American Chemical Society earns distinctive Gold LEED® Certification sponsored by the U.S. Green Building Council

WASHINGTON, October 1, 2009, –– The American Chemical Society’s headquarters, the Hach Building, has received a prestigious Gold Certification from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) as a high performance green building. The award was bestowed through USGBC’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, Existing Building: Operations and Maintenance (LEED-EB O&M) program. ACS is only the second such building in Washington, DC, and one of just 40 in the entire country to receive this honor in this program category. The USGBC is the nation’s leading non-profit authority for green buildings, and is the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction, and operation of high performance green buildings.

The LEED® program provides third-party verification that a building or community was designed and built using strategies to improve energy savings, water efficiency, CO₂ emissions reduction, indoor environmental quality, stewardship of resources and sensitivity to their impacts.

By achieving this certification ACS has demonstrated its unwavering commitment to the environment, and its strong support of the sustainability goal set forth by the ACS Board of Directors.

In receiving Gold certification, the Society was recognized for several sustainable design elements and practices, including:

- Recycling 92 percent of waste leaving the building.

- Recycling 100 percent of the durable goods that leave the building (i.e. computers, cell phones).

- A U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Energy Star Rating of 87 out of 100.

- 100 percent Renewable Energy Credits (RECs).

- Alternative commuting options for employees, such as flexible work arrangements and transportation subsidies.

Madeleine Jacobs, Executive Director and CEO, said, "Sustainability ––- and green chemistry –– are key to our strategic plan, and more importantly, to the well being of our people and our planet.  It makes me very happy and proud of the resourcefulness of our employees that ACS can be both a highly effective organization while also being green in all of its operations."

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