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For immediate release

Heifer International Headquarters Wins Platinum Rating

Building Nationally Recognized as Model Green Building

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Heifer International/TIM HURSLEY         Heifer International headquarters in Little Rock, Ark.

The Platinum rating is the construction industry’s highest honor for buildings that demonstrate environmental responsibility.

The Heifer International Center at 1 World Avenue in Little Rock, thus becomes the first Platinum-rated building in Arkansas and the only one in the South Central U.S., joining an elite handful of fewer than 50 energy-conserving buildings so honored. It uses 55% of the energy of a building using conventional construction methods.

The $17.5 million building was designed by Reese Rowland, a principal in the Little Rock architectural firm of Polk Stanley Rowland Curzon Porter (polkstanley.com). It was built by CDI Contractors, LLC (cdicon.com), of Little Rock, which also built the Clinton Presidential Center, a LEED Silver-rated building adjacent to Heifer’s headquarters. Both buildings are in Little Rock’s revitalized central River Market District beside the Arkansas River downtown.

Said Heifer’s President and CEO, Jo Luck, "In all we do, Heifer International strives toward our mission of ending hunger and poverty while caring for the earth. We are proud to have attained this elite Platinum rating because it supports our holistic devotion to this cause. Not only does this honor represent our commitment to the environment, it also affirms that Heifer is being successful in our efforts to efficiently ‘pass on the gifts’ of self-reliance and sustainability."

The building’s environmental features include large energy-efficient plate glass windows that provide passive solar heat and indirect light to every one of its more than 200 work stations. It features recycled, recyclable or renewable construction materials such as recycled steel, recyclable carpet tiles, flooring of bamboo and cork, insulation made of recycled cotton and a new spray-on foam made from soybean byproducts, and recycled brick. Its innovative parking lot collects rainwater for a reconstructed wetlands that surrounds the building, and a 25,000-gallon water tower collects rainwater from the roof for its radiant heating system and graywater uses like flushing toilets. Electrical energy for the building is provided by wind power through an energy exchange program. Even its shape, a slender curve that is 62 feet wide at its widest point, is designed to capture the maximum amount of sunlight for passive solar heating and lighting.

Already honored by numerous design and environmental awards, the four-story building’s "green" features began before construction with the effort to clean up an industrial brownfield tainted by petroleum and chemicals from a train yard and trucking operation that formerly occupied the site. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency honored it with a national Phoenix award for brownfield reclamation.

Heifer International is a world hunger charity that uses gifts of livestock and training in agriculture and animal care to help poor families in more than 55 countries around the world become self-reliant. It is famous for its signature practice that requires recipients of livestock to "pass on the gift" of offspring of that livestock to others so the benefits of every donation are multiplied. Heifer’s mission includes "saving the earth" – ensuring that the environment is protected in every project it undertakes, including its headquarters.

The Heifer headquarters building is one of 45 Platinum-rated buildings in the nation.

"Heifer International is to be commended for achieving LEED certification," said Rick Fedrizzi, President, CEO and Founding Chair of the U.S. Green Building Council. "This facility is one that both the community and its donors can be proud of. Heifer’s headquarters will be a showcase for high-performance, energy-efficient, healthy construction, and an inspiration for others."

The building has been recognized for its innovative management of rainwater utilizing (1) a permeable-surface parking lot with drains connected through grassy channels called "bioswales" that feed the 4-million-gallon wetlands that surrounds the building, thus capturing rainfall rather than pouring it into the city sewer system, (2) rooftop rainwater collection inlets that supply a 25,000-gallon water tank that supplies graywater for the radiant heating system and for flushing toilets and, (3) "waterless" urinals and other water-saving features that have reduced the 94,000-square-foot building’s water bill to a few hundred dollars a month. The model wetlands wrap around the building in a beautiful natural setting that has a lower "urban hot spot" effect than a conventional building and grounds.

A raised floor system serves as the delivery channel for air conditioning, which means lower energy use for heating and cooling. A system of energy-efficient interior lights uses sensors so lights come on only in darkness and when people are present.

Heifer’s Capacity for Helping is Growing

Three years ago former President Bill Clinton helped break ground for the building on the site of the reclaimed brownfield at 1 World Avenue next door to his Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock. He returned for the March 2006 building dedication, which also featured Jeffrey D. Sachs, author of the best-selling book, "The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time," who praised Heifer’s development methods and said that ending world poverty by 2025 is a realistic goal.

Clinton said then that Heifer was a testament to the fact that "ordinary people of modest means have the power to change lives half a world away."

Old warehouses on the site were crushed to make fill for the foundation of the new building.

The opening of the world headquarters building represented the first phase of a three-phase development of the 22-acre Heifer International Center campus, which will in late 2008 include a 16,000-square-foot educational facility—the Polly Murphy and Christoph Keller Jr. Education Center—and a global village to educate the public about solutions to hunger and poverty here and abroad. 

Heifer CEO Jo Luck said, "One thing that Heifer understands is that if we are going to have a lasting impact on world hunger, everything we do must be sustainable – that is, the means for production of food and income must renew the environment and not deplete it. In conceiving our new office building, we strove to live up to the aspirations of Heifer’s own mission of ending hunger and saving the earth.

