USGBC Central California announced the winners of the Most Outstanding Green Building Innovator Awards at the semi-annual Spring Into LEED award dinner and fundraiser on April 28th. Honored were the leaders in the Green Building Movement that were instrumental in designing and building LEED buildings in Central California. To date, 107 projects received LEED certification in Central California, creating over 5.5 million square feet of green building space. UC Merced received the award of Owner with Most LEED Buildings with 15 LEED buildings at their campus. Teter Architects and Engineers received the award for Contractor with Most LEED Buildings with 9 LEED projects. 907 Windsor Remodel in Tulare, a single family house in Tulare, received the award for LEED Project with Highest Points Achieved, for earning 97.5 points of 100 for their LEED for Homes Platinum project.

USGBC Central California congratulate the leaders of the leaders in the Green Building industry in Central California. Within the last two year, the number of LEED buildings in Central California nearly doubled and demand for sustainability in building is increasing. People are more concerned about the impact buildings have on their health, productivity and the environment. LEED, or Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design, is redefining the way we think about the places where we live, work, learn, play and worship. As an internationally recognized mark of excellence, LEED provides building owners and operators with a framework for identifying and implementing practical and measurable green building design, construction, operations and maintenance solutions. LEED is the most widely used green building rating system in the world, with nearly 30,000 LEED certified commercial buildings in more than 150 countries and territories globally. LEED-certified buildings offer lower operating costs and better indoor environmental quality, making them attractive to a growing group of corporate, public and individual buyers. High-performing building features increasingly enter into tenants' decisions about leasing space and into buyers' decisions about purchasing properties and homes. California is amongst the top 10 states with LEED building per capita in the Nation.

A big thank you to all that contributed to Spring Into LEED, Harris Construction for hosting us at their beautiful LEED Silver office building, our donors of raffle items, Mecho Systems, Nora Systems, Landscape Forms, Innovation Commercial Flooring, National Office Furniture, Mohawk, Western Building Materials, Patcraft, Tenaya Lodge, Marlite, Coalesse and 3-Form, and all our great volunteers that helped put the event together.

Check out the Fresno Bee article about the award winners.