City Earns Gold for Green Efforts

Dunedin’s “green” effort earned upgraded gold accolades from a Florida non-profit authority on sustainability.

Dunedin was officially upgraded from the Florida Green Building Coalition's silver to the gold level in October. Dunedin is the highest rated "green" city, tied with Sarasota county. It is just one level away from the Florida Green Building Coalition's highest rating — platinum.

“Which I think is tremendous,” said Valerie Brown, city sustainability coordinator.

Dunedin was the third city (and fourth local government) to achieve silver status in 2007. 

“We were ahead of the curve then, and we still are,” Brown said.

The biggest point-scorer for the new gold designation, was a complete overhaul of Dunedin's building codes to more eco-sustainable ones. The codes now include incentives for green-certified building projects and require all municipal buildings to be green certified, Brown said.

The code overhaul involved massive amounts of “teamwork,” Brown said, “in crafting and executing for the benefit of generations to come. The building may be there for 30, 50, maybe 100 years. [During that time] it will operate more efficiently, save the city taxpayers money, and benefit the whole city for years and years to come.”

On Feb. 2, city officials agreed to clarify codes so that certain city buildings would not have to be built to the required green standards. Buildings that are primarily used as bathrooms, warehouses, well houses and pavilions would not require green certification, because it would not be economical to Dunedin taxpayers. 

The Florida Green Building Coalition is a nonprofit corporation dedicated to helping Florida developers, builders and local governments attain a more environmentally sustainable future. It touts its Green Local Government certification program as the “only one of its type in the country."

Dunedin earned points for its recycling programs, having reclaimed water, education programs, the organic community garden that broke ground last year and for both its Florida-friendly landscapes at and .

Brown says the next big items she hopes to see checked off the city's "green" list are:

• Instituting an automated, single-stream recycling program (which would allow residents to put all their unseparated recyclables in one pickup bin), and
• Ramping up education and requirements on recycling demolition debris.

To see all of the City of Dunedin's green achievements, visit this Florida Green Building Coalition link.