The Canadian Green Building Council’s LEED program has awarded Gold certification for the Calgary campus headquarters of WestJet. The LEED is a rating program that rates the building, functioning and design of the green facility.
The LEED program focuses on main areas of the green buildings such as water efficiency, management and choosing of the site, selection of materials, energy saving, atmosphere protection, and quality of the indoor environment.
The WestJet campus is designed in such a way that the rainwater from the reflective roof of the building is collected and stored in a 265,000 l water tank and can be used for irrigating the surrounding trees and native species landscaping. The WestJet building is installed with high-efficiency water fixtures, which ensures it to use less than 42% of water. The ventilation, air conditioning and heating systems of the campus is constructed with recent technologies such as hybrid geothermal exchange system, which shows 50% greater efficiency compared to the traditional exchange systems resulting in saving of about 1,300 t greenhouse gases annually. The building’s carpets, furnishings and concretes are constructed using reclaimed and recycled materials and it is provided with various transportation facilities such as carpooling as well as locker rooms for cycles and bike racks.
Dennis Dowling, Director of Corporate Real Estate of WestJet, stated that the company is proud of the LEED gold certification. Dowling added that the company’s primary goal is to design, construct and operate a green home for its WestJetters which is in line with its corporate culture and values.
Source: http://www.westjet.com