Comcast Center: One of the Tallest LEED-Certified Buildings in the U.S.

Comcast Corporation’s headquarters in downtown Philadelphia, called Comcast Center, is one of the tallest LEED-certified buildings in the United States. The 58-story building, which earned LEED Gold status for its core and shell, stands 975 feet tall and takes advantage of high-performance glass and sunscreens, as well as louvers in the atria, to maximize use of daylight.

The windows block 60 percent of the sun’s heat while allowing in 70 percent of the daylight, helping to reduce lighting and cooling expenses. Comcast Center’s water-saving fixtures save 3 million gallons of drinking water every year, using 41 percent less water than a typical office building. All parking is underground, eliminating exposed heat-absorbing asphalt, and the exposed plaza surface is shaded by trellises and trees, reducing the urban "heat-island" effect. The building operates a year-round recycling program and is cleaned with Earth-friendly products.

Comcast Center was constructed with materials containing high levels of recycled content, and 80 percent of Comcast Center’s wood products were sourced from forests with certification from the Forest Stewardship Council.

Comcast’s green efforts don’t stop with our headquarters. Comcast and NBCUniversal, like many companies, are seeking ways to reduce our environmental footprint and our energy consumption. Through internal development and strategic partnerships, each area of our business is creating processes, capitalizing on innovative technology and delivering our services in new ways that lessen our impact on the environment. Please see below for just a few highlights from Comcast and NBCUniversal: 

• Comcast is focused on reducing energy usage, both by our customers in the home and by our business operations, and NBCUniversal is focused on sustainable best practices across our businesses including facilities, production and theme parks.

• Comcast operates the tenth-largest commercial fleet of hybrid vehicles in the United States. With more than 6,300 hybrid and flex-fuel vehicles in our fleet, we saw a reduction of 60,000 gallons of unleaded gas and more than a 25 percent decrease in greenhouse gas emissions in 2011 alone.

• Many of the set-top boxes that deliver our video services in customers’ homes today are on the ENERGY STAR Set-Top Box Qualified Product List, and nearly 100 percent of the boxes we will buy in the future will be ENERGY STAR compliant.

• Both behind the scenes and in front of the camera, NBCUniversal is integrating sustainability into its TV productions. The Universal Television (UTV) division along with Universal Cable Productions (UCP) has implemented a comprehensive set of green best practices and has hired an executive to assist productions in implementing these practices at Universal Pictures.

• Universal Orlando saved approximately 491,000 kWh of electricity in 2011 as a result of increased energy-conservation efforts.

• NBCUniversal’s film division is committed to becoming a more sustainable business by identifying and integrating innovative ways to reduce its environmental footprint. Universal Pictures and Focus Features developed a detailed green Film Production Guide for their casts and crews to give each department production-specific information, resources and best practices.