Fentress Architects has reported that the new Concourse D at Nashville International Airport (BNA), which it designed, has achieved LEED Silver certification. This distinction makes Concourse D one of only five newly constructed airport facilities in the USA and one of nine airport facilities worldwide to earn LEED Silver under the US Green Building Council’s (USGBC) LEED v4 standards.
LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is the most widely used green building rating system in the world, under which a flexible, performance-based approach and progressive sustainability benchmarks are used to optimize building performance and support occupant health and wellbeing.
“Fentress Architects has been at the forefront of green building design for over four decades,” said Curtis Fentress, FAIA, RIBA, principal in charge of design at Fentress. “Energy conservation is a key element of not only our design approach, but our values as a firm. We are proud to have leveraged our expertise, along with the commitment of all partners involved in this significant project, to realize BNA’s forward-thinking sustainability standards.”
According to Fentress, its project team’s integrative and passenger-centric approach incorporated several green design and construction components to optimize building performance and passenger comfort, while minimizing environmental impacts. These features included:
- Electrochromic glass that blocks out excessive sunlight and heat for passengers’ comfort while reducing glare and energy consumption for climate control;
- Energy efficient and programmable lighting that dims when natural light is adequate for visibility;
- A focus on human health and wellness with features including an abundance of daylighting, green cleaning practices, water bottle filling stations, public art installations, and more;
- Light-colored building and paving materials that retain less heat, reducing energy use while mitigating heat-island effect;
- Geothermal cooling that reduces energy consumption and costs for climate control;
- Water-conserving plumbing; and
- A waste-reduction focus with recycling bins throughout the concourse and 80 percent of construction waste diverted from landfills.
“LEED certification is a coveted mark of environmental distinction and innovation,” added BNA president and CEO Doug Kreulen. “We’re building not only a bigger airport, but also a better, ‘greener,’ more sustainable airport. I’m proud of our commitment to these principles and appreciative of all the hard work that went into obtaining this recognition.”