MINNEAPOLIS—Carlson, a privately held, global hospitality and travel company, announced that its world headquarters earned the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) LEED Silver level certification for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance (LEED EB O&M) certification. LEED is the nation’s preeminent program for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings.
Carlson is the 40th LEED EB certified property in Minnesota; of which, two are rated Platinum, 15 are rated Gold, 11 are rated Silver (including 701 Tower) and 12 are rated Certified. The project was completed in 11 months and was a joint effort by several departments within Carlson: Facilities Planning & Design, Building Services, Information Technology, Procurement, Bon Appétit, Media Technologies, and CBRE’s Sustainability Programs Group who partnered with Carlson throughout the project.
“This certification is the result of a lot of hard work and the collective dedication of the project team over the past 11 months and now it is up to all of us to sustain it,” said Brad Lis, chair of the project and vice president of Real Estate & Administrative Services, Carlson.
The building achieved LEED certification for operational best practices and superior environmental performance, including: a perfect score of 48 LEED credit points; an Energy Star score of 87 placing the property in the top 15 percent of all comparable buildings nationwide; implementation of an interior pest management program to reduce toxicity of pesticides; replacement of all high-flow restroom fixtures with water-saving models; Energy Star-rated IT equipment; and sustainable food purchases through the Farm-to-Fork program initiated by the building café’s service provider, Bon Appétit .
“The green building movement offers an unprecedented opportunity to respond to the most important challenges of our time, including global climate change, dependence on non-sustainable and expensive sources of energy and threats to human health,” said Rick Fedrizzi, president, chief executive officer and founding chair, U.S. Green Building Council. “The work of innovative building projects such as Carlson’s World Headquarters 701 Tower is a fundamental driving force in the green building movement.”
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