2020 chrysalis
Award Winners
In 2020 year, the awards listed below were available for application by the USGBC-Georgia community. Projects were required to be located in Georgia, and where certification was required, projects were to have been awarded certification between January 1, 2019 and December 31, 2019.
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EXISTING BUILDING TRANSFORMATION
WINNER - Hines - 1180 Peachtree Street
Notable Application Excerpts
An iconic, sustainable and innovative high-rise building known as 1180 Peachtree stands 41 stories tall in Midtown Atlanta, Georgia. This building has been certified Platinum for LEED EB: O+M based off the Hines Volume Prototype in 2019, and several other LEED re-certifications previously. 1180 Peachtree demonstrates what it means to be a green building as it has also earned an Energy Star score of 96/100 back in 2018.
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The building consists of two roofs: a green roof filled with vegetation and another white roof. The combination of both significantly reduces the building’s heat island effect. The green roof is able to capture rainwater by using a cistern that provides irrigation towards its plant life, and helps 1180 Peachtree reduce its potable water use for landscaping by 76%.
The building also boasts a high recycling diversion rate at 51%, as occupants have free access to recycling programs which helped them gather over 2,000 pounds of e-waste during the LEED performance period. The building’s occupants have been a major factor in reducing 1180 Peachtree’s carbon footprint. Its location in midtown Atlanta near MARTA showed that 42% of building occupants consistently use forms of alternative transportation, such as public transportation, walking, biking, carpooling and driving low-emitting green vehicles.
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Since constructing the building in 2006, 1180 Peachtree has been ahead of its time by focusing on sustainability and taking green initiatives to a new level. Hines has done an amazing job managing and designing 1180 Peachtree.
Project Team
Sustainable Investment Group was engaged early as a third-party group to provide the central LEED consulting and engineering effort along with the integrated team of the property manager, building engineering staff, and vendors.​
Address
1180 Peachtree Street NE
Atlanta, GA 30309
Certification
Platinum (under the Hines LEED v2009 EB: O+M Volume Prototype)
FTE
1,764
Daily Visitors
200

Size
130,000 SF
NEW CONSTRUCTION TRANSFORMATION
WINNER - Mundo Verde Bilingual Public Charter School
WINNER - Interface Base Camp Headquarters
Project Team
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Interface ​
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Integral Consulting ​Engineering ​
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Parkside Partners ​
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JLL ​
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MSTSD ​
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Perkins+Will ​
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Integra Construction ​​
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Choate Construction ​​
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Bennett & Pless ​​
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WorkingBuildings ​​
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McKenney’s ​​
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Inglett & Stubbs
Size
Certification
40,000 SF
LEED Platinum
WELL Gold
FTE
150
Daily Visitors
30
Notable Application Excerpts

Address
1280 W. Peachtree Street, NW, Atlanta, GA 30309
Interface Headquarters, known as "Base Camp" to employees, is an ambitious tribute to sustainability and biophilic design features. The building provides a holistically healthy, positive and productive workplace that benefits both employees and guests. Achieving both LEED Platinum and Well Gold certification, Interface’s Base Camp is setting the standard for future workplaces.
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The building facade is wrapped with a recyclable, energy efficient wrap of a forest that mimics local ecosystems, provides natural light, and reduces energy consumption. Building also houses a 15,000 gallon cistern for flush fixtures. The challenge was to cost-effectively reactivate a circa-1950's office building with 11' slab-to-slab height, irregular structural systems, and outdated MEP infrastructure, overcome by early-stage studies and multiple evaluation strategies. Project team and owner collaborated on indoor environment, energy conservation, and water efficiency through early-stage modeling and evaluation of multiple strategies, resulting in decisions that offset costs introduced innovative features and techniques.
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The building is an example for future workplaces to create positive, restorative spaces that prioritizes the well-being of employees and the community. Recycled / donated building materials resulted in 93% total waste diversion. Re-purposing a building rather than construct new reduced the impact of embodied carbon in building materials. Every aspect of the building design is collaborative with nature. The building offers water and air filtration systems, treated drinking water, a layout that promotes movement, quick access to outdoors, and wellness and restorative rooms.
COMMUNITY IMPACT
Project Team
Address
Size
130,000 SF
Certification
FTE
1,764
200
WINNER - Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport
Notable Application Excerpts
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport is the busiest and most efficient airport in the world. Additionally, it is the largest economic driver and one of the largest employers in the state of Georgia. The airport has prioritized sustainability within its $6 billion capital improvement program, ATL NEXT, and has created a robust sustainability program to support those efforts. In addition to minimum certification standards in LEED, Parksmart and Envision, the airport has developed sustainability standards for all planning, design and construction, resulting in over 20 certified or registered projects. To track program successes and sustainability metrics campus-wide, the airport pursued LEED for Communities certification, subsequently becoming the first airport in the world to achieve certification.
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Today, airports around the world are beginning to pursue certification to benchmark sustainability and identify best practices in sustainable airport development and operation. Atlanta continues this effort pursuing re-certification under the new LEED for Communities v4.1 standard by incorporating these initiatives into the redevelopment of their Sustainable Management Plan.

