Sustainable Planning
Sustainable Planning
- Environmental Mission Statement
- Design Standards
- LEED Certification
- Waste Management
- Environmental Management System
Green Buildings
LEED Certification
What is LEED?
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is the authoritative standard for green design developed by the U.S. Green Building Council in 2000. LEED evaluates project details within six categories, offering credits for sustainable design features in each: Sustainable Sites, Water Efficiency, Energy and Atmosphere, Materials and Resources, Indoor Environmental Quality, and Innovation and Design Process. Projects which achieve a certain number of credits may receive LEED certification. LEED certification is surprisingly flexible. There are a certain number of prerequisites necessary to receive certification, but there are many credits from which to pick and chose in order to construct a LEED building. There are four levels of certified buildings: Certified, Silver, Gold and Platinum. The more credits earned through sustainable construction and building sustainability, the higher the recognition and certification.
Why is Bowdoin College constructing sustainable buildings?
The primary purpose of sustainable building design is to reduce negative environmental impacts and provide a healthy indoor environment that contributes to occupant well being. Buildings produce carbon dioxide emissions that harm air quality, and they can generate lots of waste during construction. In addition, the amenities inside buildings such a toilets, showers and furnaces use vast amounts of water, energy and electricity. Bowdoin is committed to reducing the amount of construction waste, conserving precious resources such as water, and promoting general student health. In addition, although the per square footage cost is more than traditional building design, these amenities and improvements have a relatively short payback time. Craig Bradley, Dean of Student Affairs and the Chair of the Coffin Street Building Committee emphasizes that Bowdoin did not take on the project merely to garner the impressive LEED title. “The LEED certification in and of itself is less important to us than what it means about how these buildings are being constructed and how they will operate.” Bowdoin recognizes that sustainable building design both contributes to the Common Good and represents the wave of the future.
How does the LEED construction process differ from that of a typical building?
The LEED certification process is not much different from a typical building project. However, there are a few key elements that add time to the project. The main difference is that there are more steps of paperwork involved. According to Brett Bentson of Kyu Sung Woo Architects, Inc., "To get the LEED credits you need to keep track of every step of the process. LEED has to police to make sure proper certification is awarded." Greg Hogan, Capital Projects Manager, mentioned that LEED is a fairly new concept in Southern Maine, and the contractors and subcontractors were a bit wary at first. However, he emphasized that, "They have been on board since we decided to do a LEED certified project, and we haven't had any issues." Also, waste from the site was separated and diverted to different areas to promote maximum recycling. This meant that at the end of the day cleanup took more time then for a typical building, but waste separation helped to keep the site clean and environmentally friendly. The U.S. Green Building Council maintains that the environmental impact of the process is as important as the impact of the end product.