Photo Ellie Van Houtte/Town CrierThe Packard Foundation’s new headquarters on Second Street boasts a variety of green, sustainable and energy-saving features.

After 18 months of construction, The David and Lucile Packard Foundation is scheduled to formally open its new headquarters at 343 Second St. in downtown Los Altos with a June 29 ribbon-cutting ceremony.

The 49,000-square-foot building, located at San Antonio Road and Whitney Street, follows the foundation’s mission to restore and protect the planet. The building has earned LEED Platinum certification for green building design, construction, operations and maintenance, and will be among only a handful of buildings in the country designated “Net Zero” – creating no carbon emissions, able to run independent of the power grid by reducing its net energy consumption to zero and producing as much energy onsite as it consumes.

With workspaces oriented to maximize natural sunlight, plug-load measures to minimize electricity consumption and a creative building design, energy use should decrease 65 percent in the new building, according to Packard officials. Roof-mounted photovoltaic panels will produce energy onsite and render the new offices self-sustaining.

“This is an incredibly beautiful building,” said Minna Jung, Packard’s director of communications. “It is a wonderful, innovative, energy-saving space, and we’re looking forward to moving in.”

The Packard Foundation, a grant-making organization focused on conservation and families, has called Los Altos home for 45 years. The new building will allow the nonprofit agency to accommodate its operational needs as it continues to grow, according to Jung.

She added that 100 employees would be consolidated from their current locations at 175 S. San Antonio Road and 321 Second St. into the new building July 9.

The community will be invited regularly in the fall to tour the building and grounds that feature edible landscaping and onsite composting.

For more information, visit www.packard.org.

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