About a year and a half after setting out to become the first major commercial printer to have all of its major manufacturing sites designated as green buildings, Quad/Graphics’s manufacturing facility and headquarters in Sussex, Wisconsin has become its first to achieve certification.

The 1.7 million square-foot facility, which houses 60 pieces of heavy industrial press and finishing equipment, received the U.S. Green Building Council’s silver rating Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification.

The green certification of a 25-year-old manufacturing facility is “testament to our longtime commitment to environmentalism,” according to president and CEO Joel Quadracci.

LEED is a voluntary, nationally-recognized rating system that establishes benchmarks for developing high-performance, sustainable buildings. The system rates facilities in five areas concerning human and environmental health: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection and indoor environmental quality.

Quad has long promoted carpooling among its staffers and utilizes environmentally conscious landscaping. Last year, the company said it recycled 98.5 percent of waste materials leaving its plants, including paper, fluorescent lights, metal, plastic and concrete.

Quad continues to have its nine remaining facilities LEED-certified, the company said.