Building is First LEED Gold Certified Building in Alameda, First LEED Certified Coffee Roastery in United States

ALAMEDA, Calif., July 30 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Peet's Coffee & Tea, Inc., (Nasdaq: PEET), the premier specialty coffee and tea company in the U.S., today announced that its innovative new artisan roastery has been awarded LEED Gold level status by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). Developed by USGBC, LEED is the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings. Peet's Alameda coffee roastery is the first LEED certified coffee roasting facility in the United States and the first LEED Gold certified building in the City of Alameda.

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In a brief commemorative ceremony today, Peet's, the USGBC and other partners unveiled a LEED Gold plaque and acknowledged those involved in bringing the project to fruition. Speakers at the ceremony included Peet's CEO and President Patrick O'Dea; Peet's Vice President of Operations and Information Systems Jim Grimes, who spearheaded the LEED certification for Peet's; USGBC Co-Founder David Gottfried; Joe Ernst of SRM Associates, the project developer and coordinator of the LEED design and construction team; and Andrea Traber of KEMA Green, Peet's LEED consultant on the entire project from development and design to construction, commissioning and LEED application process.

'Peet's took a LEED certified approach to the design and construction of its roasting plant in keeping with the company's guiding principle to positively contribute to the environment wherever the company does business,' said Patrick O'Dea, president and CEO of Peet's Coffee & Tea. 'For the past 42 years, Peet's has been dedicated to sustainable practices, and this building is yet another example of that commitment.'

LEED promotes a whole-building approach to sustainability by recognizing performance in five key areas of human and environmental health: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection and indoor environmental quality.