LEED CERTIFIED CORE & SHELL

The Douglas Park Block 2, a 9.89-acre office park in Long Beach, California, designed by commercial design firm Ware Malcomb, has received LEED Core and Shell (CS) Certification from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC).

The Douglas Park Block 2 comprises three single-story and six two-story buildings totaling 168,052 square feet, ranging in size from 5,057 to 38,563 square feet. California-headquartered Ware Malcomb, who provided planning, architectural, and LEED design services for the project, has integrated LEED elements such as native landscaping, recycled water irrigation, reduced heat island effects through cool roofs, reduced heat gain through glazing shading elements and increased insulation, day lighting controls and reduced flow plumbing and fixtures.

The office park was developed by Newcastle Partners, Inc., headquartered in San Francisco. California-based Millie & Severson served as the general contractor for the project.

Consider the business reasons for a tenant to "go green":

• The 2007 "Harvard Business Review on Green Business Strategy" summarized a number of studies that found that companies that operate in LEED Certified green spaces have experienced an increase in employee productivity ranging from 2% to 15%.
• There are about 40 employees per 10,000 sf of office space. If each employee costs $50,000, that's $2,000,000 in employee cost per year. A 5% increase in employee productivity translates into a value of $100,000.
• Just a 5% productivity increase then equates to a value of $10/sf annually ($0.83/sf per month).
• If employee productivity were to increase by 15%, that would equate to $300,000 in employee productivity value and $2.50/sf in real estate value per month.
• Toyota reported higher retention, increases in employee productivity, and a 14% drop in absenteeism due to their LEED platinum facility in Torrance.