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Congratulations to the City of Coral Gables for Achieving LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Silver Certification under LEED V4 Building Design and Construction: New Construction and Major Renovations for both the Police and Fire Headquarters and the Trolley Maintenance Facility.
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Over the last 7 years the City of Coral has become a leader in sustainability and resiliency in Florida and across the nation. Coral Gables recognizes that sustainability/resiliency must be a key focus of the City’s policies and services with the goal of creating a more resilient and sustainable Coral Gables for current and future generations.
This includes the way in which we design, construct, and operate our municipal buildings. In 2016, the City passed a green building ordinance that requires all future City public buildings/private buildings over 20,000 square feet be built to LEED Silver or equivalent which ensure large developments in the city are energy and water efficient, reduce waste, and incorporate additional resiliency and sustainability measures.
The City is leading by example. Recently both, the new Police and Fire Headquarters (Public Safety Building) and the Trolley Maintenance Facility, were certified by the US Green Building Council for achieving LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Silver Certification under LEED V4 Building Design and Construction: New Construction and Major Renovations.
The Police and Fire Headquarters is five stories and approximately 189,000 square feet. It serves not only as the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) for the City of Coral Gables but also as a divisional EOC which houses the cities of South Miami, West Miami, Pinecrest, Palmetto Bay and Sweetwater as well as the University of Miami during regional emergencies such as hurricanes. In case of an emergency, it can operate for two weeks on generator power. The Police and Fire Headquarters achieved 50 points through LEED. Some sustainability highlights include LED lighting, low flow faucets/fixtures, building level energy/water metering, heat island reduction, off-site renewable energy production/green power and carbon offsets, enhanced commissioning, construction and demolition waste management, indoor air quality management plan, etc.
The Trolley Maintenance Facility, which is over 12,500 square feet, achieved 54 points. Some sustainability highlights include all LED lighting, low flow faucets/fixtures, electric vehicle charging infrastructure, bicycle parking, building level water and energy metering, etc.
These achievements also help the City move closer to meeting the goals that were set forth in the City’s Sustainability Management Plan in 2015 which called for reducing energy and water consumption, fuel usage, and overall greenhouse gas emissions by 20% by 2025.