Printing Plant Wins LEED Silver Certification

The new printing plant where the San Francisco Chronicle is printed has recently garnered a Silver designation under the auspices of LEED for New Construction (LEED-NC), a recent SF Chronicle article reports.

The $200 million, four-story, 335,660 square foot NADEV printing facility is located in Fremont, in the southeastern part of the San Francisco Bay area. It is one of relatively few industrial buildings in the metropolitan area to earn a LEED certification, the article notes. The plant is owned by Transcontinental Printing Inc., a Canadian company. The building consists of a 97,275 square foot press hall and a 238,375 square foot mail room, as well as office space, high bay storage, and mechanical equipment rooms.

The building’s sustainable features include low-flow bathroom fixtures, the use of recycled materials in the building’s exterior walls, and the diversion of over 95 percent of construction waste from landfills. Outside, parking stalls are reserved for carpool and low-emission/fuel-efficient vehicles. 98,000 square feet of bioswale and a 43,000 gallon capacity retention pond help direct and capture runoff from the site. The facility achieved Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) credits for the incorporation of low-emitting finishes, sealants, paints and coatings, carpet systems, and composite wood and agrifiber products.

While the SF Chronicle was the plant’s first customer, it has capacity for other print jobs as well. It is outfitted with three high-efficiency presses from German that can simultaneously print broadsheet-page sections at a speed of up to 70,000 copies hourly.

The building was constructed by McCarthy Building Companies, and designed by Kwan Henmi Architecture/Planning of San Francisco.

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Chris Timmerman
Contributing Writer
Green Education Services
www.greenedu.com