U.S. Green Building Council awards WCNY LEED platinum certification

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) has awarded the WCNY Broadcast and Education Center a Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) platinum certification.

WCNY Public Media, Central New York’s public-media organization, operates in the facility is located at 415 W. Fayette St. on Syracuse’s Near Westside.

Richard (Rick) Fedrizzi, CEO and founding chairman of the USGBC, delivered remarks at a ceremony WCNY held on Thursday.

WCNY’s Broadcast and Education Center includes sustainable features that focus on air quality, day lighting, solar, heat reduction, ventilation, flooring, restrooms, parking areas, rain gardens, and equipment, according to the WCNY media invitation.

It’s a “living building,” Robert Daino, president and CEO of WCNY, said in his remarks during the Thursday ceremony in the building’s lobby.

Daino has given visitors “almost 400” tours of the building, dating back to the time of facility’s renovation, he noted in his remarks.

“It’s not only the sustainability for our environment outside; it’s the healthy living inside … it’s the innovation that it demands of us,” said Daino.

The Broadcast and Education Center is a building that “on so many levels, teaches,” said Fedrizzi in his remarks during the ceremony.

“The building itself will teach anyone who comes in here who looks at energy and water and waste; the materials and daylight and air quality,” said Fedrizzi.

He called it “the kind of building that every school in every city and county across the United States and around the world should be.”

WCNY on Oct. 30, 2013 formally opened its new, 56,000-square-foot broadcast and education center. It had previously operated at 506 Old Liverpool Road in Salina.

The WCNY campus includes the refurbished former Case Supply building.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com

PHOTO CAPTION: Richard (Rick) Fedrizzi (left), CEO and founding chairman of the U.S. Green Building Council, in a Thursday ceremony presented Robert Daino, president and CEO of WCNY Public Media, with the Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) platinum certification for the WCNY Broadcast and Education Center at 415 W. Fayette St., where WCNY has operated since 2013. (Eric Reinhardt / BJNN)