Founded in 2000 The Florida Green Building Coalition(FGBC) a (501C3) nonprofit corporation and is the leading certifier of green building projects in the state of Florida. Currently over 17,000 projects have been certified including: residential, commercial and land developments. FGBC is a unique green certification because they have developed and incorporated climate specific standards to specifically address Florida’s hot humid climates, unique topography, and natural disasters. FGBC is dedicated to promoting sustainability, environmental, economic and social benefits.
Lakewood Ranch
Located on Florida’s west coast in Manatee, and Sarasota county. Lakewood Ranch is the largest green certifedcommunity in the nation! This 31,000 acre sustainable green community has been certified green by the florida green building coalition. Lakewood Ranch has everything any green homeowner could desired in a carefully planned sustainable community. Offering ten distict individual shopping districts,including specialty shops, boutiques, town centers,neighborhood plazas,professional services,cultural centers, gourmet restaurants,variety of entertainment options, and major anchor tenants. Half of the communities 8,500 acres is set aside for open space with over 150 miles of trails for walking, biking and multiple recreation activities: including 36 holes of private golf, 18 separate tennis courts, polo,cricket and over 80 different of types of clubs available for any discerning resident to select and participate in.
There are eight public schools that offer A ratings consistently in the top Florida state ranking for academic, writing and achievement testing. Fourteen preschools, two private schools and seven advanced education campuses. Offering a myriad selection of continuing education opportunities available for post secondary, technical and custom enrichment opportunities.
Additional areas of interest include year round festivals, arts and crafts,signature events, over 20 places of individual worship available to all residents. The florida green building coalition is statewide, non profit that is an independent green certifying entity. Points are awarded for each of the individual green certifying levels, limited to: bronze,silver,gold and platinum. Individual green home builders accumulate numerical points for selecting and intregrating individual environmentally friendly green products and sustainable techniques from a menu of available green options to choose from.
Homes are visited, reviewed and certified by a third party green verifier. Each of the green certifying levels are upgraded, expanded, and improving on the green certification designation.Individual homeowners receive a certificate of green compliance. Areas of individual certification include: energy efficiency, water resource conservation management,environmental responsibility, and natural land resource preservation, There are ten(10) separate villages included in the Lakewood Ranch development.Each village is tailored to a separate lifestyle to suit the individual sustainable homeowners lifestyle. Residents have the opportunity to select from individual green town homes to custom planned estates. Prices range from the 100’s to over 5 million for a custom planned estate.There are currently 21 carefully selected sustainable home builders that are thoroughly knowledgeable in green construction new home building available for future residents. Currently there is over 15,000 people living within Lakewood Ranch. With over 1,200 individual business headquartered on the ranch.
Commercial business parks include: fiber optic lines, natural gas service,non potable reuse irrigation water systems, Business Park locations are carefully planned around historic Florida ranch land providing wetland protection, and environmental stewardship. There is over 1.5 billion in annual local business activity on Lakewood Ranch.
Lakewood Ranch’s knowledgeable greenbrokers total home sales has escalated from 264 in 2015 to 360 sales in 2016. This sales activity has moved the master planned green community to number five in the nation for green building activity! The top selling village was the villages.
Green Key Village
Green Key village is a 148 home planned green community located in sunny Lady Lake central Florida. Just a short drive from Ocala and Orlando. These super efficient homes are constructed to net zero certification. Based upon the energy use patterns of energy consumption using the Resent HERS scale.
In order to obtain net zero certification, zero on the HERS Index, with no annual energy bills. Ekotrope software analyzed the energy efficient specific design elements selecting the most efficient combination for each home owners comfort and investment. Each Green Key Village home is constructed to Florida green building coalition standards and third party verified by Green built solutions. Three different types of exterior construction is available: Frame construction, concrete construction or poured concrete wall construction. Roofing is Good house keeping approved singles with UV blocker using 30 lb. felt.
Insulation is open spray foam creating a tight thermal barrier. The garage is separately sealed from the home with its own individual motion controlled exhaust fan installed and a heavy insulated garage door preventing radiated heat from entering. Specific green construction building elements constructed within each net zero energy home include: Exterior walls: 2×4 with FG Batts and orientated strand board sheathing and whole house wrap. Roof Insulation: open spray foam of 5 inches on roof rafters, inside the conditioned building envelope. Window: low E 270 reducing heat gain by 50%, dual pane Argon gas filled. Heating system: Amana two ton 9 HSPF. Cooling system: Amana 2 ton 15 SEER Interior lighting; Combined 25% CFL and 75% LED with motion detector switches. PV package: 6.24 Kilowatt , .96 KW East Ventilation: Energy star exhaust fans and Energy star ceiling fans. Hot water system: Geo spring HP 2.4 EF rated.
