West Monroe Awarded Prestigious LEED® Green Building Certification

West Monroe Partners, a full-service North American business and technology consultancy, announced today that its new Seattle office has been awarded LEED® Silver certification.

The LEED rating system, developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), is the leading standard for buildings, homes and communities that are designed, constructed, maintained and operated for improved environmental and human health performance.

In 2011, West Monroe Partners’ added Social Responsibility to the firm’s corporate values - the first and only time a modification has been made to this list since being founded in 2002. In order to bring this value to life, West Monroe developed multiple programs designed to give back to their communities though a 1+1+1 program. The program allows employees to give back to their communities through contributing one percent of their talent in pro-bono work, one percent of their profits in donations to qualifying organizations, and one percent of their collective personnel time to community engagement and leadership activities.

In conjunction with adding Social Responsibility to its charter a few years ago, West Monroe Partners also sought LEED certification for its new 15,612 square foot state-of-the-art Seattle office.

In designing and constructing its new Seattle office space, West Monroe Partners took a variety of steps to reduce energy consumption and impact on the environment:

• 98 percent of the office has occupancy sensors, part of an energy reduction strategy designed to consume less energy

• 36.8 percent less lighting power

• 100 percent of the appliances and equipment purchased are Energy Star rated

• Installed fixtures that will reduce water use by 35.2 percent

• More than 79 percent of construction waste was recycled, reused, or diverted, preventing it from going to landfills

• The office offset 100% of its electricity consumption with green power

“When we drew up the plans to design a new office space, our commitment to build an environmentally friendly and sustainable space was at the forefront of our goals,” said Tom Bolger, Managing Director of West Monroe’s Seattle office. “I'm very proud that we were able to build such a collaborative and functional office for our growing team that minimizes its footprint on the environment.”

More than 54,000 projects are currently participating in the commercial and institutional LEED rating systems, comprising over 10.1 billion square feet of construction space in all 50 states and 120 countries. LEED guidelines are designed to reduce energy consumption, emissions, water use, and consumption of natural resources. West Monroe Partners Seattle office achieved LEED certification for implementing practical and measurable strategies and solutions aimed at achieving high performance in: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection and indoor environmental quality.

"With each new LEED-certified building, we get one step closer to USGBC's vision of a sustainable built environment within a generation," said Rick Fedrizzi, President, CEO & Founding Chair, U.S. Green Building Council. "As the newest member of the LEED family of green buildings, West Monroe Partners is an important addition to the growing strength of the green building movement."