Florida County Celebrates First LEED Building

St. Patrick’s Day is just around the corner and I have suggested throwing a go green office party to celebrate the original green holiday. Lee County, Florida is turning their St. Patrick’s Day party into a much larger affair as the county celebrates its first LEED certified building.

The 13,000 square foot interpretive center at the Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve in Fort Myers received LEED Silver certification in February 2009. A few of the green building highlights include:

• The building's placement on a site that was previously disturbed, negating the need to disturb other pristine areas.
• Use of recycled and renewable materials, such as steel and bamboo and paper-based products,
• High-efficiency mechanical and electrical systems and low-use water facilities, as well as captured rainwater.
• Buying local goods to reduce the energy costs of transportation. Source: Cape Coral Daily Breeze

Although it is the first building in the county to receive LEED certification from the U.S. Green Building Council, the USGBC website shows several other LEED Registered Projects in the w

Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) is in the process of building a new student residence hall to LEED for New Construction 2.2 standards and FineMark National Bank & Trust is working on a LEED EB O&M; project. These are just two of the several LEED Registered projects in Fort Myers, Florida.