OHL opts for sustainable construction: 25 projects with LEED certification

In its wager on sustainable construction, the OHL Group has accumulated experience in 25 unique building construction projects with international LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) certification. This rating in sustainable construction is an internationally recognized standard developed by the U.S. Green Building Council, a nonprofit organization that promotes sustainability in the design and construction of buildings. 

The OHL Group has to its credit 25 LEED certificates (3 LEED, 8 LEED Silver and 14 LEED Gold) in a range of projects performed in Spain and in the U.S. In addition, the company has 19 projects under construction that are seeking to obtain LEED certificates (2 LEED, 7 LEED Silver, 8 LEED Gold and 2 LEED Platinum) in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Spain and the Czech Republic. These include, on applying the criteria of the U.S. Green Building Council, the Centro Canalejas Madrid (Spain) and the Sunset Office Center in Florida (USA) projects. 

One of the most recent LEED certificates was obtained by OHL in Spain, where the rehabilitation of the Castellana 81 Building secured LEED Platinum in the Core&Shell category, satisfactorily exceeding the client’s expectations of obtaining the LEED Gold certificate. The project consisted of the rehabilitation and updating of the installations and services of this landmark building, winner of the National Award for Architecture and built between 1978 and 1981 by Obrascón. 

In the assessment process for the granting of that certificate, the U.S. Green Building Council team valued very positively the significant number of solutions in sustainable mobility as well as the building’s proximity to public means of transportation, the installation of parking facilities for bicycles and the reservation of parking areas for low-emission vehicles and shared vehicles. Likewise, the team recognized the significant reduction in the consumption of potable water (42%) and energy (13.50%), in comparison to similar buildings, as well as the improvement in the indoor air quality thanks to the use of substances and products with low health-endangering emissions, in addition to the use of local (20%) and recycled (10%) materials.

Certificates 

The following stand out among the rest of the projects with LEED certification performed by OHL: the interior reconditioning of the headquarters of ICEX and COFIDES, in Madrid; the Miami Green Building, the first construction in the Miami commercial and office sector with LEED certification; the renovation of the Clinical Research Building and the construction of the Robert & Judy Prokop Newman Alumni Center at the University of Miami; the renovation of the Baptist Cardio Vascular Institute and the expansion of Baptist Health South Florida’s South Miami Hospital. 

The Castellana 81 Building rehabilitation project, performed by OHL in Madrid, has obtained LEED Platinum certification.