Gym goes green

Stepping through the doors of the new YouFit gym in Winter Park, customers are quickly swallowed up by all things green, and not just in its color scheme.

The literal lime green walls contain a business built around practices of the color’s connotation. It’s in the floors, the showers, the fans and lights.

From the opening of the first YouFit location in St. Petersburg, Fla., in 2008, the company has tried to build gyms in the most environmentally friendly and cost-efficient way possible, said YouFit founder, Rick Berks.

From floor to ceiling, the gym’s new location on University Boulevard in Winter Park is equipped with features designed to save energy and reduce waste. The 100 percent recycled floor is made apropos for a gym. It’s constucted from a mix of old tires and ground up Nike sneakers, called Nike Grind.

There are recycling bins throughout the gym to collect all the empty sports drink bottles and in the locker rooms high-speed Xlerator dryers replace paper towels, further reducing waste that would otherwise end up in landfills.

The building itself gets in on the act with high-efficiency air conditioning, lighting and specially insulated walls to keep it all in. Industrial ceiling fans cool the building, cutting down on A/C costs while on-demand tankless water heaters provide hot showers post workout.

“It costs more up front, but we recover the initial investment pretty quickly in savings,” Berks said.

He estimates that using energy efficient materials and practices saves anywhere from $1,000 to $2,000 per month depending on the size of the gym.

“We’ve been able to reduce our energy consumption by 30 to 40 percent in converted buildings,” Berks said.

Kim Johnson joined a gym for the first time in her life when YouFit opened in March and has since lost 25 pounds with the help of a nutritionist and YouFit’s version of the personal trainer, a YouCoach.

“All the coaches are good here and it is so clean,” said Johnson.

Jaime Raymond, a student at Florida Hospital’s Adventist University of Health Sciences, said with the gym’s vibrantly-hued lime green and purple walls and machines, “The color is very uplifting, very motivating. As soon as I get here, I can’t wait to get started.”

“It really brightens my mood to be here,” she said. “It has everything you need without being intimidating.”

Just a few months after opening, the gym already has more than 2,000 members, said gym manager Mark Revelia.

In addition to being green, YouFit also prides itself on using as much American made and produced products in its gyms as possible. A plaque on the wall lists all the American sourced products, including all of the cardio equipment, the free weights, flooring, lockers and even the studs that make up the walls.

Right down to the recycled business cards, YouFit has found ways to increase its efficiency, reduce its bottom line and in the process, yours.