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​Jeff Denno, Project Lead, CBRE HEERY
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Jorge Cortes, Project Owner, Director of Architecture, Director of Planning and Development Sustainability Program, Department of Aviation, ATL
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Jaimi Tapp, Project Stakeholder Director of Sustainability, Department of Avation, ATL
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Polly Sattler, Project Stakeholder Senior Sustainability Manager, Department of Aviation, ATL
1255 South Loop Road
College Park, GA 30337
LEED for Communities Platinum
Project Team
Address
Size
203,754,154 SF
Daily Visitors
Certification
FTE
63,000
286,011
Notable Application Excerpts
EMERGING LEADER
WINNER - Laura McComb
Notable Application Excerpts
Laura McComb works for AMLI Residential and is passionate about sustainable built environments. She is a LEED AP specializing in Homes, as well as a Fitwel Ambassador. McComb managed the Fitwel certification of AMLI Ponce Park, which was the first multifamily building to receive Fitwel certification in the southeast. She also enacted AMLI’s strategy to improve recycling areas throughout the portfolio, which raises the bar for sustainable waste disposal in multifamily buildings. McComb is currently co-chair of the board of USGBC – Atlanta’s Emerging Professionals. See more about Laura McComb.
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LEED AP, Homes
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Fitwel Ambassador
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Co-chair USGBC Georgia, Emerging Professionals
Accolades


LEGACY
WINNER - Will Harris
Notable Application Excerpts
Will Harris is fully committed to regenerative agriculture. As a 4th generation owner of his family farm, Harris transitioned from an industrial production system to one embracing good animal welfare and land stewardship. In establishing this radically traditional production system, he rebuilt the dying town of Bluffton, Georgia, which fell victim to the "brain drain" in the 1960's.
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Instead of continuing the family business of industrialized, centralized livestock production, he learned about a new way of farming—one that required a polycultural production system in which things coexisted and benefited from each other. In the last 15 years, Harris has constructed two on-farm, USDA processing plants, an on-farm restaurant, on-farm lodging, has tripled his farm's size, opened a General Store, bought 15 houses for farm managers at WOP, partnered with a solar company to build one of the first solar arrays to be managed by livestock, created 165 full-time jobs, and so much more. There is a lot of good work happening in Georgia, and those in Bluffton are blessed to see such good work happening in their back yard. See more about Will Harris.
Owner, White Oaks Pastures
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Radically Traditional Farming
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In 1995, transitioned from industrial agriculture techniques and began operating our farm as a living ecosystem
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Raise 10 species of humanely treated animals living in symbiotic relationships with each other
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Zero-Waste farm
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Employ 155+ good people who are eating, shopping and living in Bluffton


Accolades
CONNECT THE DOTS
WINNER - Mahitha Pothuri
Notable Application Excerpts
Mahitha Pothuri is a senior at Alliance Academy for Innovation and is the Founder and President of the Eco Club at her school. She is completing the EcoSchools Energy Systems Pathway and is passionate about renewable technology and the environment. During her free time, she volunteers for GreenCell, a local community environmental club.
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Pothuri presented her work earlier this year at the Connect the Dots Year End Showcase for Georgia and was voted Outstanding Project of the program. She led her club at the Alliance Academy for Innovation to switch from individually wrapped packages of utensils to dispensers, not only avoiding additional waste, but saving the school $1,500 a year. Pothuri presented this to the Forsyth County School District to consider the change for the other seven high schools, for an average annual savings of $4,550 for each school, over $30,000 total. See more about Mahitha Pothuri.

Senior, Alliance Academy for Innovation
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Founder and President Eco Club
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Working on Energy Systems Pathway
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GreenCell Volunteer
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Connect the Dots 2020 winner