Greeting card maker Posty Cards has announced a $6.4 million expansion of its office and plant in Kansas City, Mo., that will strive to reach LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Platinum certification.
Kansas City-based Posty Cards Inc. designs, manufactures and sells holiday and all-occasion business greeting cards and calendars designed to help companies maintain ties with clients and employees.
The family-owned company says it has been focused on sustainability for several years. Its promotional catalogs are printed on Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)-certified paper and the company says it maintains “an extensive recycling program.” The company’s greeting cards and calendars are printed with soy ink and many are printed on recycled-content or FSC-certified paper.
According to a news release, the 25,000 square foot expansion of Posty Cards’ operations center will entail the building of new production, distribution and administrative structure scheduled to open in the summer of 2010. “The expansion will more than double the size of the existing facility,” the company states in its news release.
Posty Cards President Erick Jessee says the project is striving to obtain the highest LEED rating of any manufacturing plant in the United States. “Today I’m announcing that we are going to go for not just a LEED Gold rating, but LEED Platinum. If we do that, we’ll be the first and only manufacturing plant in the United States to earn that distinction,” said Jessee at a March 12 press event.
“For years Posty Cards has been a leader in utilizing sustainable materials such as soy-based inks and recycled papers,” Jessee says.
Jessee says the new plant will feature the largest private solar photovoltaic panel installation in Missouri, solar heated water, very high efficiency HVAC, natural lighting with active artificial lighting controls, rain water reclamation for irrigation and flushing toilets, and native plant landscaping. In addition, the facility is Green-e certified with 100 percent of its electricity offset by renewable wind power.
“For three generations, Posty Cards has grown and prospered in Kansas City’s urban core,” says Jessee. “We are thrilled to be staying in our neighborhood and growing our business even more. With this expansion we have room to increase our workforce by more than 50 percent and to continue providing good jobs in the heart of this great city. We are grateful for the support and cooperation we have received from all our government and private partners. They are clearly focused on keeping business alive and well in Kansas City.”
The project design and construction teams consists of McHenry Shaffer Mitchell as architects, PKMR as mechanical, electrical and plumbing design engineers, KH Engineering for structural design, SK Design Group for civil design, Patti Banks Associates for landscape design, and Turner Special Projects as the construction manager.