“As a social services organization, I felt it was doubly important to implement as many healthy, sustainable practices as we could.” said Nicolas Thomley, CEO of Pinnacle Services. “The age of the structure, combined with its incredible historic legacy, made it one of the more complex sites to pursue LEED certification.” Thomley added that LEED certification was one of the major considerations during the initial design and planning of the building’s renovation. Thomley also served as the General Contractor on the project.

Renovations began on the new Pinnacle Services headquarters in January of 2008. Over 95% of the building’s structure and more than 55% of its non-structural interiors were reused in the new design. Of the new materials used, more than a quarter were regional products including the floors that are reclaimed wood flooring from Duluth buildings of the same era. Other environmentally friendly building components include daylight and motion sensors to reduce electricity costs, low-emitting adhesives, sealants, paints, wood and agrifibers to improve air quality and water fixtures that use 36% less water than standard fixtures. In addition, over 76% of the construction waste was diverted from landfills. The building’s natural gas and electricity costs have been reduced nearly 20%.

The turn-of-the-century building has housed several Minnesota companies including the AC Black Stove Company and the Minnesota Casket Company. It is the one of the oldest buildings to attain LEED certification in Minnesota and only the thirtieth to achieve the LEED Gold rating. LEED is an internationally recognized certification that measures the performance of a building or community against metrics such as energy savings, water efficiency, emissions reduction, and indoor air quality, among others.

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