The Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada (RTC) held a certification ceremony during which the Bonneville Transit Center received its official Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Platinum green building certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.

The Bonneville Transit Center becomes only the third building in all of Southern Nevada to achieve Platinum certification, the highest level of recognition from LEED, the nation’s preeminent program for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings.

The Bonneville Transit Center’s numerous green features qualified it for LEED Platinum status, including onsite renewable energy generation using solar photovoltaic energy panels to offset peak electricity demands and costs. The building also uses natural day lighting for nearly 80% of the building’s occupied space, further reducing its energy draw. Overall, the transit center’s energy efficient design features are estimated to reduce energy consumption by 58%.

In addition to energy efficiency, the Bonneville Transit Center has many water efficient features including landscaping that utilizes desert plants and drip irrigation and low-flow plumbing fixtures that use 50% less water than traditional fixtures.

LEED certification provides independent, third-party verification that a building was designed and built using strategies aimed at achieving high performance in key areas of human and environmental health, including sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection and indoor environmental quality.