Green features earn Hancock a gold certificate

By Casey Ross, Globe Staff

The owner of the John Hancock Tower in Boston has attained one of the nation's highest environmental certifications for instituting an array of measures to cut the buildings water use and carbon emissions.

Normandy Real Estate Partners of New Jersey was given gold certification for, among other things, installing new filtration systems to reduce the Hancock's water consumption by 30 percent and instituting a program that cut the amount of waste going to landfills by 360 tons per year. The certification was awarded by US Green Building Council.

Normandy purchased the Hancock at a foreclosure auction last year and has since pursued plans to improve the building to help attract new tenants. Nearly one-sixth of the Hancock was vacant when the firm took over from the previous ownership team.

In addition to the pollution-control measures, Normandy has also installed electrical outlet charging stations in the garage as well as a new heating and air conditioning system that saves and recirculates water throughout the building.

The Hancock Tower is shown at right in an AP file photo.