TCF Center and the U. S. Green Buildings Council Detroit Chapter will be hosting a webinar on Sept. 24 at 1 p.m. EDT to highlight the sustainability features in the venue that led to its LEED Gold certification last year. TCF Center was the first venue to achieve LEED certification under the new v4.1 O+M standard, and is now the largest LEED certified facility in Michigan. Attendees can register for the webinar HERE.
Claude Molinari, TCF Center general manager, Alberto Vasquez, TCF Center engineering manager and Geoffrey Harrison, of SDG Associates, will present the various sustainable features of the venue’s architecture and operations.
“This is the perfect time to host this webinar,” says Molinari. “Before the pandemic, our Green Committee hosted facility tours quarterly to give the community and customers the opportunity to learn about the green features incorporated into the center. This is the best way to continue that tradition until we reopen to events when conditions are safe to do so after the COVID-19 emergency.”
Attendee learning objectives are:
- Learn about TCF’s commitment to environmental stewardship and how they embraced the community during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Discuss the unique water efficiency strategies used to achieve EA credits for LEED v4.1 O+M Existing Building rating system.
- Learn how the TCF recycling efforts contributed to achieving MR credits for LEED v4.1 O+M Existing Building rating system.
- Discuss how TCF achieved LEED Gold certification for the LEED v4.1 O+M Existing Building rating system.
- Discuss actual building performance data used for EA credits for LEED v4.1 O+M Existing building rating system.
Molinari will wrap up his presentation with an overview of how the green features inherent in the TCF Center operations and architecture contributed to the creation of a field hospital in just nine days for the state of Michigan. The TCF Regional Alternative Care Facility is now on pause in the venue with 600 beds equipped with patient oxygen supply and negative air pressure to accommodate hospital overflow if the need occurs.
“Maintaining a high level of sustainability in the venue is so important to our position in the community as being integral to emergency response and as an economic engine,” says Molinari. “We are grateful to the USGBC for this opportunity to stress the imperative to venue owners to push the needle of sustainable operations and global environmental health.”
With 723,000 square feet of exhibit space, TCF Center, formerly Cobo Center, boasts one of the largest contiguous exhibit floor spaces in the U.S. and is the 17th largest convention center in the country. For more info, visit www.tcfcenterdetroit.com.
In 2009, operational control of TCF Center transferred to the the Detroit Regional Convention Facility Authority, under a collaborative agreement by the Michigan State Legislature, the City of Detroit, and Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties. Each of these entities has an appointed member on the DRCFA Board. Larry Alexander is the appointee of the Governor of the State of Michigan and serves as chairman of the board. For more info, www.drcfa.org.
