collaboration between Davis, Marcus and National Grid started when the utility was looking for space after its acquisition of in 2007. It knew it needecd a facility that would meet not only the physica l needs of the but serve as an example to customers that it was dedicate d toenvironmental stewardship. “We are going to be significantlty growingour energy-efficiency program and for us to be able to go in to there is an issue of said Tom King, president of National Grid’s U.S.
-based “It’s a leadership issue.” When it settled upon Reservoirt Woods as its new National Grid established a lofty goal for its builfd to suit construction: to achieve an 80 percent reductio in its greenhouse gas emissionss by 2050. To do this, the company investedr in sustainably harvestedbuilding materials, high-efficiency heating and cooling systemxs and even sunshades on south-facing window to keep the building warm in the winter and cool in the The hardest part of designing the buildinh was not its size, but making the step from LEED silvefr to LEED gold without breaking the “You can go from certified to silver withougt much trouble or extra cost,” said Michael the project’s architect.
“To get up to gold is a much biggedr hurdle. We went through a lot of idea and looked at whatwas feasible.” Some ideas, like powerintg the building with fuel cell technology, were not cost Hass said. But the group was able to integrats the vast majority of its 55 greemn features talked about at a price well beloqthe $60 to $80 per square foot premiuj on LEED gold buildings, Marcus