San Francisco's second office building to become LEED-EB Platinum certified

View The Orrick Building’s Case Study

A powerful blend of energy savings and operating expertise has resulted in the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) awarding a Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance (LEED-EB: O& M) Platinum certification to the Orrick Building in San Francisco. This is the second multi-tenanted commercial building in the city to receive the coveted USGBC LEED-EB Platinum certification.

The Orrick Building, a 10-story, 503,576 square foot structure located in the South of Market Financial District in Downtown San Francisco is owned by an affiliate of the General Electric Pension Trust, advised by GE Asset Management, in joint venture with The Ashforth Company.  Ashforth Pacific of California, LLC, a division of The Ashforth Company, oversees management and daily operations at the building. Major tenants include Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLC, Moody’s KMV, and BlackRock. 

“We are pleased that the Orrick Building has received the LEED-EB platinum certification and appreciate the Ashforth Pacific team’s effort in this significant accomplishment,” stated Scott Wandro, vice president and managing director of real estate for GE Asset Management. “This award reflects the spirit of GE’s global commitment to the environment.”

“Orrick’s senior property manager Blake Peterson and her team deserve to be highly commended for their extraordinary hard work towards completing this extremely vigorous certification process,” says Scott Langley, CEO of Ashforth Pacific. “This platinum certification, the highest level that can be achieved, along with numerous other awards and designations that properties in our portfolio have received, demonstrates our sustained commitment to environmental stewardship and social responsibility.”

The intent of LEED for EB: O&M is to certify the operations and maintenance of a building and create a plan for ensuring high performance over time. The rating system captures both a building’s physical systems (equipment, design, land use, etc.) and the way the building is occupied and operated by its managers (waste management, temperature monitoring, commuting programs, etc.).

“I am particularly proud of the superior teamwork of our management and engineering team that is able to provide for such a prestigious certification and allow us to document Ashforth’s high-level of commitment to sustainable operations and maintenance,” says Blake Peterson, Ashforth’s senior property manager for The Orrick Building.

Since the purchase of the Orrick Building in 2007, Ashforth has established numerous sustainability policies for the property, including standards for exterior building management, green cleaning, waste management and sustainable purchasing practice.  To maximize the building’s sustainability and meet the stringent certification requirements, Ashforth’s team accomplished a number of new projects in 2009. For example, the team:

• Established comprehensive green cleaning program which includes green chemicals, washable (non-disposable) microfiber cleaning materials, and environmentally favorable cleaning equipment.
• Established a trash sorting program with janitorial staff which hand separates compostable and recyclable items from the building trash stream.
• Orders light bulbs and supplies monthly to reduce quantity of deliveries. Established low/no mercury light bulb purchasing policy.
• Offers complimentary evening cab service for all building employees to nearest public transportation stations after dark and/or wet weather conditions to promote public transit use.
• Set policy to mulch plant waste and tree pruning on site as ground cover rather than dispose of.

BuildingWise and WSP Flack + Kurtz provided consulting services to help obtain the LEED certification.

The Orrick Building was also recently honored with the San Francisco Building Owners and Managers Association’s (BOMA) Earth Award, the Urban Land Institute’s (ULI) Awards for Excellence: The Americas competition and the San Francisco 24x7 Energy Challenge.