Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is a rating system devised by the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) to evaluate the environmental performance of buildings and encourage architecture, engineering, and construction industry transformation towards sustainable design.
LEED certification can apply to a variety of categories:
- Building Design and Construction
- Interior Design and Construction
- Building Operations and Maintenance
- Neighborhood Development
- Homes
Back in 2009, the second floor of our Autodesk One Market office achieved platinum certification for Interior Design and Construction:
The Autodesk Gallery at One Market in San Francisco and our renovated office space are located in the historic Landmark Building. At the time, the Autodesk offices were one of only four Platinum-certified projects in San Francisco, and second in the state of California under the commercial interiors rating (the other was the Energy Foundation).
Here are the things our project earned points for to achieve a platinum certification:
- Heat Island Reduction, Nonroof
- Water Use Reduction, 20%
- Other Quantifiable Environment Performance
- Development Density and Community Connectivity
- Public Transportation Access
- Parking Availability
- Water Use Reduction, 20% Reduction in Tenant Water Use
- Water Use Reduction, 30% Reduction in Tenant Water Use
- Fundamental Building Systems Commissioning
- Minimum Energy Performance
- CFC Reduction in Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration (HVAC&R) Equipment
- Optimize Energy Performance: Lighting Power
- Optimize Energy Performance: Lighting Controls
- Optimize Energy Performance: HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning)
- Optimize Energy Performance: Equipment and Appliances
- Enhanced Commissioning
- Measurement and Payment Accountability: Submetering
- Green Power
- Storage and Collection of Recyclables
- Construction Waste Management, Divert 50% from Landfill
- Construction Waste Management, Divert 75% from Landfill
- Resource Reuse, 30% Furniture and Furnishings
- Recycled Content, 10% (postconsumer + preconsumer)
- Recycled Content, 20% (postconsumer + preconsumer)
- Regional Materials, 20% Manufactured Regionally
- Certified Wood, 50%
- Minimum Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) Performance
- Environmental Tobacco Smoke (ETS) Control
- Outside Air Delivery Monitoring
- Increased Ventilation
- Construction Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) Management Plan, During Construction
- Construction Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) Management Plan, After Construction/Before Occupancy
- Low-Emitting Materials: Adhesives and Sealants
- Low-Emitting Materials: Paints and Coatings
- Low-Emitting Materials: Carpet Systems
- Low-Emitting Materials: Composite Wood and Agrifiber Products
- Low-Emitting Materials: Systems Furniture and Seating
- Indoor Chemical and Pollutant Source Control
- Controllability of Systems: Lighting
- Controllability of Systems: Thermal and Ventilation
- Thermal Comfort, Compliance
- Thermal Comfort, Monitoring Systems
- Daylight and Views, Views for 90% of Seated Spaces
- Innovation in Design: Green Education
- Innovation in Design: Green Cleaning
- Innovation in Design: Exemplary Performance Green Power
- Innovation in Design: Exemplary Performance Water Efficient Landscaping (WEcti), 40%
- LEED Accredited Professional
It was a team effort. Design firms Anderson Anderson Architecture, HOK, general contracting firm DPR Construction, and the Hanson Bridgett law firm worked with Autodesk to renovate the space. Using the Autodesk Revit platform for building information modeling (BIM), the integrated team was able to exchange highly accurate project data very early in the design process and optimize the sustainable design elements in the building, such as natural daylight, and using recycled content.
Today, LEED makes a checklist (available as a spreadsheet) available to help guide teams in their LEED efforts:
By fulfilling credits, a project earns points that determine its certification level:
Certified | 40-49 points | |
Silver | 50-59 points | |
Gold | 60-79 points | |
Platinum | 80+ points |
The spreadsheet does the math to track a project's progress towards these totals.
If you visit the USGBC project page, you can set the filters and see that today, there are 935 platinum projects in California. Autodesk has 12 platinum projects.
- Autodesk One McInnis, One McInnis Parkway
- Autodesk 3900 Office 1-3flrs (partial 1), 3900 Civic Center Drive
- Autodesk Beijing, 9/F, Tower A, Parkview Green
- Autodesk Mumbai 3F, Unit 306, The Capital
- Autodesk Pier 9 Office, Suite 116 At Pier 9, Embarcadero
- Autodesk Spear Tower 2nd Floor, One Market Plaza, Spear Tower
- Autodesk Steuart Tower 4th Floor, One Market Plaza
- Autodesk Steuart Tower 2nd-3rd Floor, One Market Plaza
- Autodesk Tel Aviv, Rothschild 22
- Autodesk Tel Aviv FL-14, 22 Rothschild Blvd.
- Autodesk Boston, 610 Lincoln Street
- Autodesk San Francisco, One Market Street
In addition to offices for employees, the LEED Platinum space includes the Autodesk Gallery at One Market, which showcases the work of Autodesk customers and illustrates the role of software in great design and the process that takes an idea and turns it into a reality. The Gallery highlights over 60 highly visual projects (see blog article). The Gallery is a location where designers can discuss the latest in technology and be inspired by others' work.
The Autodesk Gallery in San Francisco is open to the public on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm. There is a guided tour on Wednesdays at 12:30 pm and a self-guided audio tour available anytime. Admission is free. Visit us. I sometimes lead the tours.
Certification is alive in the lab.