The LEED-EBOM-Gold certification by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) honours the sustainable elements of the building, which is part of Merritt’s Columbia Corporate Park. The 8840 Stanford Boulevard, a more than 20 year-old structure, has recently been retrofitted by its owner, Merritt Properties. LEED-EBOM is based on the actual operating performance of an existing building, rather than its design.
With an intention to achieve the higher standards of LEED-EBOM Gold, Merritt incorporated a number of eco-friendly strategies, resulting in minimised environmental impact. These include water-efficient restroom fixtures; HVAC retro-commissioning; weather-driven irrigation system with water-efficient sprinkler heads; low- to no-VOC materials specified for interior build-outs to reduce the possibility of indoor air pollutants; green housekeeping; and single-stream recycling dumpsters.
The LEED-EBOM rating system addresses all levels of a building’s operation, such as exterior building site management programs, water and energy use, environmentally preferred products and practices for cleaning and alterations, sustainable purchasing policies, waste stream management and ongoing indoor environmental quality.
The 93,000 square feet Class A building was named Suburban Office Park of the Year in 2001 by the Building Owners & Managers Association (BOMA).
Merritt specialises in green construction and also focuses on ensuring that its existing properties are energy-efficient. The company had already achieved an Energy Star rating of 80 for the building without renovations, placing it in the top 25% of energy-efficient buildings in the US. Despite its age, the building was already using 40% less energy than similar buildings and releasing about 35% less carbon dioxide.
