Life Cycle Guidelines for Materials and Building Systems for Florida’s Public Educational Facilities, henceforth referred to as the Guidelines, is a publication designed to assist construction professionals in the selection of materials, products, and systems to use in the design and construction of new educational facilities in the State of Florida. In this publication, each material, product, or system typically or potentially used for new educational facilities has been evaluated with respect to life cycle and other performance criteria.  The major building systems for which alternatives are evaluated and ranked include the building superstructure, exterior materials, interior materials, substrate materials, HVAC systems, and lighting systems. In addition to the evaluation of alternatives for each major building system, information about green building certification, as it applies to the construction of new school buildings, is provided.

The Florida Turnpike Enterprise (FTE) has the bold vision of maximizing the use of renewable energy in their operations and potentially supplying all the energy needs of their facilities via solar technologies. To determine the technical and financial feasibility of executing this vision, the FTE selected the Turkey Lake Service Plaza on the Florida Turnpike for a case study to explore this potential shift to renewable energy sources.

A University of Florida research team collaborated with FTE and Florida Department of Transportation staff to examine contemporary solar technologies, particularly solar photovoltaic (PV) systems, for their potential to meet the energy needs of the Turkey Lake Service Plaza.