Green building on college campuses
[1] Because of these huge statistics regarding resource usage and emissions, the room for more efficient building practices is dramatic.
Colleges across the United States have taken leading roles in the construction of green building in order to reduce resource consumption, save money in the long run, and instill the importance on environmental sustainability on their students.
According to the USGBC, with an upfront investment of 2% in green building design, the resulting life savings is 20% of the total construction costs.
Along with this increase in monetary savings, green building and architecture has been proven to make the occupants more productive.
Both of these studies show that better lighting conditions, which are one of the main features of green buildings, can increase the productivity of its occupants.
Universities participating in sustainable initiatives, like constructing green buildings, will attract more highly qualified students.
Many institutions in the United States are administering the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Building Rating System.
The development of the LEED Rating System has been nationally recognized as the leading method to construct green buildings.
Each section is composed of credits and points, which ultimately determine how "green" the building is constructed, designed, and maintained.
Because of the large scale of college campuses, the impact of these methods are truly praise for energy savings and enhanced occupants' comfort.
To fulfill this role effectively and with high credibility, they need to include a focus on sustainability also in their own operations and facilities.
Firstly, their size is at the borderline between single building projects and small towns, a fruitful scale for innovative energy and transport solutions.
And secondly, they are to a certain degree one-purpose neighborhoods focused on education, research, development or distribution of new ideas, products or services.
This initiative will include collaboration from the council's closest allies and pre-eminent thought leaders in green building, as well as outreach and feedback from our members and the general public.
"[15] This project aims to: Stanford's president, John L. Hennessy, said, "One of the biggest global challenges facing us today is the sustainable use of our planets natural resources.
The Graduate School of Business will play a key role in helping us address these challenges by leading the way in its sustainable development of this new campus.
With a striking open courtyard, it provides ample opportunity for social interaction that makes the transition between indoors and outdoors much smoother and ephemeral than most buildings.
Open breezeways, comfortable porches, natural light in every room, beautiful native plant landscaping, and educational exhibits inform, delight, and invite visitors to the Conservation Garden.
The building includes offices, conference rooms, an atrium to display the football teams accomplishments, and a weight training facility.
The assistant director of LEED at UF, Bahar Armaghani, said, "Green Buildings are not exclusively concerned with saving money through more efficient technology.
The 31,000-square-foot building houses the education and psychology departments in technologically advanced classrooms, computer labs and offices.
It features high-tech educational equipment, such as smart boards, a children's book library, math and science touch screen games, a methods lab designed to look and feel like a real elementary school classroom, a Mac lab and psychology research booths.
