riumph Structures Long Island has been awarded LEED Silver certification. The LEED rating system, developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), is the foremost program for buildings, homes and communities that are designed, constructed, maintained and operated for improved environmental and human health performance.
“The green building movement offers an unprecedented opportunity to respond to the most-important challenges of our time, including global climate change, dependence on non-sustainable and expensive sources of energy and threats to human health,” said Rick Fedrizzi, president, CEO & founding chair, USGBC. “The work of innovative building projects such as Triumph Group 689 Assembly Facility is a fundamental driving force in the green building movement.”
LEED certification distinguishes building projects that have demonstrated a commitment to sustainability by meeting the highest performance standards. “LEED ratings were always part of the consideration,” said Jimmy Carchietta LEED AP, CEO with The Cotocon Group, the project’s LEED consultant. “As we moved forward, we realized we had accumulated enough points to make Silver a reachable goal.”
“With good management, these measures offset a lot of costs,” Carchietta said. “The LEED process requires expending some funds for administration, guiding measures for reduced cost of ownership and there is a tremendous increase in NOI, and it’s a great accomplishment.”
“This building project represents a milestone in the development of Triumph Structures Long Island,” said president Lenny Gross, “and visibly demonstrates Triumph Group, Inc. as a global leader in supplying and overhauling aerospace systems and components. Operating in 58 locations, Triumph designs, engineers and is committed to sustainable building practices and energy efficiency.”
One such cost-saving effort included coordinating the design of the electrical, air conditioning, heating, and building envelope systems to make the facility 30% more energy-efficient than a normal building would be. Other features included elements aimed at reducing water usage by 20%, locating the building in a prime location to maximize use of mass transit, committing the project to recycling at least 50% of the construction waste, and purchasing at least 20% of the building materials locally.
Triumph Group 689 Assembly Facility achieved LEED Silver certification for implementing practical and measurable strategies and solutions aimed at achieving high performance in: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection and indoor environmental quality. During the design phase, the design team and the construction management team began identifying cost-effective measures that earned the project the requisite point totals.
“With each new LEED-certified building, we get one step closer to USGBC’s vision of a sustainable built environment within a generation,” said Fedrizzi. “As the newest member of the LEED family of green buildings, Triumph Group 689 is an important addition to the growing strength of the green building movement.”
LEED is the foremost program for the design, construction and operation of green buildings. Over 44,000 projects are currently participating in the commercial and institutional LEED rating systems, comprising over 8 billion square feet of construction space in all 50 states and 120 countries.