Green Design & Buildings

Colorado high school gets LEED Gold certification

Montezuma-Cortez High School opened in 2015 in Cortez, Colo.
Feb. 17, 2016

A newly built high school in the Montezuma-Cortez (Colo.) District has received LEED Gold certification for its environmentally sensitive design and construction.

The Journal reports that Montezuma-Cortez High School, which opened in August 2015 in Cortez, incorporated numerous sustainable strategies in the construction of the $40 million, 152,000-square-foot facility. Among them:.

  • Reducing water use by 64 percent outdoors and 40 percent indoors.
  • A geothermal mechanical system and solar panels that enable the building to reduce energy consumption by more than 36 percent.
  • Recycling of 90 percent of all construction waste.
  • Use of recycled concrete as a base material for the parking lot.
  • Building materials from regional sources accounted for more than 24 percent of the project.
  • Extensive use of daylighting to illuminate classrooms and other areas.

Funding for the project came from a 2012 bond election and a state grant through the Building Excellent Schools Today (BEST) program. In accepting the BEST grant, the district was required to build a school that achieved LEED certification.

The architect for the project is Dekker Perich Sabatini.

About the Author

Mike Kennedy

Senior Editor

Mike Kennedy, senior editor, has written for AS&U on a wide range of educational issues since 1999.

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