An auto repair shop in Michigan became the third independent Leadership in Environment and Energy Design (LEED) certified auto repair shop in the United States, a report by MLive Media Group says. Owner Richard Zaagman spent an extra $30,000 in his recent $750,000 expansion and upgrade to meet certification requirements.
The shop holds 12 service bays and 15 employees and services about 100 vehicles per week, the report says.
To become certified, the building used recycled building materials that were sourced within 500 miles of its location in its renovation, including the reuse of an existing urban location, and recycled its own building materials, according to reports. Other certification requirements met by the shop include more than 100 windows to reduce the use of task lighting, two high-efficiency furnaces that burn waste oil and leach basins buried underneath the parking lots to divert rain and snow that fall on the roof.
Architect Jim Winter-Troutwine oversaw the redesign of the facility. He told MLive Media Group that Catalyst Partners, a Grand Rapids, Michigan-based sustainability consultant that helped document the work, said the project is the third independently owned and operated LEED-certified repair garage in the U.S. The other two are in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and Springfield, Virginia, the report says.