LEED & Higher Education: Striving for Sustainability
The world is evolving and with it, concern for our impact on the environment. Sustainable building is not just a fad, it is here to stay. LEED, which stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is the most widely-used green building rating system in the world. Established in 1993, LEED has been establishing benchmarks for the construction, maintenance and operation of high-performance green buildings and homes.
What Is LEED Certification?
Run by the USGBC, the U.S. Green Building Council, LEED is an internationally-recognized green building certification program that offers 3rd party verification that a building (or grouping of buildings) was designed and built strategically with the aim of improving performance across many different metrics that are important to sustainable building principles - energy savings, water efficiency, CO2 emissions reduction, improved indoor environmental and air quality, material and resource sourcing, and sensitivity of the impact of said project.
LEED provides a point system to score green building, design, and construction. The system is categorized in five basic areas: Sustainable Sites, Water Efficiency, Energy and Atmosphere, Materials and Resources, and Indoor Environmental Quality. Buildings are awarded points based on the extent of various sustainable strategies that are achieved. The more points awarded, the higher the level of certification achieved, starting with Certified and continuing through Silver, Gold, and Platinum, with Platinum being the highest level achievable.
Not only can LEED help reduce carbon by lowering CO2 emissions and consuming less energy and water, but there are other environmental impacts as well. By 2030, the USGBC estimates that more than 540 million tons of waste will have been diverted from landfills from LEED projects alone.
Why It’s Desirable on College Campuses
In addition to the environmental benefits that striving for LEED can bring, there are other advantages to it as well, such as economic, health and occupant productivity and satisfaction benefits.
Today’s generation of college students are concerned about the environment and would like to see their schools play a bigger role in improving campus environmental performance. Higher education has heard their demands and we have seen an increase in initiatives such as waste reduction, recycling, and renewable energy sources to not only advance their own sustainability objectives, but to also encourage their students to follow their lead as well.
With an increasingly competitive higher education market these initiatives can also be used as a recruitment and retention tools. According to the Princeton Review’s 2019 College Hopes & Worries Survey Report environmental issues are a big factor in many students' decision-making process. Sixty-four percent of the 10,000 Princeton Review respondents said that having “a way to compare colleges based on their commitment to environmental issues” would contribute to their decision to apply.
LEED Gold Certification at SUNY Geneseo Red Jacket
When SUNY Geneseo approached us with this project, they came to us with a challenge: change the existing Freshman dining hall to better utilize the second floor, create a student union atmosphere, and provide a design that would help them achieve their sustainability goals. The project received LEED Gold certification, highlighted below are some of the more interesting ones efforts contributing to their certification.
The clouds hung from the ceiling along the main spine that separates the main servery and dining areas are repurposed shutters from the existing building and adds an interesting and dynamic design element. Reclaimed wood ceiling paneling was also used the servery as well.
Some of the furniture included in the design adds to the theme of sustainability at Red Jacket. Most of the major pieces of furniture seen in the image of the students surrounding the fireplace are made from reclaimed and salvaged materials from a local area furniture specialist. For the main dining area, the intention was to provide a warm, restaurant-like atmosphere. The pergola structure hovering above the Twisted Fork servery and main dining area provides more intimate seating beneath the reclaimed timber canopy beams and expressed steel frame pergola.
