ACS Building Is So Green It's Gold

Earlier this month, the ACS Facilities Department announced that the society’s headquarters—the Clifford & Kathryn Hach Building, in Washington, D.C.—has achieved Gold Certification in the Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design, Existing Building: Operations & Maintenance (LEED-EB: O&M) program, sponsored by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). The Hach Building is only the second building in the District of Columbia to achieve LEED-EB: O&M Gold Certification and it is one of 40 buildings in the entire country to achieve this status.

“By achieving this certification, ACS has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to the environment, which supports the sustainability goal set forth by the ACS Board of Directors,” says Joanna Brosnan, head of ACS facilities.

USGBC is the nation’s leading nonprofit authority for green buildings and its certification is the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction, and operation of high-performance green buildings, Brosnan explains.

The intent of LEED-EB: O&M is to provide third-party verification that a building or community was designed and built using strategies aimed at improving performance across the metrics that matter most: energy savings, water efficiency, carbon dioxide emissions reduction, improved indoor environmental quality, and stewardship of resources and sensitivity to their impacts.