City of Scottsdale Earns Coveted LEED Gold Certification

The U.S. Green Building Council recognized the City of Scottsdale’s Granite Reef Senior Center, 1700 N. Granite Reef Road, with the coveted LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold certification during a special dedication ceremony Tuesday, May 15, 2007. The LEED certification recognizes the Senior Center project for its sustainable, green building features. This is the first public building in Scottsdale to receive LEED Gold certification under the city's green building policy.

The LEED Green Building Rating System™ is the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction, and operation of high performance green buildings. There are four progressively higher and more demanding levels of certification (from lowest to highest): Certified, Silver, Gold and Platinum.

“We’re proud of this designation. We were the first city in the nation to take the step of adopting a policy that all government buildings would be LEED Gold Certified,” says Mayor Mary Manross. Also encouraging, she said, is that more than one-third of the single family building permits in 2006 were for “green” homes. “We are a national leader in the field of green building and I am committed to maintaining that leadership,” added the Mayor.

Salt River Project helped fund a 30-kilowatt solar photovoltaic system on the building, which will supply 15 to 100 percent of the building’s energy usage depending on time of year.

“We commend the City of Scottsdale for their leadership and investment in green buildings, energy efficiency and renewable technology,” said Richard Hayslip, SRP assistant general manager for Environmental, Land, Risk Management and Telecom. “We’re looking forward to working with other communities in the Valley to continue to reduce energy consumption and invest in renewable energy resources.”

LEED gives building owners and operators the tools needed to have an immediate and measurable impact on a building’s performance. LEED promotes a whole-buildings approach to sustainability by recognizing performance in five key areas of human and environmental health: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection, and indoor environmental quality. In addition, LEED provides a roadmap for measuring and documenting success for every building type and phase of a building lifecycle.

City projects under way toward achieving LEED certification include the Arabian Library, Fire Station 602, the Police Operational Support Building and District 1 Station, the TPC Desert Course Golf Clubhouse, Appaloosa Library, and the McCormick Ranch Model Railroad Museum.

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) is the nation’s foremost coalition of leaders from every sector of the building industry working to promote buildings that are environmentally responsible, profitable and healthy places to live and work. Their more than 7,500 member organizations and network of 75 regional chapters are united to advance their mission of transforming the building industry to sustainability.