Sustainability

Building Criteria

Manatee County Government recommends LEED Silver Standards as the minimum criteria for all new County buildings and renovations. To help with defining consistent standards, the County Commission adopted the Preferred Building and Grounds Equipment, Materials and Design Criteria Catalog. While including Energy Star and LEED Silver recommendations, this catalog was created to be used for new construction and maintenance throughout County-owned facilities in order to standardize products and designs. If you would like to learn more about LEED-specific standards, visit the U.S. Green Building Council's (USGBC) website.

Florida Green Building Coalition

Manatee County advanced to the Florida Green Local Government’s “Platinum” designation for environmental stewardship after it successfully met the sustainability standards established in the FGBC Green Local Government Certification program in 2017. Manatee County became the first county to achieve platinum status.

Greenhouse Gas Inventory

In collaboration with the USF Community Sustainability Partnership Program, we have been working on a study regarding the County’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Click here to read the final report.

Supporting Local Agriculture

Working with Manatee County's UF/IFAS Extension Office, Energy & Sustainability helped create an application for Extension to track community gardens. To learn more about Extension's agriculture programs, visit their web page. If you'd like to check out the Community Gardens map, click on the button below.

View Community Gardens