Ground Transportation Leader Demonstrates Sustainable Business Practices from the Inside Out

BOSTON – The U.S. Green Building Council has recognized BostonCoach, a leading ground transportation and transportation-management company, with Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) silver certification for its new corporate headquarters. After a three-month construction project, BostonCoach associates took occupancy of the 23,652-square-foot space in the Boston Seaport District in December, 2007.

“BostonCoach is honored that our commitment to sustainability has earned this significant third-party certification,” says Mark Munoz, chief operating officer. “We are making company-wide, tangible efforts to be respectful of the environment, and we’re especially proud of our newly LEED-certified office.”

The LEED Green Building Rating SystemTM is the preeminent nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of environmentally responsible buildings. To earn the points necessary for certification, BostonCoach took steps, for example, to:

Reduce water use: The company uses water-conservation fixtures such as sinks with aerator faucets that flow at one-fifth the conventional rate, for an annual savings of 126,000 gallons. Over 20 months, that would fill the four-story Giant Ocean Tank at Boston’s New England Aquarium.

Optimize energy performance of lighting. The architectural and interior design of the BostonCoach office makes the most of daylight, reducing lighting power consumption by up to 40 percent. The lighting system adjusts automatically to the amount of natural light entering the workplace, so the brighter the day, the less energy used. This saves 12,300 kilowatt hours per year and avoids emission of 15,000 pounds of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide each year.

Incorporate recycled content. The ceiling tiles are manufactured from 40-percent recycled content and are 100-percent recyclable: The manufacturer, Armstrong, will reclaim the ceiling material when its useful life is over. Additionally, resources were conserved by reconditioning and redeploying 200 desks, chairs and other pieces of wood furniture from elsewhere within the company.

Use low-emitting materials: Much of the furniture purchased for the BostonCoach office is built from low-emitting materials which give off fewer toxins such as urea formaldehyde. This results in a healthier environment for employees.

“We can’t effectively help our environmentally conscious clients if we don’t share a common commitment to sustainability and demonstrate it from the inside out,” adds Munoz, who’s also an at-large member of the National Limousine Association board of directors. “While we’ve been offering hybrid vehicles in our worldwide fleet for quite some time, we wanted to go beyond that and embed environmentally responsible practices throughout our company.”

While a cornerstone of the company’s environmentally responsible activities is its LEED-certified headquarters in Boston’s Seaport District, BostonCoach green initiatives span the entire company – from the use of a Forest Stewardship Council-certified printer to subsidizing the commuting costs of employees who choose to use public transit to an employee-led task force that investigates, reviews and recommends new sustainability initiatives.

BostonCoach employees also conduct tours of their new corporate headquarters to educate visitors about the environmentally friendly features of the company office. To schedule a tour, please call 617-394-3900.

About BostonCoach

BostonCoach provides ground transportation and transportation management worldwide. Operating a network of more than 21,000 vehicles ranging from sedans and SUVs to business-class vans and limousines, BostonCoach specializes in tightly choreographed, multi-stop road shows, major sporting events, trade shows and other complex events.