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Florida Green Local Government Standard Released
Florida city and county governments can now become certified "green," thanks
to a new environmental certification program that recognizes and
rewards cities and counties for making environmental stewardship
a priority in functions performed by the local government.
The Florida
Green Local Government Standard was created by the
Florida
Solar Energy Center (FSEC), working under a contract from
the U.S.
Department of Energy and the Florida
Energy Office. A
number of organizations and agencies served as subcontractors or
reviewers, including:
- The Florida
Green Building Coalition, Inc. (FGBC), a non-profit membership organization that has developed
other green standards for Florida. FGBC will maintain the
standard over time and award all designations.
- The Miami
Dade Department of Environmental Resources Management put together educational modules on fleet
management and on landscape maintenance to assist local governments
with the process.
- Sarasota, Alachua and Miami-Dade counties
and the City of Gainesville helped with creation and review of
the standard.
- City of Orlando representatives also participated
in development of the standard.
The new standard is the first certification program in the nation
to consider the entire environmental impact of local governments. It
evaluates environmental practices done "in-house," incentives
and ordinances to foster green practices, and educational activities
to improve the environment. According to Doug Yoder, assistant
director of the Miami-Dade Environmental Resources Management
Department, "Local governments are ideally positioned to
demonstrate sustainable practices in their own operations and to
promote green behaviors by their residents. This standard
gives practical definition to these ideas and makes possible a
true grassroots movement to green the entire state."
Eric Martin, a senior research engineer at FSEC, explained that "Almost
every function of a local government has an impact on the environment
and thus this is an extremely comprehensive standard, presenting
best management practices for functions including building and
development, natural resources management, emergency services,
economic development, public works, and waste management." The
standard also provides credit for utilizing other statewide and
national green standards such as FGBC's green commercial and institutional,
green home, and green development standards; the Florida Department
of Environmental Protection's Clean Marina and Green Lodging Programs,
and the National Arbor Day Foundation's Tree City USA program. To
help city and county governments with the process, FSEC created
a spreadsheet tool that helps local champions track the progress
towards certification.
"City and county governments will be interested in achieving
the designation not only for recognition and publicity, but also
in the interest of functioning in a more efficient manner though
better internal communication, dollar savings and effective risk
and asset management," said Robin Vieira, Director of Buildings
Research at FSEC. FGBC hopes the standard will eventually
serve as a metric for state government to use in creating incentives
for certified green local governments.
For more information on the standard, contact Eric Martin 321-638-1450
or martin@fsec.ucf.edu. To
access the standard documents, local governments can visit http://www.floridagreenbuilding.org/standard/govs/.
The Florida Solar Energy Center, a research institute of the University
of Central Florida, is the largest and most active state-supported
energy research center in the country. Current research activities
include solar water and pool heating, solar electric and distributed
generation systems, energy-efficient buildings, alternative transportation
systems, hydrogen fuel, and other energy areas. For more information,
call the FSEC Public Information Office at (321) 638-1015 or go
to http://www.fsec.ucf.edu/.
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