The BCEC Achieves LEED Silver Certification

Earlier this year, the BCEC was certified LEED Silver by the U.S. Green Building Council. The BCEC is now one of the largest buildings in New England, and only amongst a handful of convention centers internationally, with the LEED certification.

LEED, which stands for “Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design”, is an internationally adopted “green building” rating system, which evaluates a building’s environmental footprint in terms of its resource consumption, waste management practices, and overall operational efficiency. The certification is notable because, at 1.8 million square feet, it is a challenge to meet the energy performance and ventilation standards required by LEED in a sprawling space such as the BCEC.

Led by Vanderweil Engineers, in partnership with Simpson Gumpertz & Heger (SGH), “the certification evaluated the current building operations: mechanical, electrical, and plumbing components as well as purchasing, site management, waste management, energy usage, and general housekeeping. Beyond LEED®, an Energy Audit was performed and provided several Energy Conservation Measures that the facility implemented for cost and energy savings.”

Some of the other industry-leading green practices that the BCEC utilizes include:

• The BCEC and Hynes annually recycle over 1,000 combined tons of material, including cardboard, plastic, paper, glass, and food waste.
• In 2015, we sent 526,000 pounds of food waste to local farms to be composted into fertilizer.
• Our power consumption is minimized through sensor-controlled, high-efficiency lighting, automatically cutting energy use in non-occupied spaces.
• Event planners and exhibitors are encourage to recycle through our Conventions C.A.R.E program, in which unused, clean, non-perishable items are collected at the end of an event and donated to local community organizers.

Learn more about green building practices at the BCEC.