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| Volvo Construction Equipment wins sustainable building award  Volvo Construction Equipment has been awarded Latin America's first Platinum SustentaX Seal, the highest accolade in the region, for creating a sustainable exhibit stand at this year's M&T Expo in Brazil. The SustentaX Seal can be applied to products, services and trade fair stands and recognizes a commitment to sustainability. This includes social and environmental responsibility, quality, savings, safety and health. Volvo Construction Equipment's impressive 5,000m2 exhibition arena took two months to prepare and meets over 100 criteria required to achieve the Platinum rating, including energy conservation, wise water consumption and the use of recycled materials.SustentaX was the first company in South America to certify a Green Building under USGBC (United States Green Building Council) standards following LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) criteria. To merit the award, Volvo adopted a series of criteria when building its stand that included a waste management plan. It used only legal wood of certified and proven origin, recycled materials, as well as local materials, in different parts of the stand. The landscaping was prepared with native species, the cleaning products used were sustainable and efforts were also made in the social-environmental area. "It was a challenge to find and use recycled material, and other adequate products suitable for this purpose, " says Yoshio Kawakami, president of Volvo Construction Equipment in Latin America. "We also adopted an architecture that benefited from natural light – and eliminated the use of paper and plastic cups, " he says. M&T Expo, held every three years, is the largest construction equipment exhibition in Latin America. Industry players are hailing the 2009 event a success, with more than 350 exhibitors and 42,000 visitors attending the five-day show in June. write your comments about the article :: © 2009 Construction News :: home page |