It’s awarded to buildings, but has been expanded to cities and communities.
Frederick, Md (KM) Two local jurisdictions received some special honors on Tuesday from the US Green Building Council. Frederick County has earned a LEED Silver designation: only ten counties in the nation have received this honor. The City of Frederick also received a LEED certification, but not a Silver designation.
The awards were presented to both the city and the county on Tuesday at Winchester Hall by Hilari Varnadore, the Director of LEED for cities and communities. “LEED enables cities and communities to take a holistic look at factors that impact our quality of life, including emissions, water, waste, transportation, health, safety, education and more,” she says.
County Executive Jan Gardner was on hand to receive the award on behalf of the county. “We’re are measuring how much water we are use, how much energy we consume, how much trash is disposed in the landfill, and how many miles we drive in our vehicles,” she says. “We are also monitoring health factors, and health was a new component in the Livable Frederick Plan; and what LEED refers to as the human experience, such as education levels, housing costs, income, air quality and crime rates.”
And County Executive Gardner said construction is underway on two solar arrays on county property. “The array being built at our landfill will provide power for seven county facilities,” she said. “The coolest part of that is that the solar array powers up charging stations for our all electric buses that we use in our TransIT system. And so they will truly be running on 100% renewable energy.”
Frederick Mayor Michael O’Connor was on hand to accept the LEED award for the city. “Frederick’s certification also demonstrates our city’s commitment to energy and resource conservation, good employment opportunities and a good quality of life overall,” he said.
But the Mayor said this is no time for the city to rest on its laurels. “So they’re at Silver, we want to get to Sliver. And when they get to Gold, we want to be right there with them,” he said.
LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. The honors are given to communities which implement solutions for improving sustainability and quality of life in areas such as energy, water, waste, transportation, health, education and other factors.
By Kevin McManus