Goodyear HQ wins environmental design award

The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company’s global headquarters building in Akron has earned a Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) Gold rating from the US Green Building Council. At 639,000 square feet, it is among the largest LEED Gold certified buildings in Ohio.

The LEED green building program ensures buildings conserve energy, water and other resources and are safer and healthier for occupants. Gold certification indicates Goodyear’s high level of investment in best-in-class building strategies and practices.

The building, which opened in May 2013, was designed to meet LEED requirements and align with the company’s shared value to care for the environment and communities. During the certification process, the building earned LEED bonus points for creative design elements, such as embedding a triple-gas blend within the layers of glass walls to save energy, incorporating wood veneer from 100-year-old logs dredged from the Ohio River, and recycling 95 per cent of construction waste.

Almost 90 per cent of the wood in the building is from sustainable sources, and the two types of roof systems—white and vegetated—reduce heat gain. The building’s low-flow plumbing fixtures allow for a water-use reduction of 42 per cent, and more than 53 per cent of the site area—331,000 square feet—was restored with native or adaptive species plantings that require little watering or maintenance. Among the building’s employee amenities are fitness facilities, bicycle storage and showers/changing rooms. The building upholds Goodyear’s Zero Waste to Landfill initiative, meeting the same requirement of all global Goodyear manufacturing facilities to send no manufacturing waste to landfills.

“We are proud of this designation of our new global headquarters as a LEED Gold rated building,” said Richard J Kramer, Goodyear chairman and CEO. “This certification represents a further step in our commitment to sustainability and reinforces Goodyear’s shared value of caring for our environments and communities.”

The building was designed by Vocon Inc. and Gensler with meticulous attention to detail. “Each element—from the Wingfoot pattern embedded in the lobby’s windows to reduce air conditioning load to the green roof that reduces building run-off—was selected to meet sustainability requirements,” said Vocon Studio Director Julie Trott.

Goodyear’s global headquarters is home to nearly 2,000 associates. The seven-story building is connected to Goodyear’s existing Innovation Center and serves as a central campus for the company in Akron. The Innovation Center is currently home to almost 1,000 associates.

Goodyear is one of the world’s largest tire companies. It employs approximately 69,000 people and manufactures its products in 50 facilities in 22 countries around the world. Its two Innovation Centres in Akron, Ohio and Colmar-Berg, Luxembourg strive to develop state-of-the-art products and services that set the technology and performance standard for the industry.