One project that was recognized, the Donal Bren School of Environmental Science & Management’s laboratory building at the University of California (UC) Santa Barbara, was the first project to receive LEED Platinum certification as both a new and existing building. The project was completed in 2002, making it the greenest laboratory in the country and the first in the UC system to receive LEED certification. Today, it remains one of the greenest and highest performing buildings constructed in the last 15 years.

The building features three floors of teaching and research laboratories as well as four floors of offices. While the new facility was innovative in its approach to interdisciplinary study, with several spaces for interaction and exchanges between faculty, students and visitors, it also was built to achieve maximum energy efficiency in an energy-heavy laboratory setting.

Wausau Window and Wall Systems’ products helped the building achieve a high level of energy efficiency. The building features a daylight-harvesting 2250 window system that helps cool the office wing facing the ocean. Wausau’s operable windows and transoms help air flow throughout the space, eliminating the need for air conditioning in the office wing. The windows in the space also have a small sensor in the frame that automatically turns off heaters whenever the window units are open.

Energy-efficient lamps and ballasts, including motion and ambient light sensors also help keep energy levels down. Plus, a rooftop solar photovoltaic system generates approximately 10 percent of the building’s power on site. The building uses up to 40 percent less electricity than a traditional structure and surpasses Title 24 requirements for energy efficiency by more than 31 percent.

"It has become a living laboratory for new technologies," said Development Engineer Sage Davis in a statement. "A key feature in the office wing is the ample natural lighting, natural ventilation and beautiful views, which make the offices a very pleasant place to work.”

The use of recycled, renewable and durable materials also helped the project meet its aggressive sustainable design and construction objectives. For instance, Linetec finished Wausau Systems’ recycled aluminum framing using a two-coat 70 percent polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) resin-based coating. Linetec created the coating by capturing the liquid paints’ volatile organic compounds (VOCs) to eliminate the exhaust of potential pollutants. Other low-VOC paints, adhesives and finishes were also used in the building.
 

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• Energy consumption is minimized.
• Construction and demolition wastes are recycled to the greatest extent possible.
• Landscaping uses native species, and stormwater runoff is captured and treated before entering the watershed.
• A healthy indoor environment is produced, by employing such strategies as natural daylighting, low off-gassing materials and fresh-air regulators.
• Materials, finishes and equipment, and mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems are chosen with total lifecycle costs taken into considerations, and not just the initial cost of purchase and installation.

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All 29 founding members committed to establishing and leading a national coalition for green schools within their respective countries. The common goal is to promote a shared vision of green schools for all within this generation. The coalition facilitates information sharing that will help build these values into the education system. That includes sharing best practices, resources and case studies; providing tools and infrastructure to the network; and introducing programs, initiatives and campaigns that can be replicated worldwide.

Because the term “green school” can have several meanings in different cultures, the coalition identified three pillars that help define a green school: minimize environmental impact, optimize human health and performance and foster a generation of environmentally literate students. By highlighting how sustainability can be woven into infrastructure, culture and curriculum, the Global Coalition aims to foster these ideals in schools around the world.

“As members of the Global Coalition for Green Schools, we are united in our common pursuit of healthy, safe, resource-efficient schools that educate sustainability natives,” said Rachel Gutter, director of the Center for Green Schools at USGBC, in a statement. “But what inspires us and keeps us humble is seeing how much we have to learn from one another. Our approaches to greening schools may look very different, but what we all desire is to give our children every possible opportunity to succeed.”

In addition to the USGBC, the other 28 members are: Argentina GBC, GBC Australia, Botswana GBC, GBC Brasil, Canada GBC, Chile GBC, China GBC, Colombia GBC, Croatia GBC, Egypt GBC, Emirates GBC, Global Communities, GBC Ghana, Hong Kong GBC, Indian GBC, GBC Italia, Israel GBC, Jordan GBC, Kenya GBC, Mauritius GBC, Namibia GBC, Peru GBC, Qatar GBC, Romania GBC, Singapore GBC, GBC Slovenia, SUMe and Turkish GBC.

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The initial goal of the construction project was to “upgrade the aging HVAC system in the 400,000-square-foot complex,” said George Metzger, AIA, senior principal at HMFH Architects. Opportunities to address additional problems presented themselves as work began, however, and the project team adjusted the goals to “create a healthier learning environment and one better suited to the school’s educational program,” Metzger said. The team wanted to keep the school, situated on a visible civic block shared with the main library, recreation center and city park, in the same location to solidify its status as a significant element of the community.

The construction team kept several details in mind when working on the renovations. They used sustainable materials that were economically sound, designed for the long-term and would increase the quality of indoor air. Public spaces were also made brighter and easier to navigate with the removal of internal partitions that took up space and blocked visibility. A colorful terrazzo floor echoes the deco details on the 1932 portion of the building as well.

