UGL Services Supports John Hancock Financial through LEED Certification

John Hancock Financial, the Boston-based, U.S. unit of Manulife Financial Corporation, with the assistance of UGL Services consultants, has scored an unprecedented achievement in corporate responsibility and sustainability by qualifying for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) on four properties in Boston in the Existing Building Operations & Maintenance category.

The achievement included the Platinum designation for John Hancock’s headquarters building at 601 Congress St. in Boston – the first Platinum LEED-EB building in New England – and Gold certification for three other Boston buildings.

John Hancock turned to UGL Services for guidance and LEED certification project management. The service was provided by UGL Services LEED-AP (Accredited Professional) staff who carried out an 18-month turnkey project.

The UGL Services staff appropriately formatted existing Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), performed audits and packaged many of John Hancock’s established environmental initiatives to support the initiative and help qualify for LEED credits. The UGL Services LEED-AP team also managed the interface with USGBC, including all communications, submissions, revisions and deliverables for certification.

“John Hancock was in excellent shape with the systems and programs that they already had in place,” commented UGL Services Vice President, Facility Management Solutions, Ken Stack. “We worked closely with them and USGBC to document and confirm their compliance and to help John Hancock achieve certification at the Platinum level. For instance, they already had an outstanding company ergonomics program that we were able to package and document for an Innovation Credit.”

“John Hancock's property management group is committed to environmental responsibility,” said John Hancock Managing Director of U.S. Corporate Real Estate Paul Crowley. “We were confident that our existing systems and procedures would provide significant points toward the highest levels of LEED certification. UGL Services gave us the guidance we needed to help us identify and document the programs we already had in place and address the areas that we could further enhance to maximize benefits. We are quite proud of the LEED Platinum designation for our Headquarters and the Gold certifications for our Back Bay portfolio.”

About DTZ and UGL Services

DTZ is now combined with UGL Services. UGL Services is a division of UGL Limited. The combined business of DTZ and UGL Services is now one of the largest property services companies in the world. It provides corporate/occupier clients with a global, integrated, end-to-end service offering and best-in-class investor services capabilities in investment agency, leasing agency, property and facilities management, project and building consultancy, valuation, and investment and asset management. The organization has 27,000 permanent employees and 43,000 personnel including contractors, operating across 225 offices in 45 countries. For further information, visit: www.uglservices.com and www.dtz-ugl.com.

About UGL Limited

UGL Limited (ASX: UGL) is a global leader in outsourced engineering, property services and asset management and maintenance delivering essential services that sustain and enhance the environment in which we live. UGL comprises three business units including Engineering, Operations & Maintenance and Property providing services across the power, water, rail, resources, property, infrastructure and defence sectors. Headquartered in Sydney, Australia, UGL operates worldwide across 45 countries employing approximately 55,000 people. For more information, visit: www.ugllimited.com.