Today at Greenbuild 2012, the world’s largest conference and expo dedicated to green, Adobe announced that its San Jose headquarters, as well as its San Francisco and Seattle buildings, have been re-certified for the second time as some of the greenest facilities in the world. Each building earned Platinum level-status under the LEED-EBOM (Leadership and Environmental Energy and Design – Existing Buildings: Operation and Maintenance) program of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC).

Adobe has been innovating in the LEED green building movement for the past decade. In 2010, Adobe’s San Jose headquarters received the highest score ever awarded by the USGBC at that time. The company now has 22 LEED certifications worldwide, including Beijing and Noida, and 16 certifications at the Platinum level. Our latest re-certification puts us on track to achieve Adobe’s publicly stated goal of NetZero consumption in our United States owned facilities by 2015, which means our buildings will have zero net energy consumption and zero carbon emissions annually.

Additionally, Adobe is the first to re-certify its buildings using LEED’s new software system. Adobe was the beta-tester for the system created by Zia for Buildings with the support of USGBC. The system is designed to maintain the ongoing reporting for LEED re-certifications.

To learn more about our green initiatives, visit our Environmental Sustainability page.

Adobe recently received its tenth LEED-Platinum certification from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) for the company’s Waltham, Mass, office.  It’s an achievement we’re all very proud of and I want to congratulate the Waltham facilities team and our building management firm, Cushman & Wakefield, on their creative ways of boosting our sustainability, including:

• A “retention pond” which naturally filters runoff water from the parking garage and building site to protect the nearby Cambridge Reservoir
• Carpet and tile made of 80% recycled product
• “Light harvesting” to control the dimness/brightness of interior lights and motion sensors to save energy
• Use of sustainable eucalyptus and walnut wood throughout the space
• Rock blasted to make the foundation was ground down and reused for landscaping
• Waterless urinals and touch-less faucets
• Using Adobe products to reduce paper consumption by 75 percent

Also notable is the Waltham team’s achievement of an Energy Star score of 97 and increased recycling rate to 87 percent compared to the City of Boston’s recycling rate at 13 percent.

Adobe’s employees worldwide contribute daily to the sustainability of our operations, and they recognize “good enough is not good enough.” We’re always looking for new and innovative ways to meet today’s environmental challenges.  There’s plenty more we can all easily do every day, so here’s my challenge to companies and individuals alike – - – Recycle.  Compost.  Use sustainable building materials.  Flip off the electricity when you don’t need it.   Get creative and share your learning with others.  Together we can take the strides necessary to make a meaningful contribution.