LEED Platinum Certification for the Donald Espie Hay Building in Hayco Dominican Republic
The Hayco Group has achieved a major milestone and become the first plastics company manufacturing in the Caribbean. Since planning the Hayco Dominican Republic site in 2015, we have been complying with all necessary principles of building a cutting-edge, sustainable factory. As of today, we have enough points from the USGBC (US Green Council) to earn the Donald Espie Hay Factory a LEED Platinum Certification (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design). This certification will make it the first manufacturing factories in the Caribbean region to achieve this.
The Dominican factory, which opened formally in 2019, has obtained the first 80 points needed to comply with the LEED Platinum standard. Key aspects in the design and construction of the factory to get to the level included:- Carbon Footprint: Initial building construction used only locally sourced material to minimize the carbon footprint.
- Zero Waste to Landfill: The construction process requires all waste to be reused and not disposed to landfill.
- Environmental Pollution: Construction trucks and equipment had to be washed prior to leaving the site and dust nets installed to minimize top soil erosion.
- Energy Consumption: Energy and water had to be 8% more efficient than non- standard LEED buildings. Key features include all hybrid injection molding machines, low flush bathrooms and auto shut off faucets.
- Lighting: the whole site is powered by the latest generation of LED lighting, which delivers up to 80% electrical energy saving and lasts up to 50 times longer than conventional lighting. We use shielding for interior lighting and exterior lighting which meets the requirement of LEED which ensures not producing light pollution.
- Solar Power: Over 4,000 solar panels on the roof provide up to 1.5Mw of power. This provides a significant proportion of the energy requirement.
- Clean Drinking Water: Reverse Osmosis water filtering systems provide free daily drinking water to more than 1,500 workers, thus reducing the impact of plastic trash reaching the oceans.
- Vegetation: The site uses irrigation free native vegetation to eliminate the needs of watering.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Group, Mr. Christopher Hay, said: “I am very pleased to have achieved enough points for the LEED Platinum accreditation of our Dominican Republic factory. Hayco is committed to being a leader in environmental and sustainable production. We see it as our role to invest in being a good corporate citizen in the communities in which we operate. So far, in phase one, the factory is 17,280 square metres and we have invested over USD 110 million. We will continue to expand the LEED principles into phase 2 which will make the facility a total of 37,000 square metres.
"The building is named after my late father, Donald Espie Hay. He was an avid supporter of the company’s expansion to the Dominican Republic and took a great personal interest from the very early days in supporting all the necessary work and expense to make this project LEED compliant.”For more information about Hayco and its products, please click the company link below:
