After two years of stringent review, data collection, and inter-agency collaboration, the city of Cape Canaveral, Florida, has achieved LEED Silver certification under the LEED for Cities and Communities rating system.

Cape Canaveral achieved LEED Silver certification for implementing strategies and solutions that improve sustainability, resilience, and the standard of living for residents. The city scored the majority of its credits in the water efficiency, quality of life, natural systems and ecology, energy and greenhouse gas emissions, and innovation categories.

LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, was created by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) and is a green building rating system designed to help buildings, cities, and communities achieve high performance in key areas of social, economic, and environmental sustainability.

The Process to Achieving LEED Silver Certification

In order to facilitate the city’s certification process, a student volunteer intern, Hannah Teague, was brought on in May 2022. Between May 2022 and July 2023, Teague put in hundreds of hours of work to help collect extensive amounts of infrastructure and utility data, review city policies, write project narratives, and collaborate with multiple internal department heads and external stakeholders to develop a comprehensive review of the city’s sustainability and resilience program, which has been named “Cape Canaveral 2063."

In July 2023, staff submitted the city’s certification application for the first of two reviews by USGBC officials, and submitted the city’s second allotted submission for final review in January 2024. On March 6, 2024, city staff were formally notified by USGBC officials that the city had officially achieved LEED Silver Certification.

“The city of Cape Canaveral is proud of its heritage as a firsthand witness to innovation and human ingenuity through America’s space program," stated Zach Eichholz, Cape Canaveral chief resilience manager. "Today, the city utilizes this same pioneering spirit to build a more resilient and sustainable futureready community. We are grateful to the US Green Building Council for accepting Cape Canaveral into the LEED for Cities Cohort, and for so diligently helping staff through the certification process.” 

Creating and Implementing Responsible, Sustainable, and Specific Plans

As of February 2023, there are more than 110,000 LEED-certified projects across all 50 states and 186 countries and territories. The LEED for Cities Local Government Leadership Program helps to certify entire municipalities and counties.

Cities that are accepted into the cohort are guaranteed two submission reviews to ensure the maximum number of points can be received to achieve the highest possible LEED Certification status. One can be either LEED Certified, LEED Silver Certified, LEED Gold Certified, or LEED Platinum Certified.

A total of 15 local governments (including the city of Cape Canaveral) were selected to participate in the 2022 LEED for Cities Local Government Leadership Program, intakes new “classes” of local participants annually.