Veolia Environmental Unveils New Green Facility in Muskego

The waste business has gone way beyond garbage trucks and landfills, and Veolia Environmental, which services the city of Muskego's disposal of trash and recyclable materials, held a ribbon-cutting for its new maintenance building on College Court.

The building has met the US Green Building Council (USGBC) LEED Silver Certification standards, which Veolia Community Relations Manager Melanie Williams said, "is huge for us. All of our facilities have a goal for sustainability, to reduce their carbon footprint."

LEED is an acronym for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, and follows a rating system that is used to distinguish the sustainability of one building when compared to another. In other words, it provides for buildings the same measuring stick that gas mileage standards gives to cars.

The new facility began construction in October of 2010 and was designed to be energy-efficient and sustainable.  Skylights and windows were placed to minimize the need for electric lighting, and the majority of backfill used recycled concrete.  LEED certification standards include dozens of criteria, which focus in part on water efficiency, indoor environmental quality, materials and resources and innovation and design.

A statement from Jim Long, President and CEO of Veolia, expressed that "Muskego is a very important community to Veolia, and we're proud that we could bring such a great project to the city. We are hopeful that our neighbors will like what they see at our new facility and also recognize that Veolia will continue to have a positive environmental impact on the local community."