LEED Silver Certification Awarded to Transcontinental Northern California Plant

For its environmentally conscious design and features, Transcontinental Northern California, which opened in July 2009 in Fremont, California, has been awarded LEED Silver certification for new construction by the U.S. Green Building Council. Transcontinental built the 338,000-square-foot printing plant to print the San Francisco Chronicle and related products under an exclusive 15-year contract with Hearst Corporation.

Transcontinental Northern California is one of the first printing plants in North America to be built to LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) standards in the United States. McCarthy Building Companies and Kwan Henmi Architecture/Planning oversaw construction of the green and highly energy efficient four-storey building. The use of recycled materials, purchase of locally manufactured supplies, selection of state-of-the-art equipment for highly efficient printing, thermal comfort, air quality and employee safety are all elements that helped earn the plant its Silver certification.

"It was of key importance for Transcontinental to build a plant that is environmentally friendly and meets and even exceeds standards," said François Olivier, President and Chief Executive Officer. "This certification proves that we were right to take this approach and that we are helping to move things forward in sustainability by setting an example and showing that it can be done. We knew we were making the right choices for today and for the future."

On the energy savings front, envelope performance and technologies (robotics and automated systems, etc.) employed throughout the building work together to reduce energy consumption by approximately 20%. Not only that, employees can commute to work using public transportation, while those who use alternative energy vehicles or carpool have preferred parking.

Transcontinental invested about US$230 million in the Transcontinental Northern California printing plant, which has a unique production model.

Source: http://www.transcontinental.com