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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

Project that has driven transformational innovation within the existing building market. Projects recognized should be performers of the USGBC’s Existing Building Operations and Maintenance rating system or an early adopter of the Arc management program. 

EB TRANSFORMATION
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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. 

 

See the project team.

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

The Hines.png
Size

130,000 SF

NC TRANS

NEW CONSTRUCTION TRANSFORMATION

WINNER - Mundo Verde Bilingual Public Charter School 

WINNER - Interface Base Camp Headquarters

Project Team
  • Interface ​

  • Integral Consulting ​Engineering ​

  • Parkside Partners ​

  • JLL ​

  • MSTSD ​

  • Perkins+Will ​

  • Integra Construction ​​

  • Choate Construction ​​

  • Bennett & Pless ​​

  • WorkingBuildings ​​

  • McKenney’s ​​

  • Inglett & Stubbs

Size
Certification

40,000 SF

LEED Platinum

WELL Gold

FTE

150

Daily Visitors

30

Notable Application Excerpts
Interface Base Camp.png
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.

 

See the project team.

Community Impact

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.

A view of a building  Description automa
  • ​Jeff Denno, Project Lead, CBRE HEERY

  • Jorge Cortes, Project Owner, Director of Architecture, Director of Planning and Development Sustainability Program, Department of Aviation, ATL

  • Jaimi Tapp, Project Stakeholder Director of Sustainability, Department of Avation, ATL

  • 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

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.

  • LEED AP, Homes

  • Fitwel Ambassador

  • Co-chair USGBC Georgia, Emerging Professionals

Accolades
Legacy
Laura McComb.png

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
  • Radically Traditional Farming

  • In 1995, transitioned from industrial agriculture techniques and began operating our farm as a living ecosystem

  • Raise 10 species of humanely treated animals living in symbiotic relationships with each other

  • Zero-Waste farm

  • Employ 155+ good people who are eating, shopping and living in Bluffton

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Accolades
Connect the Dots

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.

Mahitha Pothuri.jpg

Senior, Alliance Academy for Innovation

  • Founder and President Eco Club

  • Working on Energy Systems Pathway

  • GreenCell Volunteer

  • Connect the Dots 2020 winner

Accolades
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