LS&Co. Unzipped
Jan 11 2013
Greenest Office Building? Meet a Green Remodel.
About the only time a composting toilet ever crosses my mind is when I stumble upon one at, say, a national park.
So when I read about a new Seattle office building, the Bullitt Center, that features not only composting toilets, but also has all its water needs met solely by rainwater, it caught my attention.
If "the greenest new office building in the world" (pictured above) sounds the least bit interesting to you, check out reporter Ariel Schwartz’s post today on Fast Company’s co.exist blog.
Given the building’s Seattle location, capturing rainwater for all its water use makes perfect sense. After all, the city is known for its abundant “liquid sunshine.” But the six-story Seattle building is also 100% solar powered. Did I mention it’s in Seattle?
The Bullitt Center is very interesting to me, in part, because of what I do and where I work. I was on the team that oversaw the design and construction of the green remodel of our Levi Strauss & Co. headquarters building here in San Francisco.
Last year, the U.S. Green Building Council awarded LEED Gold Certification to our building, recognizing the structure’s high performance in multiple areas of green design and energy use.
It’s a significant accomplishment to achieve this gold rating, particularly because it was for a building renovation. We weren’t starting from scratch, but were working with existing mechanical systems, building design and windows.
We may not have composting toilets (yet!), but we installed energy efficient lighting, motion sensored light switches, low-flow toilets and faucets and upgraded components of the mechanical systems that ultimately resulted in a 42% reduction in water usage, 37% lower in electricity consumption and 70% lower in natural gas usage. We also have the equivalent of about 25,500 pairs of jeans in the building’s walls, in the form of recycled denim insulation!
It shouldn’t be surprising that we take this kind of thing seriously, across our fleet. In fact, we’re working to build sustainability into everything we do. This month, you’ll find a new line of Levi’s® jeans in stores made, in part, from recycled plastic bottles and food trays. We even expanded our bicycle storage room to make it easier for our San Francisco employees to leave their cars at home and ride their bikes to work.
I invite you to check out our building on your next trip to San Francisco. Learn more here.
When planning my next trip to Seattle, I’ll add “check out the Bullitt Center” toward the top of my to-do list, right under “pack raincoat.” But the 100% solar-powered thing still throws me. Should I also bring sunblock?
Top image: Miller Hull Partnership; Homepage image: John Stamets
Posted By: Calvin Lam, Senior Director, Finance, Levi Strauss & Co. |
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