Friday, April 25, 2008

UNT goes ‘green’ with new building to set the stage for future

By Keela Bearden of North Texas Daily

Charlie McRae/North Texas Daily

Students for a Sustainable Campus planted a tree in front of the Business Administration Building Tuesday.

Along with NT being known for its green spirit, new buildings on campus are keeping up with the "green" trend.

The new Life Sciences Building is set to be certified "green," according to Raynard O. Kearbey, associate vice chancellor for system facilities.

The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, Green Building Rating System produces buildings that are energy efficient and have great indoor air quality, Kearby said.

LEED certification begins with standard green certification and goes on to silver, gold and platinum certification. The Life Sciences Building is set to get silver certification but may even qualify for gold, he said.

For a building to be "green" certified means many things. Kearby said that exhaust from buildings is a huge contributor to greenhouse gases. LEED certified buildings, especially silver and gold, can emit up to 30 percent less exhaust than traditional buildings, he said.

This benefits not only the environment but also the facility's utility bill, he said. Up to 30 percent lower utility bills is possible with silver and gold certified buildings.

Charlie McRae/North Texas Daily

Students for a Sustainable Campus planted a tree in front of the Business Administration Building Tuesday.

"It will cost a little bit more to build a green building," Kearby said, "but you will get that back in savings in just a few years."

LEED buildings reduce waste produced during construction, with 77 percent of construction waste being recycled, he said. They are also more water efficient, using 40 to 50 percent less drinkable water.

Indoor air quality will also be much better in LEED certified buildings because of building materials that contain less volatile organic compounds content, Kearby said. He said building occupants will benefit.

"You can walk in and literally get a breath of fresh air," he said.

Kearby said studies show that faculty and staff in green buildings take less sick days, and primary school students in green buildings score higher on tests. The result is higher productivity, he said.

"If you incorporate LEED in the construction process early on," he said, "it can be in almost any kind of building."

NT will have more 'green' buildings in the future, including the new stadium, he said, which would be one of the first in the country.

"Not only are we the Mean Green, but we are going to have a 'green' stadium," Kearby said, with a laugh.

Kearby said he thinks that making sure that new buildings are LEED certified is important for future generations to follow.

"It's the right thing to do," he said.

NT mechanical engineering students are already on their way to continuing that legacy thanks to Matt Traum, assistant professor and transformative instructive faculty fellow.

Traum has paired up with Bruce Nacke of the school of visual arts to recreate a project he was assigned as a graduate student at MIT.

The project required that a group of students redesign a summer house on Cape Cod to be sustainable for year-round occupancy.

"For the first time in my experience as an engineering student, there were these human comfort parameters and aesthetic parameters imposed," he said.

The students are working on redesigning Crumley Hall for the project.

"It's representative of just about every old building in the world because people really weren't that concerned about how much energy their buildings were using," he said.

Traum said the building imposes real limitations that occur with older buildings, which is causing them to get creative.

Traum said it is not only a sustainable living and energy engineering retrofit project, but also a vehicle for educating students about how to live comfortably with reduced environmental impact.

He said these modifications to older buildings are just following a worldwide trend.

"What I see is that the world, and Texas in particular, are moving toward energy sustainability at a rapid rate," Traum said.

While NT students and faculty are rethinking older buildings on campus and improving the way they build new ones, Chuck Fuller has created a program to educate resident students.

As assistant vice president for business services, Fuller has created the program "Go Green" to teach students they can reduce environmental impact without making huge changes to their lifestyle.

"It's not just recycling," he said. "It's the things we can do so we don't have to recycle."

Fuller's initiative "Refills not Landfills" equips resident halls with water filters and refillable water bottles.

The point of the program is to give people tools and tips on how to be better stewards of the environment, he said.

"We applaud people who are deeply environmental in nature, but that's not what we're doing right now," Fuller said.

He said those who want to learn more about the program can visit gogreen.unt.edu.

"Its time to make it a part of our culture," he said.

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