| Spring 2001: Nora Wilson & Logan Cookler
The LEED Green Construction Project
During the past year, Michael Sestric and the rest of the Facilities Service
planning team began compiling data that will be used to rate our buildings on
campus according to "green" building standards. This information will
be used for planning future building projects for the campus. Currently, the
school has points calculated for Miller, the Law School addition, and the new
campus housing, due to be completed by the fall of 2002. The buildings are rated
according to Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) standards,
developed by the U.S. Green Building Council. Our project included entering
the data collected on these three buildings into an Excel spreadsheet, highlight
areas for improvement where points could be gained, and compare how our buildings
rate in the past compared to the future.
The U.S. Green Building Council was formed in 1993 to encourage industry to
adapt more economically and environmentally sound building practices. The program
was needed because the majority of current building practices were depleting
our resources too quickly. LEED was integrated as a way to further promote these
ideas. It is a voluntary rating system that evaluates buildings as a complete
entity. Certain guidelines must be met, broken down into the six major categories:
Sustainable Sites, Water Efficiency, Energy & Atmosphere, Materials &
Resources, Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ), and Innovation Credits &
Design/Building Process. In each category there may be certain prerequisites
to meet and a number of sub-categories that can gain points for the overall
building analysis. The points are tallied for each category and totaled together
for a score. In order for a building to be eligible for LEED certification it
must score at least 26 points. The Certified Level is 26-32 points, the Silver
Level is 33-38 points, the Gold Level is 39-51 points, and the Platinum Level
is 52 points or higher. Miller, designed and built before LEED was considered,
scored 20 points, whereas the Law School easily scores into the Silver Level,
and the future residence halls are easily at the Certified Level.
Cost is a consideration when our campus seeks LEED certification, because it
is not free. Projects must be registered which costs $350 for members or $500
for non-members. Building certification is the largest fee; $1200 for non-members
or $1500 for members. Sestric plans to attain official LEED certification on
one of residence halls, but not the others. This will avoid the costs, but because
the buildings will follow the same design, the school will know that the same
certification level is met. There will simply not be a plaque to display on
the outside of the building.
In order to enter the data that Sestric provided us with, we needed to change
Miller’s credits from LEED Version 1.0 to LEED Version 2.0, which is the
most current. Where information was available, we entered how each credit was
met. This made it easier for us, and anyone in the future, to evaluate the best
method to increase our overall score by gaining more points. The residence hall
was the easiest to evaluate, as some points had already been declared "difficult."
These credits were under sub-categories; Stormwater Management, Lanscape and
Exterior Design to Reduce Heat Islands, Light Pollution, Water Use Reduction,
Low-VOC Emitting Materials, Resource Reuse, Recycled Content, Rapidly Renewable
Materials, Optimize Energy Performance, Renewable Energy, Elimination of HCFC’s
and Halons, Measurement and Verification, and Green Power. There are other areas
where the engineers and planners felt that no credits could be met. We suggest
working to gain the difficult points first, and then investigate ways to meet
the other credits. The attached spreadsheet makes recognizing areas where no
credits were gained easy.
We believe that our project has opened interesting doors for future Green Construction
Footprint Groups. The next step in our eyes is obvious, and one that we would
have like more time to explore ourselves. It would be helpful for another group
of students to look into the missed credits in greater detail and investigate
just the ways that we could gain those points. It would be great if we could
create a building on campus that meets all the possible LEED requirements. Both
Albany and a new social science building are on the planning schedule for the
near future. Focusing in on improvements that can be made when designing these
buildings would be a clear goal for students.
Works Cited
US. Green Building Council LEED Green Building Rating System Version 2.0
http://www.usgbc.org/
Spring 2002: Steven Bubeck, Michele McKinzie, Will Smith, Becky Zentmyer
In terms of commitment to green building practices, Lewis & Clark College is far ahead of most educational institutions. Among schools committed to building green, LC stands some where in the middle. It is difficult to compare practices and decisions made at other schools because there are so many variables involved in green building. Practices that work at Oberlin or Brown may not work or be the most sustainable option here.
One area of green construction where LC is lacking is in promotion awareness if its green building practices. Other institutions such as University of Buffalo and Brown University have done an excellent job of explaining the environmental initiatives incorporated into their green buildings. The benefits of promoting awareness include increased public understanding of green building principles, good publicity for the institution, and the encouragement of green building at other institutions.
In light of LC’s already strong commitment to green building, we feel that the school needs to put more effort into promoting awareness about the green buildings on campus. We have generated a list of possible projects to accomplish this goal for the new social sciences building, Howard Hall.
Ideas for “Awareness Promotion” in Howard Hall
1. Wall art – a mural with sustainability as its theme
2. Floor etchings – etching on the concrete floors in common spaces of the building with “ecological footprint” or “natural step” messages
3. Indoor plants – creates a “natural” atmosphere, improves indoor air quality, maintenance provides a work-study job
4. Display of building’s energy usage – a meter, computerized chart which continuously displays the building’s usage in comparison with other buildings or more conventional systems
5. Create a “Green Building” webpage for LC – this could have information about all of the green buildings on campus and include information like the energy usage display, could have links to other green initiatives on campus
6. Conduct tours of the building – train admissions tour guides about the green features of Howard and offer tours, create an online tour of the building which highlights its green features
7. Create and install within Howard models and plaques that explain the green features of the building
8. Create a “Sustainable building/ sustainable living” resource room in Howard or in the library
9. Create and distribute literature explaining Howard’s green features
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