We recently read a great piece at Sustainable Industries about LEED for renters. This is one of the first (if not the very first) time we’ve heard of a tenant successfully, and economically, implementing enough LEED-qualifying changes to a facility to earn a rating.
In this case the tenant is Adobe, and according to the article they utilized their flash software to do some pretty great monitoring of their 165,000 sq. ft. facility. We’re assuming that the certification they received was for Existing Buildings, but what we think is most interesting is the simple math Adobe did that led them to pursue a LEED rating.
Simply put, they looked at the length of their lease (10 years) and looked around the building for energy-saving opportunities. In the article, a spokesperson for Adobe noted that having a long lease and being the only occupants of the building made making improvements much easier, so it is worth keeping these two factors in mind. But, ultimately the payback is quite good, as Adobe has reduced its electricity use in this building by 18% over the first two years.
Photo via Sustainable Industries/Adobe
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