Raleigh has opened what it calls the nation's most sustainable solid waste services facility. The new operations center was built to LEED platinum standards - the highest level of sustainability certification. City manager Russell Allen says the building was constructed with re-used and recycled materials where possible. It includes solar panels and geothermal systems; and will have plug-in electric vehicles.
Russell Allen: We built about everything that we could that is a sustainable program into this building, but with a cost-benefit. We made sure that we're not just doing it to gain some level of certification, but we've actually studied the payback on those investments and determined those to be solid.
The facility was built on a former landfill. Its proximity to the Wilders Grove waste transfer station is projected to save a hundred thousand miles of driving and hundreds of thousands of dollars in fuel annually.