UMass Dartmouth’s School for Marine Science & Technology announced that the SMAST East building in New Bedford has been awarded LEED Silver status.

The LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) rating system, developed by the U.S Green Building Council (USGBC), is the foremost program for buildings, homes, and communities that are designed, constructed, maintained, and operated for improved environmental and human health performance.

SMAST East opened fall of 2017, tripling its presence in New Bedford with the $55 million, 64,000-square-feet building. Designed by Ellenzweig, the destination space for marine science includes flexible wet and dry labs, a state-of-the-art computational facility, classroom space, break rooms, high-bay storage for equipment, conferencing space, and a temperature-controlled seawater lab. The seawater lab offers various water conditions to address current and future research initiatives requiring a range of water temperatures and degrees of filtration. The Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries collaborated with SMAST on the space, which comprises marine scientists, students, and staff.

SMAST East achieved LEED certification for implementing practical and measurable strategies and solutions aimed at achieving high performance in sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection, and indoor environmental quality.

LEED is the foremost program for the design, construction, and operation of green buildings. More than 92,000 commercial projects are currently participating in LEED, comprising more than 19.3 billion total commercial square feet of construction space in all 50 states and more than 167 countries and territories.

Phil Paleologos is the host of The Phil Paleologos Show on 1420 WBSM New Bedford. He can be heard weekdays from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. Contact him at phil@wbsm.com and follow him on Twitter @PhilPaleologos.

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