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Government Center Renovation Incorporates Greening

When it came time to renovate the Door County Government Center, reducing waste was at the heart of the process.

“There was a conscious effort to be environmentally friendly,” said building and grounds director Ted McCartney. “We had meetings with presentations from environmental groups to show us what could be done, and those helped.”

As a result much of the renovation created little waste. Old jail locks were given to Kewaunee County, which uses the same system, and the bricks and cement were ground up and re-purposed. All metal and copper from the building was sold and recycled, and McCartney said whatever equipment could be re-used has been, including oil pumped out of elevators.

“I’d estimate about 95 percent of it was recycled in some manner,” McCartney said.

They’ve installed energy-efficient lighting, switched from steam boilers to high efficiency hot water boilers, and installed a digital control system for air and heat.

Even office furniture was purchased sustainably, sourced from Recycled Office Environments, a company that sells like-new material from bankrupt companies.