Port of Seattle Sustainability and Green Building Strategy

Description

The Port of Seattle’s key goal is to be the greenest Port in the country. To help accomplish this aggressive objective, Paladino created an overarching sustainability and green building strategy and implementation plan for the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (Sea-Tac). The strategy included a green building program that aligned sustainable design concepts and outcomes with broader organizational sustainability and carbon reduction goals, and provided prioritization criteria of projects for maximum impact.

Strategies

While the primary objective was to develop a green building program that aligned with the Port of Seattle’s broader sustainability goals, Paladino also recommended the development of an overarching sustainability framework. Many areas of Port operation impact green house gas emissions, and those would not be adequately reduced through building strategies alone. As a result, the sustainability platform included environmental indicators and benchmarks across all operational areas including air-side, land-side and terminal.  The framework then indicated areas of focus for building strategies that would most likely deliver green house gas reduction and other resource efficiencies the Port was seeking, including a strategic framework for LEED achievement and green building, and LEED tools for project managers.

Results

The outcome was a comprehensive sustainability platform which guided the Port in the integration of meaningful green building strategies that is now applied to new construction projects and other operational functions under SeaTac’s remit.