(Riverton, Wyo.) – U.S. Senator Mike Enzi was the keynote speaker this morning at the recognition ceremony for Wyoming’s first student-built Silver LEED Certified residence. It is also the first LEED certified residence in Riverton.
Fremont County BOCES Green Construction Academy Coordinator RaJean Strube Fossen said the duplex unit took a total of 92 students three summers to get the residence built with an average of 12 to 24 students working on the home at one time. Students came from Riverton, Lander Valley, Wind River, Pathfinder, Fort Washakie, Wyoming Indian and St. Stephens high schools.
LEED, or Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design, is a green building certification program that recognizes best-in-class building strategies and practices as determined by the U.S. Green Building Council.
Fossen said the structure just missed being gold certified by three points. She also noted that there are only 14 other LEED certified residences in the state, 11 of them in Teton County. She noted that there are only three student-built LEED Certified residences in the entire United States, and Riverton has one of them.
“This duplex is well built with recycled wood and other materials, it is well insulated, it features high efficiency furnace filtered air for greater indoor air quality, it was built with radon mitigation in place, and it is 15 percent more energy efficient that the city code requires,” Fossen said.
Enzi, who guided the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act through Congress, and was the congressional spearhead for the Wind River Job Corps Center, said the duplex is a great project. “We need to get more kids involved in using their hands,” he said. “Education must include all possibilities for kids. Find out what they want to do, and what they need to learn to do that. That’s what we need to do,” he said. Enzi credited FC BOCES Executive Director Sandy Barton for her roles in local workforce development, from FC BOCES Programs to the Job Corps Center.
