Executive Housekeeping Today - April 2008 - (Page 14)

Washington Nationals Stadium: Striving for LEED Certification by Laura M. DiGiulio, Editor *Photo courtesy of HOK/Devrouax + Purnell a At the risk of sounding repetitive, the Green movement is everywhere these days—and many facilities are choosing to participate in the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System™ in order to prove their sustainability and show just how much they care about our environment. According to Ashley Katz, Communications Coordinator for the USGBC, since the LEED rating system was first launched in 2000, there have been 1,325 buildings certified, and there are currently 10,309 registered projects, or projects in the pipeline. In addition, LEED projects are happening in 41 different countries around the globe. The environmental and financial benefits gained from becoming LEED certified are enough to make any building owner want to participate. These benefits include lower operating costs, reduced waste, energy and water conservation, healthier indoor air quality, and reduced gas emissions, just to name a few. But, while hotels, hospitals, and large office buildings are the types of facilities that are immediately thought of when discussing LEED certification, there is one area that is just beginning to realize the benefits of Green design—sports stadiums. And Nationals Park, the Washington Nationals baseball team’s stadium, located in Washington, D.C., has built a new 1,100,000 gross square foot, 41,222-seat “Green” stadium for their 2008 baseball season, a project that cost around $311,000,000—and is expected to be the first LEED-certified Major League stadium in the United States. “Although we are not yet officially LEED certified, we are striving for certification and are very proud that our new ballpark will be environmentally-friendly,” says Chartese Burnett, VP of Com- munications for the Washington Nationals. “Nationals Park is a first-class facility, with first-class amenities.” Steps Towards Sustainability The following are steps that Nationals Park has taken towards becoming the most sustainable Major League ballpark in the country: • Site Remediation: The new ballpark can be categorized as a brownfield redevelopment site, meaning that it was built on land that was previously contaminated by low levels of hazardous waste or pollution, and cleaned up to be reused. The site is also enrolled in the Environmental Protection Agency’s Voluntary Clean Up Program, an on-going remediation effort that will leave the 25-acre site a better environment than it was received. • Stormwater Management: Since the stadium is built at the base of the Anacostia River, an (continued on page 18) 4 Executive Housekeeping Today/April 2008

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Executive Housekeeping Today - April 2008

Executive Housekeeping Today - April 2008 Contents Executive Corner Green Certification Issues The Green Benefit from the Roof Down Frugal Housekeeper LEED for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance Greening with Mats A Greener Approach to Laundry Feature Article 2008 Candidate Information The Green Scene 2008 Convention Information Get Into the "O-Zone" Product Highlights CEH/REH Members New Members Joint IEHA/ISSA Members Advertisers' Index Calendar of Events Inside I.E.H.A. What I.E.H.A. Has Done For Me

Executive Housekeeping Today - April 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.