The Chicago Merchandise Mart, long known as the world’s largest commercial building, can now tout itself as the world’s largest LEED Gold-Certified commercial building. The U.S. Green Building Council awarded the iconic building a Gold Certification under the 2009 Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standard, an upgrade from its previous LEED-EB Silver certification achieved in 2007. Delta Institute led the original certification process as well as the recent Gold certification process, and helped the Mart identify several innovative practices to “go green”, such as reducing water use by 3½ Olympic-sized swimming pools annually and implementing real-time recycling tracking, a retail composting program, demand-controlled ventilation, and continuous commissioning (optimizing HVAC system continuously).
READ: The Merchandise Mart earns LEED-EB: OM Gold Certification