CASE STUDY | NON-PROFIT

Created in 1893, the Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens

has served the public for well over a century as an institution built to

educate and entertain the people of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and

beyond. As a gift to the city of Pittsburgh, steel and real estate mogul

Henry Phipps founded the conservatory that houses gardens and

various species of exotic plants.

Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens has always operated

with a “green” focus since its inception. The entrance pavilion to the

Phipps Conservatory has Silver-level LEED® certification (Leadership

in Energy and Environmental Design), a popular worldwide green

building certification program. Meanwhile, the greenhouse production

facility has attained Platinum status - the first greenhouse in the world

to achieve this certification.

However, it wasn’t until more recently that the institution took that

initiative to new heights and catapulted itself into a new status as one

of the greenest facilities in the world. In 2012, Phipps Conservatory

completed construction of the Center for Sustainable Landscapes

(CSL), a world-class building in the green community that serves as a

Project: Phipps Conservatory and

Botanical Gardens – Center for Sustainable Landscapes

Location: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Armstrong Flooring: BBT™ Bio-Flooring

research, education, and administration facility for the conservatory.

It’s an integral part of the Phipps visitor experience, focusing on

the intersection between built and natural environments, and

demonstrating how the two are connected and can be harmonized.

The CSL was designed and built to generate all of its own energy,

a self-sustainable facility that still focused largely on educating and

welcoming the community through its doors. The result was a facility

that became the first in the world to achieve four of the highest

sustainable building certifications available, let alone attaining all of

them within a single design project.

• LEED Platinum (August 2013)

• The Sustainable SITES Initiative® (November 2013)

• WELL Building Platinum (October 2014)

• The Living Building Challenge™ (March 2015)

These certification programs are composed of differing, specific

requirements for the design, construction, operation, and

maintenance of buildings, as well as the products used and how they

are sourced.

Center for Sustainable Landscapes at Phipps Conservatory, a Beacon for Sustainable LivingConservatory Designs First Building Worldwide to Meet the Highest Green Certifications

https://www.armstrongflooring.com/commercial/en-us/products/bio-flooring.html

“Achieving each of these standards independently is an amazing

accomplishment,” said Amy Costello, Sustainability Manager for

Armstrong Flooring. “To achieve all four is a testament to the CSL’s

commitment to sustainable building.”

The most demanding achievement may have been the Living Building

Challenge’s material requirements – specifically the Red List. This

resource identifies materials that are not recommended to be used

in construction, and Living Building Challenge certification standards

require that these materials cannot be implemented. Finding products

that comply with the Red List can be both time-consuming and

challenging, and required the CSL’s project team to search for and

select compliant products.

PHIPPS SELECTS BBT FOR CLASSROOM FLOORING

In the CSL, Phipps Conservatory built a dedicated classroom for

Phipps’s science education programs that serves over 5,000 children

per year. It selected BBT bio-flooring as a durable flooring solution

to meet requirements of all four organizations, and notably complied

with Red List requirements as well as the low-emitting material

standards of LEED, WELL, and Living Building Challenge.

BBT bio-flooring does not contain PVC and plasticizers, which

directly complies with Living Building Challenge Red List standards.

It contains 85% North American limestone, which is locally quarried

to reduce the product’s carbon footprint. Furthermore, all BBT bio-

flooring contains 40% pre-consumer recycled content.

CASE STUDY | NON-PROFIT

F-10239-918 © 2018 AFI Licensing, LLC. Armstrong® and Armstrong logo are trademarks of AWI Licensing LLC. LEED® is a registered trademark of U.S. Green Building Council Corporation. Sustainable SITES Initiative® is a registered trademark of Green Business Certification, Inc. The Living Building Challenge is a registered trademark of International Living Future Institute. All other marks are trademarks of Armstrong Flooring, Inc., or its subsidiaries.

Responsibly sourced and manufactured, BBT bio-flooring possesses

a true through-pattern wear layer to provide high durability gouge

resistance and rolling load impact resistance that extends the life

of the floor. These benefits not only made BBT bio-flooring a green

option to satisfy certification requirements for the CSL, but also a

dependable and durable solution that would stand up to the wear

and tear of a community classroom.

ARMSTRONG FLOORING PRACTICING SUSTAINABILITY

Armstrong Flooring’s position as a proactive leader in sustainability

practices – while offering innovative, sustainable product solutions

– is not implemented out of trendiness or necessity. We believe

wholeheartedly in sustainable products, and working to develop

and provide better, greener solutions that can be used for building

projects worldwide.

This belief is evident in our corporate headquarters in Lancaster,

Pennsylvania, where the building is certified LEED Platinum. Built in

1998, it served as a pilot program for the original LEED rating system

and was the first building in North America, outside of California, to

receive this status.

Most recently, we reached a recycling milestone through our On&On™

Recycling Program where, together with our customers, we have

recycled over 100 million pounds of flooring product. Our On&On

Recycling Program helps customers save money while also keeping

flooring materials out of landfills. This program reclaims our flooring,

as well as other qualified products, including competitors’ products.

https://www.usgbc.org/projects/armstrong-corporate-headquarters-recertification?view=overviewhttps://www.armstrongflooring.com/content/dam/armstrongflooring/commercial/north-america/Sustainability/RecyMileStoneInfoGraph.pdfhttps://www.armstrongflooring.com/commercial/en-us/sustainability/floor-recycling-program.htmlhttps://www.armstrongflooring.com/commercial/en-us/products/bio-flooring.htmlhttps://www.armstrongflooring.com/commercial/en-us/sustainability.html