Beyond Returns: Willis Tower Becomes the Largest Building in the U.S. to Earn LEED Platinum Certification
Blackstone and EQ are committed to driving greater sustainability by making the assets in our portfolio more energy efficient. In line with this commitment, Blackstone invested significant capital and worked closely with EQ to improve the building’s environmental quality through a number of enhancements, including revamping the heating and cooling (HVAC) system through the installation of state-of-the-art technologies, reducing heating water energy consumption by replacing electric hot-water generators with natural gas hot-water boilers, upgrading the building’s lighting control system, installing energy-efficient LED lights and installing low-flow high-efficiency sink faucets, toilets and urinals. These changes are expected to reduce the building’s energy consumption by up to 20 percent and cut approximately 30 percent of the building’s water consumption, which amounts to approximately 11 million gallons annually.
Beyond Willis Tower, EQ manages tens of millions of square feet of LEED and Energy Star Certified office properties across the country and has implemented advanced technology across its office portfolio to measure each building’s performance.
We are proud of EQ, which joins a growing number of Blackstone portfolio companies that have taken steps to improve sustainability.
Through our Blackstone sustainability program, we have driven an average of 15% energy savings across our participating portfolio companies.
You can read more about some previous Blackstone portfolio company sustainability initiatives here:
- Refinitiv has made an impressive commitment to be carbon neutral by 2020, using 100% renewable energy.
- EDENS has achieved 28% emissions reduction from its 2008 baseline in common area electricity usage and aims for 90% of all future redevelopments to be LEED certified.
- 10,000 rooftop solar panels on New York City’s Stuyvesant Town have doubled Manhattan’s solar capacity, making it the largest private multi-family rooftop solar project in the U.S. and the first community in New York State to be LEED Platinum certified.
