Green Building & Sustainable Development
Florida Homebuilder Among First Nationwide to Build only LEED Certified Homes
11/08/2007 - A leading advocate of new urbanism in north Florida and one of the state's most innovative development companies, K2 Urbancorp LLC, announced today that it will henceforth only build homes that meet the tough new green building standards formally adopted Thursday by the US Green Building Council (USGBC) and announced in Chicago.
The company is currently in the second phase of creating a new traditional neighborhood community named Evening Rose in Tallahassee - Florida's capital city. The $80 million, 36-acre, in-fill development will feature 132 homes and a walkable town center with more than 120,000-square-feet of retail, restaurant, commercial, and live-work space. Construction on the initial homes is complete and USGBC certification is anticipated this month on what will be North Florida's first LEED certified homes.
"We are incredibly proud to be at the forefront of what is becoming a national movement in home building," said K2 Urbancorp CEO David Wamsley, who was invited to attend the USGBC announcement in Chicago.
"Building the highest quality homes and meeting the industry's strictest standards for sustainability, environmental construction and energy conservation -- from the ground up -- is the future of homebuilding in America," Wamsley said. "Further, we are demonstrating that this can be accomplished without increasing the cost of a home to consumers."
Steven Winter, of Steven Winter Associates and chairman of USGBC from 1999 to 2003, congratulated K2 Urbancorp on its comprehensive commitment to the USGBC LEED for Homes standards.
"It's inspiring to see a builder truly be innovative, and to apply these rigorous national standards, to every home they build going forward," Winter added. "Just wait until the public gets a chance to see what K2 Urbancorp is doing down there."
The U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Rating System is the nationally accepted benchmark for high performance green buildings. The voluntary rating system sets the standard for design, construction, and operation of high performance green buildings, giving building owners and operators the tools they need to have an immediate and measurable impact on their building's performance. LEED promotes a whole- building 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.
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