CHICAGO—EQ Office continues making progress on its remake of Willis Tower. The building has earned the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Gold from the US Green Building Council.

The company, wholly owned by Blackstone's real estate funds, has launched a more than half a billion dollar renovation, the biggest restorative transformation in the building's 43-year history, adding 300,000 square feet of new retail, dining and entertainment space, including Catalog, a five-story dining, retail and entertainment complex, as well as 125,000 square feet of tenant exclusive amenities and a 30,000 square-foot outdoor deck and garden to the building.

“Willis Tower is a major destination in the heart of Chicago, and for more than 15,000 people, it's also their workplace,” says David Moore, senior vice president and portfolio director, EQ Office. “As we redevelop this iconic tower, we're making a conscious effort to find ways to improve energy efficiency and reduce our environmental footprint. Earning the LEED Gold certification is a credit to our entire team for their hard work.”

Throughout the renovation, Willis Tower has received a number of upgrades to reduce its environmental footprint including:

Installation of high-efficiency lighting systems with improved controls to reduce energy consumption, including the building's newly renovated LED antenna lighting system.
Improvements to the building's HVAC exhaust and return fan dampers, which along with the new building automation management system, will enable the operating team to better control temperatures in the building and reduce energy usage.
Introduction of all new air media, fan gearboxes and fan blades, along with the installation of new variable frequency drives to all four of the building's cooling towers. The modernization will supply the chillers with lower temperature condensing water, resulting in an approximate 20 percent savings on the electric energy consumed by the cooling towers.
Installation of low flow high efficiency units on more than 450 sinks, 650 toilets and urinals, saving approximately 11 million gallons of water consumption annually and reducing the building's water usage by 30 percent.
Replacement of all the building's automatic transfer switches, enhancing the integrity of its electrical infrastructure.

Rivion, a Wisconsin-based energy consulting firm, helped plan and implement these initiatives, which EQ Office officials say are just the beginning of their efforts to reduce Willis Tower's environmental footprint.

“Willis Tower has long been one of the most iconic skyscrapers of the Chicago skyline, so it is fitting for it to be a sustainability leader as well by achieving LEED Gold,” says Mahesh Ramanujam, president and chief executive officer, USGBC. “The success of LEED is due to the partnership and support of those committed to advancing green building and sustainability. We look forward to bringing sustainability leaders from all over the world to see Willis Tower during this month's Greenbuild International Conference & Expo.”

Willis Tower will also host the 2018 USGBC Leadership Awards reception on Nov. 14. The reception takes place during Greenbuild, the world's largest green building conference and expo, which comes to Chicago on Nov. 14-16.

Instant Insights /

Willis Tower Gets LEED Gold

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