The mission of the Florida House Learning Center is six-fold: water conservation, energy efficiency and conservation, indoor environmental quality, sustainable materials, durability (storms and termites) and buying locally. The educational strategy is not just to teach visitors green building and sustainable living, but to foster actual behavior change in these areas. Data collected over eleven years show the following annual averages.

The most significant achievements of the Florida House Learning Center are the knowledge gain and practice/behavior change reported by visitors to the Center. Educational classes held there on green building and sustainable living topics report a 37% average knowledge gain in class participants, and Resource Conservation Tours for school children generate an average knowledge gain of 38% as measured on pre- and post-test scores.

Time-lapse survey data collected over eleven years is even more compelling. Each year in January the Florida House staff and volunteers mail surveys to an average 1500 first- time visitors from the previous year. Returned responses average 24.4%, or about 366 completed surveys. These surveys show the following impacts.

Upward trends over time are noted for both green home remodeling and landscape redesign.

Staff and volunteers at the Learning Center feel that one of the most important determinants of visitor behavior change is the one-to-one interaction that happens between visitors and volunteers or staff. A volunteer may spend ½ hour or more with a visitor demonstrating products, answering questions and providing information. This one-to-one contact is a critical part of the behavior change equation.