"This goal would not have been possible to achieve without the committed vision and partnership Heifer has with Polk Stanley Rowland Curzon Porter who ensured that both preparation of the site and construction of the building were models of sustainable design and development, demonstrating our commitment to using resources wisely and responsibly and inspiring others to do the same."

The building was named one of the Top Ten Green Projects in America for 2007 by the National American Institute of Architects’ Committee on the Environment’s (COTE). 

Architect Rowland said the design was inspired by Heifer’s work and by its community impact, which starts with delivering one animal to one family, which shares offspring of that animal with others through Heifer’s signature practice, "Passing on the Gift." The gifts of animals creates "concentric rings of influence" radiating outward through a community or region as sustainable methods taught to the original family are passed on along with animals, Rowland said.

The roof, which collects water for the heating system and graywater uses,
floats on a series of trusses and steel "spiders."

Reflecting its mission, the headquarters design was conceived to mirror Heifer’s model, with gifts of livestock sending ripples throughout their communities. At the site, concentric rings of sidewalks and buildings expand outward from a green commons. The aim of achieving zero water leaving the site began a process of restoring a former wetland to collect and clean water for reuse naturally, a solution that received the federal Environmental Protection Agency’s 2006 Phoenix Award for brownfield reclamation in the EPA’s Region 6. The interdependence with nature and the site is evident in the vertical circulation of the design and façade fenestration, in on-site recycled materials, and in the carved breezeways under the building, all interrelated with building systems.

The narrow arcing plan shifts in a radial pattern, organized by building function to reach 100 percent natural light and outdoor views for every workstation of the adjacent riverfront park and surrounding wetlands. "The sustainable features are visible, but not ‘in your face,’" the AIA jury said. 

Heifer International opened its world headquarters in January of 2006. The green building brings together a staff that had been scattered at various office locations in Little Rock after the organization outgrew its former offices at 1015 Louisiana Street, now home to the Heifer Foundation, a separate organization that supports Heifer financially through long-term gifts.

Three phases of development

Construction of the headquarters is the first phase of a three-phase development of the 22-acre Heifer campus on the Arkansas River. Phase Two will be an educational facility, The Polly Murphy and Christoph Keller Education Center, that will provide a place where visitors, staff, volunteers, and the international development community can come together to learn in depth about world hunger and poverty, about current solutions to those problems, about Heifer and its mission, and to about solutions in the worldwide effort to end hunger and poverty. The 16,000-square-foot building will house permanent and temporary exhibits to teach the general public about issues surrounding hunger and poverty. The learning experience will include walking tours of Heifer’s constructed wetlands and the green headquarters building.

The Heifer International Center will stand as a worldwide nucleus for global thought leaders of long-term sustainable development, positioning Heifer to do more and better work in the field than ever before, and spreading the ideas for sustainable solutions to hunger and poverty, bringing hope to the one billion people around the globe living on less than $1 a day.

The three phases of development of the campus are:

Phase 1 -- The World Headquarters, where our 200+ staff work to support the organization’s efforts around the globe;

Phase 2 -- The Murphy Keller Education Center, where visitors, staff, volunteers, and the international development community will come together—in meeting spaces and through interactive exhibits—to learn more about Heifer and its mission and to seek solutions in the worldwide effort to end hunger and poverty. It also includes an expansion of the constructed wetlands and green space;

Phase 3 -- A global village: an experiential, immersive, interactive facility that will simulate conditions in rural regions around the world, as well as real solutions that are being used to help people living in poverty become self-reliant, which in turn will inspire many thousands more people to join Heifer in ending world hunger and poverty. At this time, the proposed global village is in the conceptual phase. Dates for the groundbreaking or completion have not been established. Work is focused on Phase 2 at this time.

About the U.S. Green Building Council

The U.S. Green Building Council is the nation’s leading coalition of corporations, builders, universities, federal and local agencies, and nonprofit organizations working together to promote buildings that are environmentally responsible, profitable and healthy places to live and work. Greenbuild as well as the LEED® (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Building Rating System are projects of the USGBC. For more information on the USGBC, visit www.usgbc.org.

About LEED

The LEED™ (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Building Rating System is a voluntary third party rating system where credits are earned for satisfying specified green building criteria. Projects are evaluated within six environmental categories: Sustainable Sites, Water Efficiency, Energy and Atmosphere, Materials and Resources, and Indoor Environmental Quality. Certified, Silver, Gold, and Platinum levels of green building certification are awarded based on the total credits earned. The LEED standard has been adopted nationwide by federal agencies, state and local governments, and interested private companies as the industry standard of measurement for green building.

Heifer’s mission is to end hunger and poverty while caring for the earth. For more than 60 years, Heifer International has provided livestock and environmentally sound agricultural training to improve the lives of those who struggle daily for reliable sources of food and income. Heifer is currently working in more than 50 countries, including the U.S., to help families and communities become more self-reliant. Since 1944 it has helped 45 million people through training in livestock development and livestock gifts that multiply. Every gift of an animal provides benefits such as milk, eggs, wool and fertilizer, increasing family incomes for better housing, nutrition, health care and school fees for children. Recipients "Pass on the Gift" of offspring of their cows, goats and other livestock to others in an ever-widening circle of hope.

For more information, visit www.heifer.org, or call 1-800-696-1918.