LEEDing the way in Springfield!

Like many of you, I am sure, I attended my fair share of weddings this summer. These weddings fit the mold of any other wedding I have ever attended: bride in white dress, groom in formal wear, ceremony, reception, music, dancing, and some cake. However, one wedding that I attended this summer broke the mold. The wedding was not only the first outdoor wedding I have ever attended, but also was the first wedding reception that I have attended in a building that is completely green friendly.

Southwind Park’s Erin’s Pavilion in Springfield, Illinois was the setting. What sets this building apart from any other reception venue I have been, and most other buildings I have ever been in… period… is it’s LEED Platinum rating.

What is LEED you might ask? Well, here are the basics:

Who: LEED – Leadership in Energy and Environment Design

What: LEED’s description of itself – “The LEED green building certification program is an internationally recognized system for providing third-party verification that a building or community was designed and built using strategies aimed at improving performance across all the metrics that matter most: energy savings, water efficiency, CO2 emissions reduction, improved indoor environmental quality, and stewardship of resources and sensitivity to their impacts.” (Check out the link at the bottom to learn more!)

When: Since March 2000

Where: Certifies buildings all over the world

Why: To make buildings that do not harm the earth, but work with it to create sustainable, environmentally-friendly communities

LEED has different guidelines for schools, retail, healthcare, new construction, existing buildings, etc. There are four different classifications for LEED certified buildings. In order to qualify for certification, contractors must follow an extensive checklist. How many checks you get, determines how many points the building gets. You can find the checklist for a New Construction and Major Renovation here. Based on how many points you get, you are either: Certified, Silver, Gold, or Platinum.

Just a few credentials that LEED certified buildings must have: a certain percentage of their construction waste must either be reused or recycled, a certain percentage of the building’s energy must be obtained by solar power, minimum in indoor air quality must be present and water use reductions must be used in the building.

What is so impressive about Erin’s Pavilion, is that the building has obtained a LEED Platinum rating. This means that the Pavilion has joined an elite group of only 120 buildings that have achieved this rating. While the website has not been updated very recently, you can check out Erin’s Pavilion’s accomplishments here.

For more information about LEED, check out http://www.usgbc.org/ and click on LEED!