Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Rackspace Headquarters Gets LEED Certification

San Antonio-based IT hosting firm Rackspace Hosting said today that the firm's corporate headquarters has been certified LEED Gold by the U.S. Green Building Council. The certification is an indication of the "green" design of the company's headquarter building. According to Rackspace, the LEED certification came as part of its conversion of a vacant shopping mall into its headquarters building. Rackspace said it has built out over 230,000 square feet within the 1.2 million square foot mall. LEED certification requires that companies meet a certain number of objectives in their development, including use of high efficiency lighting, use of renewable materials, and low flow toilets. Rackspace says its efforts included recycling of materials during demolition, use of natural lighting, showers to encourage employees to walk, run, or bike to work, and recycling bins throughout the facility, in addition to a number of other green efforts.