Nova Southeastern University’s Oceanographic Center Awarded Prestigious LEED® Green Building Certification

Nova Southeastern University’s Oceanographic Center

FT. LAUDERDALE-DAVE, Fla. – Nova Southeastern University (NSU) is proud to announce that its Oceanographic Center has been awarded LEED® Silver certification by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). This is the foremost program for buildings, homes and communities that are designed, constructed, maintained and operated for improved environmental and human health performance.

“NSU’s Oceanographic Center has been recognized for the incredible work and research that is being done, and now it has been honored for its design and construction,” said Richard Dodge, Ph.D., the NSU’s Oceanographic Center dean and executive director. The Center is something the entire South Florida community can be proud of.”

The NSU Oceanographic Center, constructed by the construction management team of Moss-Miller, LLC., is located at Port Everglades in Hollywood (near Fort Lauderdale.) Its 10-acre campus is home to the National Coral Reef Institute for research and training on coral reef assessment, monitoring and restoration; the Guy Harvey Research Institute for fish research and conservation; and the Save Our Seas Shark Center, specializing in providing accurate scientific information to governmental and international NGOs to guide better management, conservation and recovery of our global oceans in shark studies.

An additional research initiative at the Center includes the Broward County Florida Sea Turtle Conservation Program, which is dedicated to the conservation and improved understanding of endangered and threatened sea turtles. The Center is also home to the Center of Excellence for Coral Reef Ecosystems Science) Research Facility. It is the only research facility in the United States dedicated entirely to coral reefs, with a mission to advance research, education and conservation efforts by providing new laboratories, training areas, equipment, conference rooms, office, library and field staging areas for current and new faculty, researchers, visiting scientists, post-doctoral fellows and graduate students.

“NSU’s Oceanographic Center is truly a model for others to follow,” said Peter Witschen, M.P.A., NSU’s vice president for facilities. “It was very important that we not only build a state-of-the-art facility, but that it be designed and built with the environment in mind. And we’ve done that, and so much more.”

In keeping with the dedication to protecting and understanding the environment, the facility was designed incorporating the latest “green” technologies, which resulted in the Center receiving this designation. The Center’s design implemented practical and measurable strategies and solutions aimed at achieving high performance in sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, material selection and indoor environmental quality.

“With each new LEED-certified building, we get one step closer to USGBC’s vision of a sustainable built environment within a generation,” said Rick Fedrizzi, President, CEO & Founding Chair, U.S. Green Building Council. “As the newest member of the LEED family of green buildings, Nova Southeastern University’s Oceanographic Center is an important addition to the growing strength of the green building movement.”

LEED is the foremost program for the design, construction and operation of green buildings. Over 44,000 projects are currently participating in the commercial and institutional LEED rating systems, comprising over 10.3 billion square feet of construction space in all 50 states and 135 countries.

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About NSU’s Oceanographic Center: The Oceanographic Center provides high-quality graduate education programs (i.e. masters, doctoral, certificate) in a broad range of marine science disciplines. Center researchers carry out innovative, basic and applied marine and research programs in coral reel biology, ecology, and geology; fish biology, ecology, and conservation; shark and billfish ecology; fisheries science; deep sea organismal biology and ecology; invertebrate and vertebrate genomics, genetics, molecular ecology, and evolution; microbiology; biodiversity;  observation and modeling of large scale ocean circulation, coastal dynamics, and ocean atmosphere coupling;  benthic habitat mapping; biodiversity; histology; and calcification. For more information, please visit http://www.nova.edu/ocean .

About Nova Southeastern University: Situated on 300 beautiful acres in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, Nova Southeastern University (NSU) is a dynamic fully accredited research institution dedicated to providing high-quality educational programs at all levels.  NSU is a not-for-profit independent institution with an enrollment of approximately 27,000 students. NSU awards associate’s, bachelor’s, master’s, specialist, doctoral and first-professional degrees in a wide range of fields. NSU is classified as a research university with “high research activity” by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, and it is one of only 37 universities nationwide to also be awarded Carnegie’s Community Engagement Classification. For more information, visit www.nova.edu

For more information contact:

Joe Donzelli | Office of Public Affairs
954-262-2159 (office)
jdonzelli@nova.edu