American Honda certifies five green buildings

American Honda Motor Co., Inc. has certified five new green buildings under the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards this year as part of an effort to further reduce the environmental impact of Honda’s operations and products in the United States. One of these facilities – Honda’s Data Center in Longmont, Colorado – is the first LEED Version 2.2 Silver certified data center in the country. Data centers are considered difficult to certify because of their large energy consumption.

Honda’s five LEED-certified facilities this year include:

• LEED-EB Platinum – Northwest Regional Facility in Gresham, Oregon;
• LEED-NC Gold – Honda R&D America’s Acura Design Studio in Torrance, California;
• LEED-NC Gold – American Honda’s Midwestern Consolidation Center in Troy, Ohio;
• LEED-NC Gold – Honda Aircraft Company World Headquarters, Greensboro, North Carolina and,
• LEED-NC Silver – Data Center in Longmont, Colorado.

Among many site-specific efficiencies and innovations, these new facilities share common sustainable features such as:

• Energy Star highly reflective roof and dual-paned windows with low-emissivity glass to reduce solar heat gain.
• Extensive use of recycled and recyclable materials in the building envelope and interior.
• Use of United States steel, guaranteed to contain at minimum 25 percent, and often as much as 90 percent, recycled content.
• Energy-efficient light fixtures with motion sensors.
• Diversion of construction waste from landfills to recycling centers.
• Selection of suppliers based on the high level of recycled content of their products and their proximity to the job site.

A few of the unique features at Honda’s newly certified buildings include the Acura Design Studio’s high-efficiency displacement ventilation system that moves cool air from rooftop air conditioning units to large, floor-level grills, where it displaces heat from the human body. The 547,000 square-foot Midwestern Consolidation Center has a mezzanine made from wood certified by the Forest Stewardship Council as having come from sustainably-managed forest lands. And, the Honda R&D Central Plant uses an ice chiller system that reduces peak energy demand from air conditioning by as much as half.