Mexico Strives For Green Buildings

By Sena Christian

Mexico City boasts the first LEED-gold certified building in Latin America. The HSBC Bank Headquarters Tower is one of the tallest skyscrapers in the city at 450-feet-tall with 24 stories, and the structure is 400,000-square-feet. The tower resides on the Paseo de la Reforma, which is the city's main thoroughfare, which allows for this green building to be appreciated by the thousands of people who pass by daily.

Although the HSBC Bank in Mexico is part of the world's largest bank and financial services company based in London, that doesn't mean that only the wealthiest and largest global companies can attempt green-building projects. When designed and constructed properly, green buildings don't have to break the bank; not to mention, over the long term, these buildings will produce significant savings for owners and occupants in the form of energy savings and reduced maintenance costs.

With the HSBC Bank Headquarters Tower serving as the catalyst, Mexico is now developing an interest in LEED certification for its new and renovated buildings. The Mexico Green Building Council formed as a way to support and promote ecologically-friendly construction. MGBC is a founding member of the World Green Building Council and an affiliated member of the International Initiative for a Sustainable Building Environment.

The Mexico Green Building Council is an independent non-profit organization that works within the construction industry to encourage the creation of "design and operational options that minimize negative impacts on the environment while maximizing the economic potential," as stated on its website. These buildings reduce the amount of greenhouse gases, solid waste and water pollution caused by the built environment.

The council is in the process of developing a National Green Building Rating Tool, a voluntary certification intended to transform the market and designed as a national standard for sustainable buildings and development. While the council is still forming its rating system, requirements and procedures, in the meantime builders are looking toward the United States to provide the guidelines to follow. One challenge is that while members of the Mexican green-building industry look to the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED guidelines, some of these requirements may be American-specific, as they may relate to, for instance, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency or California's building code. Overall, however, many standards for eco-conscious buildings are applicable across the border.

Members of the U.S. green-building industry - in the form of contractors, engineers, architects and educators - are taking up the reigns in assisting their Mexican counterparts with training and support. The hope is that this assistance will allow Mexico's sustainable-construction industry to come to fruition, instead of falling apart.
As the Mexico Green Building Council states: "The greatest challenge for our generation is finding the most intelligent way to build." The U.S. Green Building Council may have found this way through its LEED-rating system, and is eager to share this knowledge.

As for the HSBC Bank Headquarters Tower, several sustainable strategies allowed the project to achieve LEED-gold certification: Daylighting throughout the open office space; a 4,000-square-feet green roof that reduces storm water runoff, filters pollutants and carbon dioxide out of the air, and reduces the heat island effect; low-VOC carpeting; an onsite gray water treatment plant; convenient public transportation located nearby; bike racks available for employees; and the use of local materials and resources during construction.
With this tower as the catalyst, perhaps the Mexico building industry will soon create other green buildings that promote a better, and healthier, natural and built environment.

Sena Christian is an environmental reporter. She blogs for http://www.ptlexamprep.com and http://www.greenprofessional.net

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