Port of Long Beach LEED Building Program at Pier G

The Port of Long Beach has embarked on a commitment toward sustainable development that includes the planning, design, and construction of marine shipping terminal buildings as Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certified through the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). In particular, the Port of Long Beach has been successful in achieving Gold certification for five new buildings located at Pier G, three of which are within a maintenance facility complex that required creative use of materials, indoor air quality, and water and energy systems to reach the certification goal. The Gold certification for these types of buildings in a port environment may be among the first in the nation. The buildings house industrial processes such as crane/heavy lift, oil product dispensing, and refrigeration container wash-down facilities that are atypical of LEED building consideration. This paper addresses several integrated design characteristics that contributed to the pursuit of LEED, such as building locations and orientation, innovative use of natural daylight, reuse of on-site materials (pavement/base), and procurement of specialty products. The reuse of the demolished pavement as base material alone provided sufficient cost savings to offset the additional cost of specialty materials and documentation required to achieve LEED certification. The work was accomplished in the middle of an ongoing operating container terminal and was phased to minimize the impact to terminal operations.