You do want an efficeint building, because over time it may pay itself back for those costs, but we wanted to set a standard for the future, and also because we wanted it to be a building that teaches you. Your generation and the next generation behind you, that this is really important. So thats why we did it. If you go on usgbc.org you'll find what's called a score sheet and if you get 27 points on the score sheet and it's all broken up into different categories, quality of the air, efficiency of the systems, materials that you used to build the building with, land disturbance, materials that you took away from the site, we torn down two old, old old, houses to build the building all of the material had to be recycled, they had to document everything that left the site, and where it went.
So when they pulled the house down they pulled bricks out and they had to document "where did that go?" DId it go to a gravel company to be ground up and made into concrete. Any steel that left the site had to be recycled. They had to document how much was recycled, how much actually went to landfills and trash, so we exceeded our recycling and what we took away from the site, soil that was dug out, we couldn't just dump it in the river, then when you build the building you have to build it to certin specifications. You have to use a certain amount of post consumer recycled materials in the building, you had to meet certain efficiency standards for the heating and ventilation. You couldn't use certain kinds of paints, because they let off alot of gasses. There's also all kinds of regulations about land disturbance, that means you have to plant, replace anything you take down, and so, you know, it get's really complicated and really smart engineers have got to be ontop of it and be watching it. But before all of that, we had to do what's called an Environment Constraints Analysis, experts go through our whole campus and identify things like "You can't build or do anything here, here are your set backs from the river, here are your places that can be developed, these are the ones that can't." And so, your really paying some sophisticated people to look at the campus and determine zones where there might be environmental impacts. Then we had to do what's called a civil survey of the entire campus. We had to do an environment site assessment to determine what was being taken down and what was to be recycled. We had to do a complete water systems survey, because our water comes from out of the ground, it's not public water. So a whole lot of engineering goes into that. One of the things we learned was the next time we put a building on our campus we're going to have to build a new well, because we will be at our capacity for drawing water out of the ground.
The first environmental thing we did was in 1995, when we had what's called a tree survey. Every tree on campus at that time has a little metal tag on it with a number, and in the back of this book there is a list of each number, and it recommends what should be done with that tree, let it grow, take it down, trim it, plant more. So even back then, this was about a $100,000 recommendation, and we did some of it, we didn't do all of it. So every tree has been surveyed that was here at the time and a few since then, with a recommendation Bartlett Tree Company, the guy who did it was a certified Arborist, with the International Society of Arbiculture. With a B.S. in Forestry and Wildlife.
That's the kind of background work you do before you even start imagining your building. I think that's part of the unknown part of LEED, that it's a very long, involved process that requires a lot of experts, architects, and engineers. Scientists, arborists, environmental folks, and a whole lot of disciplines that have to come together to make it happen. And then when you get into the building, the building company has to be able to pull it off. They have to be conversant with all of this stuff, because they actually do all of the recording, getting all the stuff certified that's being taken away, their insuring that their materials are what they say, for instance, if it has to be timber that's renewable, there's a special seal or tag on all of that timber, that says it's 100% renewable forest. So your paying alittle bit of a premium for that kind of wood. Were really proud. Even after the building is opened, it still takes a year to get certified because these acoustic engineers have to come out and determine "is it quiet?", we had to do surveys with students to see if the building was comfortable. We had to do air quality surveys, comfort surveys, efficiency surveys, and sound surveys, to make sure the building is performing as designed. So even if our architects design it to be green, if it got built in a way that it wasn't supposed to, it wouldn't get certified. So it's more than just putting a theory in practice.
One other interesting thing I'll say about LEED, the building people I talk to tell me that all the standards that make a building LEED, within the next generation will be standard on all buildings. So most everything built within the next ten years will be LEED certified, simply by basics. So, even though we complained about the cost, in the future, the building code will automatically require LEED certification. Or better. And so, as you get older, all these buildings will be built with these designs and features in mind, which in 1970 when the environmental wave sort of started, it was all kind of radical. It was gonna be all, solar energy, were gonna burn wood, and there's been so many discoveries since then that go into efficient engineering. And recycling. There was no recycling when we were kids! Middlesex Metals didn't exist until 1990.
Jeb Buyers, Headmaster of Christchurch School on the LEED certification of the Lewis B. Puller center on campus.
For more information on LEED, visit usgbc.org.
Written by Tristan Taylor.
