Materials for LL Bean's new data center were sourced locally, including the structure's distinctive New England-style shingles, which were made from wood harvested within a 500-mile radius, using sustainable forestry practices.
(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — As part of its commitment to building all its new structures according to the US Green Building Council’s (www.usgbc.org) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design guidelines, L.L.Bean’s (www.llbean.com) latest Data Center in Freeport, Maine has become the first LEED Silver certified data center in New England.
According to its Monday announcement, iconic US clothing and outdoor equipment store had Boston architecture and engineering firm Integrated Design Group (www.idgroupae.com) design and engineer the 18,000-square-foot facility, located near the site of L.L.Bean’s current headquarters and original store, which Leon Leonwood Bean opened in 1912.
“Designing a LEED built data center is an enormous feat. Data centers are industrial buildings that don’t fit easily into the LEED concept,” L.L.Bean information infrastructure director Stafford Soule said in a statement. “idGroup was able to create a concept and design that incorporated our technical and environmental criteria.”
The USGBC’s LEED program is a voluntary rating system designed to encourage companies to build environmentally sustainable, high-performance buildings. According to the USGBC, building operations account for nearly 40 percent of the solution to the global climate change challenge. Taking the specific data center design considerations into account, the USGBC has recently announced plans to update LEED to provide a more accurate reflection of their energy efficiency.
From its initial a conceptual design, the idGroup’s design evolved to suit L.L.Bean, meeting the criteria of both LEED Silver and the American Society of Heating Air Conditioning Engineering (www.ashrae.org), adding some local touches along the way. Along with minimizing environmental disturbance and recycling half of all construction waste, materials were sourced locally, including the structure’s distinctive New England-style shingles, which were made from wood harvested within a 500-mile radius, using sustainable forestry practices.
L.L.Bean is the latest corporation to earn a LEED certification for its data center. In April, a 230,000-square-foot Frankfurt data center, owned by financial services company Citi (www.citigroup.com), became the first to earn a LEED Platinum rating.