The fact that the construction team was renovating an occupied building posed a major problem during the renovation project. Available space in the city allowed the ninth-grade students to move off-campus for two academic years while the renovation process was underway. “With only three-quarters of the student population remaining in the building, the project team was able to isolate specific portions of the building for construction, without disrupting learning or compromising the safety of students and teachers,” Metzger said.

Another challenge the team faced was incorporating sustainable materials into the existing building. Metzger commented on this, saying, “While renovation (rather than new construction) is sustainable simply because an existing building is being used, it required thoughtful and creative approaches to replacing much of the inefficient infrastructure with systems that could be introduced into an existing structure that included concrete walls and ceilings in some portions of the complex.”

HMFH worked closely with the project’s mechanical engineer to incorporate a chilled beam heating and cooling system. This efficient system was easily installed in a structural environment that was not ideal. New and significantly more efficient lighting and plumbing fixtures, flooring and wall finishes were installed in the existing building as well.

Additional sustainable renovation techniques included installing rainwater barrels by the playground for water collection, diverting more than 95 percent of the construction waste materials away from landfills, using recycled and low-VOC materials and sustainable rubber flooring and installing operable windows.

The combination of these techniques decreased the school’s operating costs by more than $335,000 annually and reduced energy consumption by more than 1.3 million KWh of electricity, 44,000 therms of natural gas and 1.3 million gallons of water annually.

The renovated school, which shares its urban site with two other city-owned LEED Silver buildings — War Memorial Recreation Center and the Cambridge Public Library — completes the civic campus of sustainable buildings and aligns with the city’s sustainability initiatives.

“The high school project marked the end of a decade that saw almost constant construction on this site. Bound by two major city streets, the site remained open and accessible throughout all three projects. Now, with the completion of the third and final project, the citizens of Cambridge now enjoy a popular civic gem,” Metzger said.
 

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“Over 75 percent of respondents consider improving indoor air quality and enhancing health and well being as key drivers, which is nearly the same percentage that cite financial benefits, such as lower operating costs and reduced energy use,” said Harvey Bernstein, vice president, Industry Insights and Alliances for McGraw-Hill Construction, in a press release statement. “In the K-12 sector, social factors are particularly prominent, with over 75 percent of respondents also citing increased student performance as an important element of their decision to build green.”

Respondents cited other social benefits for green building such as:
• Improved test scores, reported by 70 percent of K-12 respondents
• Increased enrollment, reported by 39 percent of higher education respondents
• Increased reputation, reported by 65 percent of higher education
• Positive impact on student health and well-being, reported by all K-12 respondents and 90 percent of higher education respondents

Cost savings are also important to the education sector, with more than 75 percent of survey respondents in both K-12 and higher education saying that the reduction in energy use, operational savings and improvement of 10-year operating costs are reasons for their decisions to build green. Of those that decided to build green, 58 percent of staff administrators at K-12 schools reported decreased energy use in the updated buildings and 55 percent cited lower annual costs. Of those surveyed from the higher education sector, 55 percent reported decreased energy use and 46 percent reported lower annual costs.

The study also revealed that 81 percent of respondents for the K-12 sector completed some kind of green project in the last three years and 84 percent reported doing green renovations. However, more than 40 percent of both K-12 and higher education surveyors said that they are unaware of the long-term impact of the improvements, implying that better measures need to be set in place to quantify the return on investment.

The findings from the study help organizations like the USGBC plot the course for how “we’re going to make good on our promise to put every student in a green school within this generation,” said Rachel Gutter, director of the Center for Green Schools at the USGBC.

This is the second study that the USGBC worked on with McGraw-Hill to produce. The first one was in 2007 and allowed the organization to understand and tackle the misperception that green building costs more. What the 2012 study has shown is that “school districts are contending with other perceptive challenges, including access to capital and creative financing mechanisms and data on how their schools are performing that they can use to course correct, as well as evaluate the relative success of their mission,” Gutter added.

The USGBC is addressing these concerns from various angles. “We do a variety of trainings and train the trainers who have serviced school districts that collectively are school homes to millions of students, to think about how they optimize operations and maintenance practices.”

Gutter believed these two studies helped demonstrate that the industry is reaching a point where green building will become the norm as opposed to the exception. “I think what we’ve been able to do is convince most of the necessary parties that it doesn’t make sense to [build] any other way. We’ve been able to persuade people to understand that these are simply best practices for quality schools, but people continue to see green as an add-on or a luxury instead of find ways to integrate it into everything they do,” Gutter said. “That’s where the work needs to happen on everything from supplying data on performance to working to create those scalable financing mechanisms to providing information to legislatures so they can write better bills.”

