by jbs042110 g3 — April 23, 2010—Comcast’s new zero-carbon Sonoma County Operations Center received the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Platinum certification, the top honor available, from the U.S. Green Building Council. The 35,000-square-foot Operations Center is the first Platinum LEED-certified facility for Comcast.
Codding, a real estate developer, contractor and investor in green building products, managed and built the project in its award-winning Sonoma Mountain Village, where Codding plans to create a complete neighborhood with jobs and housing within an easy walk of daily needs. The Village is a 200-acre redevelopment of a former Agilent technology campus.
The Center reportedly generates no greenhouse gases at all from building energy and uses just 46 percent of the water for a typical new office building. Some of the sustainable design features of the property include:
- 98 percent of all construction waste recycled;
- Advanced lighting uses 35 percent less energy than a typical new office;
- 100 percent solar powered;
- Sustainably harvested woods for doors, lockers and finishes;
- Advanced air filtration with 30 percent more fresh air than typical;
- Green janitorial service;
- Bicycle storage, showers and changing rooms; and
- Salvaged and local materials.
A new set of guidelines will help wind power developers assess the environmental impact of their projects.
