WATCH: The LEEDing Issues Behind Method's Innovative Design

WATCH: The LEEDing Issues Behind Method's Innovative Design

by TODD STOLARSKI | Jan 10, 2016

Every singer, musician or music band yearns to earn a gold record – meaning sales of 500,000. Even more impressive is platinum status – sales of 1 million recordings. Neither is easy to pull off these days. 

Likewise, platinum is the gold standard in the world sustainable design, as designated by the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED program. And it's no easier to pull off than platinum recordings when the project involves manufacturing, which generally is associated with sooty smokestacks rather than towering wind turbines. On December 3, the band responsible for designing and constructing Chicago's LEED Platinum Method soap manufacturing facility, the first of its kind to receive the designation, were on hand at BuiltWorlds to discuss the strategies they developed to lead a “clean industrial revolution.”

Methodical: Karl Heitman, left, and Adam Miller.

As part of our ongoing Project Innovation Series, team members variously discussed conceptual, design and construction issues behind the groundbreaking plant. (Here, by the way, the world “plant” takes on new meaning, since Method is home to the world's largest rooftop greenhouse.) 

Concluding our event coverage for 2015, we bring you the engaging panel discussion in its entirety, with seven team members presenting their contributions to an instant icon. 

(Read Awash In History, Pullman Soap Factory Heralds Clean Revolution)

Have a certain discussion point that you’d like to replay over and over? Check out our new Easy Chapter Selection feature, which allows users to seamlessly move among chapters and table of contents, seen above. Enough reading, watch the video above!  Method only asks that you wash your hands first.  

To contact the author, write to todd.stolarski@builtworlds.com or find him on Twitter @toddstolarski.