Fifth Third Bank has declared the opening of its first green banking center in Orange County, Fla. The Sodo Banking Center situated at South Orange Avenue and East Grant Street will provide all the financial products and services offered by Fifth Third Bank and serve the clients located in South Orlando and downtown.
The new facility is planning to achieve LEED Gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.
The green banking center, which is designed to consume reduced level of energy and water than the other standard buildings integrates a number of eco-friendly and advanced features. Some of the eco-friendly features incorporated in the building includes improved HVAC system and increased level of insulation to cut down the energy use by 18%. The building has water conserving bathroom and kitchen facilities to reduce the water consumption within the building by 30% and the installed micro-irrigation system and use of drought tolerant plants will bring down its irrigation water usage by 50%.
The building sourced nearly 34% of its construction materials from places within 500 miles range to support the local economy and to cut down the transport related emissions. For the purpose of improving the air quality within the building it installed adequate ventilation and thermal controls. To cut down the use of volatile organic compounds only low-emitting paints, materials and carpets were used within the building. It recycled nearly 84% of the construction materials thus preventing them from reaching the landfill. Lastly, it purchased renewable energy credits to achieve 100% of its energy usage from clean energy sources.
The green banking center project was designed by ms Consultants and supervised by CB Richard Ellis while Heinkel, Griffin and Rufrano (HGR) Construction served as contractor for the construction.
Source: http://www.53.com