PepsiCo LEED Certification Improvement

• Mertt Daniel
• Jigar Gohel
• Jorge Rojas
• Donald Franch

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the carbon emissions around the world have increased by 90% since 1970 (epa.gov). In 1993, the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) was formed with the primary focus of “sustainable construction” by creating a certification system (usgbc.org). The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is a green building certification system that can be implemented to create healthy, environmentally friendly, and energy efficient buildings. The team will assess the LEED certification of the PEPSICO Chicago Headquarters building (555 W Monroe St, Chicago). The building achieved ‘Silver’ certification in 2008, under the LEED v3 version. According to the current version (LEED v4 2009), it would only achieve ‘certified’ the lowest tier in LEED certification. The goal of this project is to update the building’s LEED certificate to ‘Gold’ under the new certification system. The team will focus on improving categories such as sustainability, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, materials and resources, and indoor environmental quality. Each credit in these categories will be assessed in order to determine theoretical changes to be made to meet the requirements. The team will develop a plan to achieve gold in the most cost efficient way by focusing on the categories that cost the least to implement the changes. The improvement of the PepsiCo LEED certification will improve the environmental impact of the PepsiCo building as well as the quality of life for its occupants. The project will lead to a greater interest for sustainable construction in Chicago, as well as demonstrate the benefits of building LEED certified buildings.