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ASPA's new Tafuna building is now LEED platinum certified

 Less than a year after it was commissioned, the American Samoa Power Authority's (ASPA) new operations building in Tafuna has achieved LEED platinum status. [SN file photo]
blue@samoanews.com

Tafuna, AMERICAN SAMOA — Less than a year after it was commissioned, the American Samoa Power Authority's (ASPA) new operations building in Tafuna has achieved LEED platinum status, making it one of only two buildings in the territory to be certified as such. The AS Environmental Protection Agency building in Utulei is the other.

ASPA Executive Director Utu Abe Malae has been informed of the news, and the certification serves as testament to rigorous efforts in trying to steer the territory into being more environmentally responsible.

ASPA's building was awarded 81 out of 110 points, according to the LEED certification review report, a copy of which has been obtained by Samoa News.

(LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is a rating system devised by the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) to evaluate the environmental performance of a building and encourage market transformation towards sustainable design).

The 25-page LEED certification review report for the ASPA operations center contains the results of the technical review of an application for LEED certification, submitted for the project.

"LEED certification is an official recognition that a project complies with the requirements prescribed within the LEED rating systems as created and maintained by the US Green Building Council (USGBC). The LEED certification program is administered by Green Business Certification Inc. (GBCI)."

According to the report, for water efficiency, the ASPA building scored a perfect 10 out of 10 in areas including "water efficiency landscaping", "innovative wastewater technologies", and "water use reduction".

As for indoor environmental quality, the building attained a perfect 1 out of 1 score in thermal comfort (design), thermal comfort (verification), and controllability of systems lighting.

ASPA scored 25 out of 26 in the sustainable sites category, achieving a perfect score in every element except for one: Brownfield Redevelopment.

For "regional priority credits", the semi-autonomous agency scored a perfect 4 out of 4 in water efficient landscaping, water use reduction, and storm water design (quality control).

According to the report, construction application decisions are classified as follows: Certified (score of 40-49); Silver (50-59 points); Gold (6- 79 points); and Platinum (80+ points).