NORTH CANTON, Ohio — The Timken Company recently announced that its World Headquarters building has earned LEED Gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) sets the international standard for green-building excellence, and this certification recognizes The Timken Company's adherence to solid green design and practices.
Built in 1966, the building located near the Akron-Canton airport recently underwent a $65 million, 240,000-square-foot renovation and expansion to serve as the company's new world headquarters. The building brings together more than 1,000 associates who engage in research and development, engineering, customer service, supply chain, sales and marketing. The facility also houses corporate functions, including executive leadership, communications, legal, accounting, tax and treasury, investor relations, human resources and global marketing. Construction began in May 2012 and wrapped up in July 2014.
"Our new building is designed for maximum collaboration among employees to enhance our speed of innovation and customer service," said Douglas H. Smith, Timken product line vice president and leader of the project. "In keeping with our core values, we built sustainability into this new building as well. We were committed to incorporating 'green' features and following 'green' construction guidelines throughout this project."
Situated on 115 acres at 4500 Mount Pleasant St. N.W., in Jackson Township, the World Headquarters features abundant natural lighting along with outdoor gardens and a walking path; a state-of-the-art cafeteria overseen by chefs committed to health-conscious offerings; preferred parking spots for energy-efficient vehicles and car poolers; and a comprehensive recycling program. Additional features include vegetated swales within parking areas to slow rainwater so it can be absorbed into the ground; a white roof combined with high-efficiency heating and cooling components that saves up to 32 percent on energy usage compared with a standard code-compliant building with no green features; and low-flow water fixtures.
The company previously achieved LEED Gold certification for construction of a new plant built in 2009 in Xiangtan, China, where it today manufactures ultra-large bore bearings used in the wind energy industry.
The Timken World Headquarters is the first LEED Gold certified newly constructed office building in Stark County, Ohio, and one of only 31 similar projects in the state of Ohio to achieve LEED Gold certification under the new, more stringent LEED requirements.
The Timken Company engineers, manufactures and markets Timken bearings, transmissions, gearboxes, chain, and related products, and offers a spectrum of power system rebuild and repair services around the world. Timken posted $3 billion in sales in 2013 (excluding Steel business sales).
