Autodesk deepens its investment in sustainable operations, opening five new green office spaces this year in San Francisco, Milan, Beijing and Farnborough, UK. The company is targeting LEED certification for its new facilities, which would bring Autodesk's total to 13 LEED-certified offices, covering 25 percent of its 1.8 million square foot real estate portfolio.
"At Autodesk, we are focused on accelerating sustainable innovation, and one way we do this to use our own facilities and operations as a testing ground for new ideas, workflows and solutions," commented Joe Chen, vice president of corporate real estate and facilities at Autodesk. "By using our own software to design and build these spaces, we're not only reducing our greenhouse gas footprint, but also providing real working examples of sustainable design for our customers."
Each of the new office spaces is a major contributor to Autodesk's environmental impact reduction strategy; most are powered by green energy, bringing renewables to nearly 30 percent of the company's energy use. The office designs include reduced lighting energy requirements of up to 35 percent and increased ventilation efficiency of up to 30 percent as compared to American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) standards. Many of the new spaces feature efficient plumbing fixtures, which can reduce water use by more than 40 percent over conventional fixtures. And all offices prioritize re-used, recycled and locally sourced materials and furnishings, as well as utilize low- or no-VOC finishes. The spaces were all designed to meet or exceed LEED certifications.