Covanta Energy Awarded Prestigious LEED® Gold Certification from U.S. Green Building Council for New Corporate Headquarters

MORRISTOWN, N.J., June 21, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Covanta Energy Corporation (NYSE: CVA), an internationally recognized owner and operator of Energy-from-Waste and renewable energy projects, today announced that the U.S. Green Building Council has recognized its new corporate headquarters in Morristown, New Jersey with Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®) Gold Certification. LEED is the nationally-accepted benchmark for the design, construction, maintenance and operation of green buildings and office spaces.

"We are extremely proud to have achieved LEED Gold Certification at our corporate headquarters. At Covanta, the nature of our business and the culture of our organization provide a constant focus on sustainability, so when the opportunity arose to design a new corporate headquarters space, electing to incorporate sustainable design and construction methods was a natural step for us to take. Our team did an extraordinary job to achieve this recognition," said Paul Gilman, Covanta Energy senior vice president and chief sustainability officer.  

The U.S. Green Building Council is a national coalition of leaders from across the building industry working to promote buildings that are environmentally responsible. The LEED Green Building Rating System™ is a voluntary, consensus-based national standard for developing high-performance, sustainable buildings. LEED Ratings are awarded through a point system that provides building owners and operators with a framework for identifying and implementing practical and measurable green building design, construction, operations and maintenance solutions. LEED certifications range from achieving LEED certification, silver, gold, and platinum.

In order to achieve a Gold level of certification a project must achieve a minimum of 60 out of 100 points. To meet this threshold, Covanta successfully complied with several of the innovation and design points that the LEED rating system offers and went above and beyond minimum credit criteria. Using materials with a high level of recycled content, installing ENERGY STAR® equipment and appliances and purchasing green power greatly contributed to achieving Gold level certification. Highlights of the sustainable design and construction of the project include:  

• 100% green power purchased for two years through the procurement of renewable energy credits
• 100% of all new equipment and appliances are ENERGY STAR rated, reducing energy consumption
• 90% of all demolition and construction debris has been recycled and diverted from landfills
• 40% water reduction has been achieved by installing low flow plumbing fixtures throughout the office
• 30% of all furniture has been repurposed and/or reused
• 30% of all construction materials and furniture contain recycled content
• 28% of all construction materials and furniture were manufactured within 500 miles of Morristown, NJ
• 25% energy reduction was achieved by installing high efficiency HVAC equipment

In addition, all paints, sealants and adhesives used in the construction meet strict low volatile organic compound limits creating a high-quality indoor work environment.

Covanta operates 44 Energy-from-Waste facilities for communities worldwide. Recovering energy from waste after efforts to reduce, reuse and recycle is a critical component to sustainability managing solid waste. For every ton of municipal solid waste processed at Energy-from-Waste facilities, greenhouse gas emissions are reduced by the equivalent of approximately one ton less of carbon dioxide emissions. This is possible due to the avoidance of methane from landfills, the offset of greenhouse gases from fossil fuel electrical production, and the recovery of metals for recycling.

To learn more about energy-from-waste, Covanta Energy's sustainability report can be found at covantaenergy.com/sustainability.  

About Covanta

Covanta Energy is an internationally recognized owner and operator of large-scale Energy-from-Waste and renewable energy projects and a recipient of the Energy Innovator Award from the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.  Covanta's 44 Energy-from-Waste facilities provide communities with an environmentally sound solution to their solid waste disposal needs by using that municipal solid waste to generate clean, renewable energy. Annually, Covanta's modern Energy-from-Waste facilities safely and securely convert 20 million tons of waste into 9 million megawatt hours of clean renewable electricity and create more than 9 billion pounds of steam that are sold to a variety of industries. For more information, visit covantaenergy.com.

SOURCE Covanta Energy Corporation