Going Green
LEED Certification
Promoting Sustainability through Motorola's Passive Optical LAN Solution
LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is an internationally-recognized green building certification system. Developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) in March 2000, LEED provides building owners and operators with a framework for identifying and implementing practical and measurable green building design, construction, operations and maintenance solutions.
LEED promotes sustainable building and development practices through a suite of rating systems designed to recognize projects that implement strategies for better environmental and health performance. The certification system encourages a whole-building approach to sustainability by recognizing performance in key areas.
Motorola's Passive Optical LAN (POL) is an ideal solution for the promotion of green building development, and its implementation offers an impressive number of points toward LEED certification. POL, an all-fiber LAN solution that operates on a Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON), is a leading alternative to the traditional LAN network. The solution enables architects and design engineers to increase the use of eco-friendly materials while significantly reducing energy consumption and costs associated with traditional LAN architectures. One example of Motorola's Passive Optical LAN solution can obtain 20 points out of a total of 110 possible LEED points for Existing Buildings: Operations and Maintenance.
The implementation and use of Motorola's Passive Optical LAN can attain LEED certification points within the following categories:
Energy & Atmosphere
According to the U.S. Department of Energy, buildings use 39% of the energy and 74% of the electricity produced each year in the United States. The Energy & Atmosphere category encourages a wide variety of energy-wise strategies: commissioning, energy-use monitoring, efficient design and construction, efficient appliances and lighting, the use of renewable and clean sources of energy generated on-site or off-site, and other innovative measures.
Materials & Resources
During both the construction and operations phases, buildings use large quantities of materials and resources and generate a lot of waste. The Materials & Resources category encourages the selection of sustainably grown, harvested, produced and transported products and materials. It promotes waste reduction as well as reuse and recycling, and it particularly rewards the reduction of waste at a product's source.
