Osprey Fountains, the University of North Florida’s newest residence hall, has been certified LEED(Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) Silver by the U. S. Green Building Council.

The five-story, 385,000-square-foot-building houses 1,000 students and is located on Osprey Ridge Road off Kernan Boulevard. The student housing project, with two residential towers on each side, cost $86 million, and the infrastructure includes parking facilities, an access road, retention ponds, walking trails and a walkway connection to the main campus.

“I am extremely pleased that the Osprey Fountains project has earned a Silver LEED certification designation,” said Paul Riel, director of Housing and Residence Life at UNF. “The University of North Florida has a commitment to constructing sustainable buildings and Osprey Fountains is yet another example of our on-going commitment to environmental issues.”

With this latest certification, there are now five buildings certified by the U.S. Green Building Council on the UNF campus. Currently, Osprey Fountains, Parking Services and the Brooks College of Health addition are Silver-certified buildings, while the College of Education and Human Services is the first and only Gold-certified building on campus.

The new Student Union is presently going through the certification process and is striving to achieve the Silver rating. The Social Sciences building, which received basic certification, opened in the fall of 2006 as the first LEED-certified facility in Northeast Florida and was the first “green” building on campus.

The LEED™ Green Building Rating System is a voluntary third-party rating system where credits are earned for satisfying specified green building criteria. Projects are evaluated within six environmental categories: sustainable sites, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, materials and resources, and indoor environmental quality.

The U.S. Green Building Council is the nation’s leading coalition of corporations, builders, universities, federal and local agencies, and nonprofit organizations working together to promote buildings that are environmentally responsible, profitable and healthy places to live and work.

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