Lehman College’s new Science Hall recently became the first City University of New York school to be awarded a LEED platinum certification by the U.S. Green Building Council.

The U.S. Green Building Council is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting “green” buildings, and is well known for its creation of the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) rating system. The LEED rating system judges buildings on how environmentally-friendly they are. Platinum certification is the highest possible rating with gold, silver, and certified being the other levels from top to bottom.

Lehman’s Science Hall was built with $70 million in state funding through the CUNY Capital Program. Another $1.5 million was provided by the New York City Council for the greenhouse. The building was dedicated in October of 2012 and classes started in the spring semester of 2013.

The Science Hall is phase one of a three-phase plan with the goal of creating a science-oriented campus of the college. It was built also as part of the Bedford Park school’s STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) initiative. As Dr. Ayanna Alexander-Street, of the Department of Biological Sciences, says, “We want to put science students from the Bronx on the nation’s map.”

The Science Hall won the platinum certification due to its “environmentally sustainable technologies” such as rooftop solar panels, which are used to heat the building’s water, and a garden system that collects rainwater, filters it, and reuses it.

There is also a greenhouse in the building. The newest of the three greenhouses at Lehman, it was built especially for the Science Hall using state-of-the-art technology, with a lighting system that can mimic other light types, a cooling system and heating system that reacts to the temperature in the room and adjusts accordingly. “I love to come up in February when it’s 60 outside and 80 in here,” said Dr. Liesl Jones, chairperson of Biological Sciences.

The Science Hall winning a LEED platinum certification is a bold step on the path of environmentally-friendly buildings in the Bronx, New York, and the world, says Rick Fedrizzi, president, CEO and founding chair of the U.S. Green Building Council:

“With each new LEED-certified building, we get one step closer to our vision of a sustainably built environment within a generation,” said Fedrizzi. “As the newest member of the LEED family of green buildings, Lehman College is an important addition to the growing strength of the green building movement.”

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