Amazon has transformed the way many Americans receive do their shopping. Now the delivery behemoth might be influencing how commercial and institutional buildings are designed in the future.
Amazon opened a second corporate headquarters in Arlington County, Virginia in June. The site contains two 22-story glass-paneled towers consisting of 2.1 million square feet of office space situated next to a 2.5-acre public park.
How Amazon transformed the site caught the attention of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), which manages the Leadership in Energy Environmental Design (LEED) program, considered the most widely used green building rating system with more than 105,000 buildings LEED certified.
Energy News profiled the opening of Amazon’s new headquarters, named HQ2 or Metropolitan Park, which is powered 100 percent by renewable energy and is seeking LEED platinum certification.
The site has grabbed the attention of LEED officials, who told Energy News that some of the concepts at HQ2, especially innovations with concrete, will be adopted when USGBC releases an update to LEED scorecards next year.
“When you get a large, high-profile project like an Amazon, which jumps through hoops to innovate, it transforms the market,” Wes Sullens, LEED director at USGBC, told Energy News. “This is an anchor project that can move mountains.”
One area where the HQ2 project stands out is in the use of concrete. Amazon’s construction contract specified that the carbon footprint of concrete use be 20 percent below industry baseline. The final specifications nearly doubled that goal at 37 percent.
Dave Lubach is the executive editor of the facilities market.