With the above selected combination of energy efficient items homeowners enjoy zero energy bills. Additional benefits include the solar photovoltaic system is financed using the greenmortgage. The homeowner also receives a 30% federal tax credit for the total cost of the solar array. There are currently eight different floor plans offered at Green Key Village ranging in size from 3 bedroom 2 bath up to 5 bedroom 3 bath. Additional features included in home include: Water Sense approved fixtures, And all Energy Star approved appliances. Community features include: Gated entry way, fitness trails, community garden, pool, dog park, children’s playground and bath house. These super efficient energy homes start at: 350K.
Recent upgrades to the community include: 1,800 sq. ft. picket ball court. 1,700 sq. ft. tennis court, 2,350 basketball court. Additionally a new community swimming pool with two pavilions are under construction.
Babcock Ranch
Located in southwest Florida three hours from Miami. Babcock Ranch is a (18K) acre certified green community. Designed and constructed from the ground up incorporating green building techniques, solar power, clean technology, and smart innovation. Designed and approved as a public-private partnership,Seventy four thousand (74K) acres was originally sold to the state of Florida for over 300 million dollars. Eighty percent(80%) of the original acreage will remain as a private reserve with (18K) acres being developed as a self contained solar city.
The entire Ranch will be self contained, powered by a 75 mega watt solar power photo voltaic plant. Over 340K solar panels will be placed on individual homes, commercial rooftops, and occupy an additional 440 acres. The solar facility will be owned and operated by Florida light and power FLP). The solar plant will be connected to the main power grid to eliminate potential power outages. The solar panels will eliminate the green communities dependence on fossil fuels (heating & cooling) and will eliminate the emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Florida Power and light has recently added the first stage a 40 mega watt commercial storage battery into operation. Storage batteries store daylight power and then dispatch the power at peak electrical demand or when there is cloud cover. The entire Ranch has an integrated smart network allowing residents to monitor and control their individual electrical consumption. Babcock Ranch is the first large scale master planned green community to be fully powered by renewable energy in the United States.(Off grid) Throught out the community there is solar trees available for recharging smartphomes, laptops and various other devices!
To further facilitate the elimination of green house gases (CO2) Babcock Ranch is developing a system of on demand autonomous shuttles and electric vehicles. Autonomous shuttles operating on a closed loop, can move up to six passengers around the green community at speeds up to 25 mph. Future developments will include a dedicated app for all community residents. There is also a community shared transportation system for bicycle rentals.
Ninety percent (90%) of Babcock Ranch’s water is recaptured and reused. The first phase a 15 million dollar water filtration system, producing potable water that can water community gardens and provide up to 250K gallons of fresh drinking water daily! One hundred percent (100%) of Babcock Ranch’s grey water is treated and discharged into two retention lakes. Reclaimed water, aka retreated waste water is used to replenish wetlands and ground water tables. Community rain gardens, filter marshes further clean the reclaimed water for fish and wildlife.
Each home in the Ranch will meet Florida’s Bronze green building certification. The minimum Florida green certification is 100 points. However to obtain the bronze certification,is achieved by accumulating 130 points (30 more points) by incorporating selected green building techniques and materials. This benefits the environment and individual sustainable homeowners, with many of the homes exceeding the bronze certification. Additionally all homes are required to include hurricane shutters or have impact resistant glass installed.
The Bobcock community will include four separate villages and five hamlets.The first neighborhood to be developed will be called Lake Timber featuring lake front single family homes, green town homes and green condos.Timber Lake will feature 8K homes and a downtown walkable community. All Lake Timber homes will feature neoclassical architecture and front poaches. Master developer Syd Kitson has initially hand selected seven green home builders who embrace green building techniques.
All the current homes are marketed by knowledgeable green brokers, Castle harbor homes, Florida lifestyle homes, Fox premier builders, Homes by Towne, Stork development and featuring two national production developers, Lennar and Pulte. As the community expands more developers will be added. Homes range in price from below 200’s to one million dollars. Floor plans range in size from 1,400 sq. ft. to over 6,000 sq, ft. with easy one floor living to all types of sophisticated floor plans. Babcock Ranch homes qualify for dedicated green mortgage financing.
Timber Lake neighborhood offers three separate lakes, a 2,400 sq. ft. water front clubhouse, gathering room, flat screen TV’s gaming and billiards. Outside offers a wrap around deck, pools, kayak canoes and sail boats.Also recently opened is a wellness center, electric Duffy boat tours, playgrounds and outdoor grilling.
There is also a 300 acre wildlife corridor and panther mitigation zone. Ecotours highlight all types of birds, including cranes, egrets, herons and red headed hawks. The ecotour also highlights native large and baby alligators,and a self contained cattle farm. Currently there is 1.5 miles of walking trails which will be expanded up to 50 miles covering the entire 18k acre community.
Brand Your Company Green!
To purchase, advertise, joint venture or inquire about Greenappraiser.com or any of our category defining domain names, please contact us below.