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The 276,664-square-foot structure, which opened in April of 2011, was designed by Milwaukee-based Workshop Architects, Inc., and Moody Nolan, Inc. out of Columbus, Ohio. CG Schmidt, out of Milwaukee, served as the construction manager on the two-year building effort. The $94.8 million project was funded by student fees, Wisconsin Union dues and donor support. No tax or tuition dollars were spent on the effort.

“We’re very gratified that Union South has earned this exemplary recognition,” says Wisconsin Union director Mark Guthier. “This is not only a tribute to the architects, construction company, design team and Union staff but also a testament to the extraordinary level of student involvement in the process from start to finish; the students said they wanted a sustainable, ‘green’ union building that will meet their 21st century needs. And this LEED Gold designation helps fulfill this promise.”

Students voted in 2006 to renovate the existing Memorial Union building and construct the new Union South structure. Student input called for a green building with a live performance venue and convenience store. The new structure features meetings paces, a large auditorium-style theater, recreational facilities and food service venues.

One of the highlights of the new facility is the Sett, which is the name for the series of tunnels that make up a badger burrow in the wild. The three-story space features everything from a live music venue to bowling, billiards and rock climbing. The space also features a viewing area where students can watch Badger sporting events on television, in case they do not have time to travel to an away game.

“I was so proud of our Union when I heard the news about our LEED gold certification, for two reasons,” says Wisconsin Union president Sarah Mathews. “One, because the Wisconsin Union is a values-driven organization, and sustainability is one of our key values. Two, because a great part of why we programmed Union South to focus on environmental stewardship is because of vocal student input supporting that outcome. This award shows the value of listening to and being guided by the student voice.”

The U.S. Green Building Council recognized the building for its energy use, lighting, water and material use. The structure uses less energy and water than comparable buildings, saving costs and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The building uses 32 percent less water than standard buildings and 36 percent less energy. The facility also has nine parking spaces dedicated for low-emission, fuel-efficient, and carpool vehicles. Two nearby bus stations and 230 bike stalls provide a well-rounded array of green transportation options. The project also preserved 20 percent of the site for open space.

Storm water runoff is funneled into an outdoor water feature. The landscaping focuses on native plants, which conserve water and support local habitat. Nearly 90 percent of the materials from the old Union South building were recycled.

"We desired to make a building that speaks fluent Madison,” says Jan Van Den Kieboom, Workshop principal. “Part of that language is environmental stewardship. Earning LEED Gold confirms that the intent is realized."

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The conference consisted of a panel discussion hosted by Rachel Gutter, director of the Center for Green Schools. Harvey Bernstein, vice president, industry insights and alliances, McGraw-Hill Construction presented a preview of a report his firm is in the process of completing, called the New & Retrofit Green School study. The full study will be released in the first quarter of 2013 as part of McGraw-Hill’s Smartmarket Report series.

The panel was rounded out by Jessica Hubbard, director, corporate social responsibility, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and Irene Nigaglioni, chair, Council of Educational Facility Planners International and partner at PBK Architects.

The presenters all emphasized that green building had taken a sharp turn recently in the educational market, changing from a luxury that could only be considered by well-off schools, to a standard. Hubbard said many people in the industry viewed green as a niche market until research started to suggest that green building designs had an array of positive impacts on the classroom experience for teachers and students. She explained this was a real eye opener and a watershed moment, when green stopped seeming like a cultural movement and changed into a strategic solution for improving outcomes and health in the classroom.

Bernstein cited several interesting and surprising results that would be included in the upcoming McGraw-Hill report. He explained that schools with green features saw a 32-percent reduction in absenteeism and a 68-percent increase in the quality of test scores. He added that higher educational facilities have seen a 40-percent increase in test performance when adding green designs to their campus. He explained these findings were shocking enough to be taken very seriously, but cautioned that data for these studies only went back to 2007.

Hubbard said one explanation for the results was that air circulation had been linked very directly to classroom outcomes. She said facilities with limited airflow caused students and teachers to feel more lethargic and experience difficulties concentrating.

Nigaglioni explained the next big step for schools would be to find ways to work their green facilities into the curriculum and educate students about the science behind the technology in their classrooms.

Gutter said colleges were beginning to find the recruiting benefits of green building. She explained that a recent survey found 69 percent of high school students considered the green aspects of a campus when deciding where to apply for college.

Bernstein brought the conversation full circle, explaining he had two sons, one an engineer and one an architect, who already saw the world differently than he does. He said the next generation of designers viewed green as the standard, the only way to build and that the world would turn in that direction as well, when parents retire and hand it over to their children.

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