New England Environmental Earns LEED Platinum Rating
From U.S. Green Building Council

Amherst, MA - New England Environmental, Inc. (NEE) announced today that its headquarters located at 15 Research Drive has received the highest rating offered by the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED rating system. Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is an internationally-recognized green building certification system. Developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) in March 2000, LEED provides building owners and operators with a framework for identifying and implementing practical and measurable green building design, construction, operations and maintenance solutions.

The building was designed by Kuhn Riddle Architects of Amherst, MA and constructed by Arrowwood Construction, also of Amherst.

NEE is only the fifth building in Massachusetts to receive a LEED NC (New Construction) Platinum rating. Over 23,000 buildings have been registered with USGBC since 2000; roughly 7800 have received some level of certification. There are 245 LEED NC Platinum buildings in the United States.

"NEE's Platinum certification is an expression of NEE's overall commitment to environmental responsibility" said Michael Marcus, President. "This beautiful building is also incredibly comfortable and energy efficient. We are delighted with the level of interest our building has generated and pleased to have given over 500 tours in the first year alone."

Sustainable Features

LEED measures building design and performance in five categories: Sustainable Sites, Water Efficiency, Energy & Atmosphere, Materials & Resources, and Indoor Environmental Quality.

Sustainable Sites

• Site selected has no environmentally sensitive areas

• Construction activity pollution plan implemented
• On two bus routes (Old Belchertown Road)
• Comprehensive transportation management plan provides incentives to carpool, bus, bike or walk
• Bike rack and shower
• Low impact development (LID) stormwater management system
• Porous asphalt
• Grass pavers for parking spaces
• Rain garden, bio-retention basin; bio-swale, and wet detention basin
• Zero increase in the volume of stormwater runoff
• Stormwater quality renovation with wetland vegetation
• Maximization of open space
• Native Massachusetts landscape plants
• Solar reflective roof shingles used to reduce heat-island effect
• Outdoor lighting with timers, and no off property light pollution

Water Efficiency

• Water saving devices include: waterless urinals; dual flush toilets; low volume faucets

• No artificial irrigation

Energy & Atmosphere

• South side roof of building is covered with photovoltaic system (PV). Pole mounted PV array in parking area. Total PV is 39,000kw,generating enough electricity to power most of our electric, heating and cooling needs

• 62.8% more energy efficient than the base case building design
• Walls are 12" thick (2x6 and 2x4 with a 2" gap) filled with 12" cellulose insulation (recycled material)
• Ceilings have 24" of cellulose insulation
• No CFC-based refrigerant management
• All lighting has occupancy sensors and key locations are self dimming
• High efficiency mini-split heating/cooling with individual office controls
• Increased ventilation
• High efficiency, double paned, operable windows, argon-filled glass
• Electric car charger power by solar array (to be installed in 2012)
• All of NEE's energy purchases are offset by REC's (renewable energy certificates)

Materials & Resources

• Recyclables storage and collection

• 82% of construction waste was diverted from landfill
• 18% combined recycled content value of total materials, including steel, sheetrock, concrete and flooring
• 44% locally manufactured or extracted materials (by value)
• 5% rapidly renewable materials (by value)
• Much of the wood in the building is FSC certified

Indoor Environmental Quality

• Smoke-free interior and exterior

• Ventilated at a rate 30% over what is required
• Indoor Air Quality Plan designed and implemented
• Low-emitting materials (adhesives, sealants, paints, coatings, carpets, composite wood products, etc)
• 90% of office spaces have day-lighting and outside views
• Individual offices have individual thermostats

Operations &Maintenance

• Non-toxic cleaning products

• Low maintenance landscaping
• Reusable dishes, drinkware and flatware
• Continuous feed cloth towels in rest rooms
• Single stream recycling

About NEE

New England Environmental, Inc.(NEE) is a full-service environmental consulting firm with extensive in-house expertise in environmental assessment, permitting, restoration, design, and management.

Since 1986, NEE staff have successfully managed natural resources and provided expert consulting services. We offer a diverse range of services, including environmental site assessment, wetland resource identification, planning, permitting, mitigation, restoration, remediation, bioengineering, and monitoring. NEE employs scientists with expertise and experience in: wetland science; landscape architecture; hydrology; bioengineering; soil science; botany; forestry; wildlife biology; fisheries biology; limnology; coastal and terrestrial ecology; geology; hydrogeology; &groundwater remediation.

For more information: Julie Marcus jmarcus@neeinc.com