SOCIAL CIRCLE, GA. — Rockefeller Group Development Corporation has completed a 1.5 million-square-foot distribution center in Social Circle, Georgia. The property is the largest LEED-Gold certified industrial building in the U.S. and second largest in the world. It was built for tenant General Mills. RGDC and General Mills originally sought LEED-Silver certification for the building, but the number of credits accrued in five green design categories exceeded the number of credits needed for LEED-Silver.? ?To qualify for LEED-Gold certification, the building was constructed with state-of-the-art green building practices and achieved the following benefits:
• 48.9% reduction in water use with low-flow plumbing fixtures
• Energy-efficient light fixtures, occupant sensors, high-efficiency HVAC systems, roof mounted up-blast exhaust fans and wall louvers account for a 50.2% more energy efficient performance over a typical industrial buildings
• 33.88% of the materials used on the project were composed of pre-consumer and post-consumer recycled content
• 77.2% of the construction waste was diverted from landfills (recycled) by sorting the materials and sending them to the appropriate recycling centers
• 55.13% of the construction materials were extracted, processed or manufactured within 500 miles of the project site, helping bolster the local economy
• Each area of the facility has at least 30% more outdoor air ventilation than normal.
— Jaime Lackey