Edmonton’s City Hall has received a national environmental certification thanks to recent renovations which make the 17-year old building more energy efficient.

The City achieved the certification by converting to low-energy use lighting, replacing old carpet with more environmentally friendly carpet, using green products in the heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems and having custodial staff use green cleaning products.

“City Hall is a showcase and it’s important to make environmental improvements to the building where feasible” says Councillor Don Iveson. “For those of us who work in the building on a day-to-day basis, this is an important way for the City to show its environmental leadership.”

The building received a BOMA Best -- Level 1 certification from the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) of Canada, the voice of the Canadian commercial real estate industry in Canada.

City Hall will host an event for delegates from municipalities around the world in June at the 2009 ICLEI World Congress, an international conference on environmental sustainability.

“It will be nice to tell other municipalities from around the world visiting here in June for the ICLEI World Congress how City Hall is energy efficient and how we consider the environment when we make renovations to public buildings,” says Iveson.

Level 1 certification represents an organization’s green practices. Buildings are assessed in key environmental areas including: energy, water, waste reduction and site, indoor environment, environmental management systems and, emissions and effluent. Edmonton becomes the second city in Canada to have its city hall BOMA Best certified -- Winnipeg’s City Hall received the same certification.

This certification supports EcoVision Edmonton, Council’s vision for an environmentally sustainable city.

Source - SolidWasteMag.com