One of the USA’s most sustainable family homes, constructed with the extensive use of Accoya wood manufactured by Accsys Technologies, has been awarded platinum level LEED certification – the highest recognition available from the US Green Building Council.
The 4,211 sq. ft. custom built single family residence in California’s desirable Newport Beach has become a benchmark in Energy and Environmental Design for Homes and will serve as an educational tool for the local and international community to showcase stewardship of the environment.
Accoya was used for the fascia of the house, as well as for additional features including the balcony railing, rain screen siding, garage doors, jamb, decorative beams and potting bench.
Accoya is created by using a proprietary process called acetylation on sustainably sourced woods. Matching or exceeding the same high-performance and aesthetic qualities of the best tropical hardwoods, it also boasts excellent environmental credentials using raw wood sourced only from FSC certified sustainable forests.
The finished product is completely non-toxic and has been hailed one of the most advanced products on the market, delivering outstanding levels of performance, stability and durability. It is recognised under the Green Building Council’s LEED accreditation system for its Cradle 2 Cradle Gold certification and non-toxicity, as well as its impressive Environmental Product Declarations (EPD) and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) ratings.
Bryan Crennell, Accsys Technologies’ Sales and Marketing Directorsaid: “Accoya has made a real contribution to theplatinum LEED certification of this project, and it’s great to see the house reach the highest mark of recognition. With sustainable design becoming synonymous with high quality performance, the new LEED accreditation system presents a rounded approach to materials and products, enabling project teams to make better informed decisions that will have greater overall benefit for their projects and our environment.”
Jeff Jeannette of Jeannette Architects, Long Beach CA, said: “we recommend and specify Accoya wood materials for all exterior wood applications for its aesthetic, durable and sustainable attributes. We’ve had great success on several custom homes we’ve designed. On the Newport Green Home, we were asked to design a low maintenance home but wanted to include wood on the exterior. As the home is very close to the ocean, the use of Accoya for the rain screen, fascia and other locations was a perfect fit. We also integrated it into some interior decorative applications for continuity in materials. I’m very pleased with the performance of Accoya and will continue to use it for our building projects.”
