CLEVELAND – In the music industry, a record is certified “gold” when a million copies are sold. In the building industry, a building is certified “green” when it meets the highest environmental design and energy efficiency standards.
KeyCorp’s (NYSE: KEY) 750,000-square-foot technology and operations campus in Brooklyn, Ohio (10 miles from downtown Cleveland), has earned such certification from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). The certification is reserved for buildings that have met tough standards for environmentally-conscious design, energy savings and indoor air quality. Key’s campus – built on Tiedeman Road between 1994 and 1996, includes two buildings and a parking garage, and houses over 2,000 employees.
The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) is a coalition of leaders from the building industry that promotes healthy, environmentally responsible and affordable commercial buildings. Its rating system is called LEED: “Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.”
“Green-certified buildings are a win for everybody,” says Ronald Keller, Key’s senior vice president, Corporate Real Estate. “Our employees are assured that their working environment is healthy. Green-certified buildings are less expensive to operate, which saves money for our shareholders. They use our planet’s energy reserves more efficiently, which conserves natural resources. And finally, being environmentally responsible is simply the right thing to do.”
Key’s campus earned points toward green certification in many ways. For example:
Other facilities that have achieved or are in the process of achieving such certification include Ford Motor Co.’s Rouge complex in Dearborn, Michigan; the Hearst Organization’s new headquarters building in New York City; a renovated century-old downtown building in Cleveland now known as the Cleveland Environmental Center and Oberlin College’s Adam Lewis Environmental Studies Center.
Key’s Brooklyn complex buildings aren’t the only ones benefiting from environmentally and energy-friendly changes. New KeyBank branches built around the U.S., will use many of the same “green” principles as the Tiedeman office campus, such as energy efficient lighting and HVAC (heating, ventilating and air conditioning) systems.
Johnson Controls, Inc., which manages Key facilities, assisted in the certification process. Based in Milwaukee, WI, Johnson Controls is a veteran of the LEED certification process. Its Bengal Technology Center in Milwaukee was one of the first 12 buildings in the world to receive LEED certification after the rating system was established in 2000. A majority of LEED-certified companies use Johnson Controls to consult and/or manage their sustainability efforts.
About Johnson Controls
Johnson Controls, Inc., (NYSE: JCI) is a global market leader in automotive systems and facilities management and control. In the automotive market, it is a major supplier of seating and interior systems, and batteries. For nonresidential facilities, Johnson Controls provides control systems and services including comfort, energy management and security management. Founded in 1885, it had total sales in 2004 of $26.6 billion. For more information on Johnson Controls, Inc., visit the company’s web site at www.johnsoncontrols.com.
About KeyCorp
Cleveland-based KeyCorp is one of the nation’s largest bank-based financial services companies, with assets of approximately $90 billion. Key companies provide investment management, retail and commercial banking, consumer finance, and investment banking products and services to individuals and companies throughout the United States and, for certain businesses, internationally.
Note to Editors: For up-to-date company information, media contacts and facts and figures about Key lines of business, visit our Media Newsroom at Key.com/newsroom.
Gary Cavano
KeyCorp
216.689.0517
[email protected]
