Virox Achieves LEED Certification

Virox Technologies Inc. announces that it has achieved LEED® Silver certification from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) for its 46,000-square-foot headquarters which includes the company's corporate offices, research and development laboratory, manufacturing and warehousing facility.

Virox is the first chemical manufacturer in Canada capable of not just developing EcoLogo and Green Seal Certified products, but manufacturing them in a LEED-certified facility.

Since its inception in 1998, Virox Technologies Inc. has been committed to the development and innovation of environmentally sustainable cleaners and disinfectants. The company believes that there is no longer the need to compromise on efficacy of application, or to trade off either personal safety or environmental integrity. It is committed to continuously improving the sustainability of its cleaning and disinfecting products, and to finding new ways to help its strategic partners and their customers reduce their impact on the environment.

This commitment has been highlighted through awards, third-party certification and our internal focus on sustainability. In 2008, Virox was the only Canadian company awarded the Chemical Manufacturers and Product Formulators Champion Status, indentifying their patented Accelerated Hydrogen Peroxide (AHP) technology as a sustainable technology. In 2010, Virox received ISO 14001 (Environmental Management System) registration which measures and documents our environmental impact. After achieving such milestones, Randy Pilon, president and CEO, challenged his team to become the greenest of the green. "It seemed only fitting that if we develop and manufacture certified green products we should do so in a certified green building," Pilon says.

Sustainability initiatives internally at Virox are spearheaded by Martin Harry, chief operating officer and the internal Green Team, led by Nicole Kenny, director of Professional and Technical Services, which includes representatives from all divisions within the company. To help attain LEED certification, Virox hired an external consulting team led by Red Studio Inc. Architects which also included ESTI Consultants Inc as the mechanical engineering consultant and Mulvey & Banani International as the electrical/lighting engineering consultant.

Developed by USGBC, LEED® (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is an internationally recognized green building certification system that provides third party verification that a building was designed and built using strategies aimed at improving performance in key environmental areas; energy savings, water efficiency, CO2 emissions reduction, improved indoor environmental quality and stewardship of resources and consideration of their impacts. The LEED program provides building owners a concise framework with which to identify and implement practical and measurable green building design, construction, operations and maintenance solutions. Some of the key projects that made achieving LEED Silver certification included:
- Mechanical system upgrades, to enhance occupant thermal comfort and energy efficiency
- Lighting upgrades to provide more efficient, more uniform lighting levels and better quality of light to all areas - manufacturing, warehousing and office plumbing upgrades, to increase water efficiency and user-friendliness throughout the facility
- Installation of a BT Radioshuttle System to allow for high-density racking of manufactured goods
- Installation of a "Get Green System" which lowers fuel costs and reduces CO emissions
- Implementation of a robust sustainable purchasing program
- Implementation of a single-stream recycling program that includes corrugate, plastic (bottles and shrink wrap) and paper across the company which has diverted over 425 cubic yards of recyclable waste from landfill
- Implementation of a recycling program which converts the self-adhesive label backings and corrugate cores to material used for outdoor decking and diverted over 12,000 kgs of waste from landfill
- Implementation of a Daylight Cleaning Program which of course utilizes the AHP-based EcoLogo certified products

Source: Virox