5.20.2008 - 06:30pm ET

(CSRwire) SAN DIEGO,CA - May 20, 2008 – Local materials, 100% wind power,"zero carbon", are all features of the new visitor center in Utah's Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. The GSBS Architects structure is among the three winners of the 6th annual Sustainability Leadership Award for Design and Development announced recently at the CoreNet Global Summit in San Diego.

The Escalante Science Center (ESC) project won along with Liberty Property Trust's green warehouse and distribution center for JohnsonDiversey, Inc., and Perkins+Wills' Sustainable Design Initiative (SDI) Strategic Plan and the Green Operations Plan won.

"The field of entries this year were innovative and very high quality, " said Mike Napier, Head of Real Estate, Shell International, a member of the judging panel, who announced the winners. "The judges were impressed by the overall level of sophistication in both planning and execution – it made the judging difficult."

Joining Napier in presenting the awards, were Steven McCollom, AIA, IIDA and Associate Partner with Gary Lee Partners on behalf of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), and Mitchell Sawasy, FIIDA, AIA, Co-founder and Design Principal of Rothenberg Sawasy Architects and President-elect of the International Interiors Design Association (IIDA). David Harris, Senior Vice-President of Global Business Services for Sun Microsystems officiated as the president of CoreNet Global.

Three winners were announced:

For Achievement in Sustainable Design: Not-For-Profit Organizations
GSBS Architects with the Escalante National Monument

The Escalante Science Center (ESC) is LEED Gold Certified and one of the first to be labeled "zero carbon." The facility employs a number of measures to reduce energy use, including evaporative cooling and radiant heating,
rain and daylight harvesting, a photovoltaic array and 100% by wind-powered.

For Achievement in Sustainable Design: Commercial Projects
Liberty Property Trust for JohnsonDiversey, Inc.

Liberty Property Trust's $21 million warehouse and distribution center for JohnsonDiversey,
Inc. in Sturtevant, Wisconsin is the largest green distribution building in the United States. The project, completed in 2007, achieved LEED Gold certification and continues to be a "classroom" for high performance warehouse construction to architects and distributors nationwide

For Achievement in Sustainable Development
Perkins+Will on their Sustainable Design Initiative (SDI) Strategic Plan and the Green Operations Plan

Perkins & Will's comprehensive plan and operations blueprint, first initiated in 2005, is delivering on its goals. Among its achievements: 90% of management and 77% of 1300-staff, 22-office worldwide company are LEED AP certified; 50% of the firm’s employees are using mass transit (firm provides a subsidy); company cars are hybrids; all offices are reducing water usage as for example in 2006 the Atlanta office saved 200,000 gallons of water, and the headquarters in Seattle is operated on 100% wind power.

In addition, the judges awarded recognition to the following organizations with the designation of "highly commended" and commended.

HIGHLY COMMENDED
Aardex LLC
Black Mountain Ranch LLC
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), UK
Dell Children's Medical Center and Karlsberger
EarthLink and Wirt Design Group
Fidelity Real Estate
Ford Land
General Dynamics -C4 Systems
HITT contracting
Social Security Administration (Auburn, WA), IA Interior Architects and TVA architects
Interface
Microsoft and Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Architects LLP
Royal Bank of Scotland
Teknion
Vulcan Real Estate and NBBJ

COMMENDED
Add Inc
Allsteel and HOK
AMB Property Corporation
Interior Office Solutions
Mancini Duffy and Trinity Real Estate
Margulies & Associates
Mohawk
Motorola
NYC Mercantile Exchange
OWP/P
Somerset County (NJ) Business Partnership
Schlumberger and Planning Design Research Corporation (PDR)
Sun Microsystems
Symantec and HOK architects
Woods Bagot

• Johnson Controls Inc.
• Tandus
• Peoplecube

• Nick Axford, Ph.D., Head, Research and Consulting Department, CB Richard Ellis
• Holley Henderson, IIDA, LEED AP, Principal, H2EcoDesign
• Gail Lindsey, FAIA. LEED AP Principal, Design Harmony
• Richard Logan, AIA, Gensler, retired
• Mike Napier, Head of Real Estate, Shell International
• Sanford "Sandy" Smith, Manager, Corporate Manager, Real Estate and Facilities, Toyota Motor Sales USA
• Ken Wilson, AIA, IIDA, LEED AP, Principal, Envision Design

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