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.flori
dagreenbuilding.org/standard/govs/default.htm.

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.