The Blacksburg Motor Company's playfully decorated rainwater collection system helps reduce run-off by using rain for other purposes, such as watering a garden.
Duncan predicts, “15 years from now, most buildings will be certified in most construction.”
Fellow architect Rizy said the LEED requirements should become part of state building codes.
“Within the next 10 years, I hope it becomes code,” Rizy said. “Hopefully all new buildings will have to be constructed to LEED standards.”
The ease of converting to LEED standards versus older construction practices will come through the cost efficiency. While Duncan said that it could be 5 percent to 10 percent more expensive to build with recycled and environmentally friendly materials like the FSC-certified wood, the long-term benefits of energy and water conservation will actually save money.
The geothermal heating system she helped design for the Blacksburg Motor Company building keeps water at a constant temperature of about 50 degrees in wells 300 feet underground.
“It flows in and out and it only needs to be heated or cooled about 20 degrees,” Duncan said, which saves on energy consumption for heating water.
Additionally, the backyard of the Blacksburg Motor Company building features several rain barrels that harvest rainwater instead of letting it run off as groundwater. These barrels filter into rain gardens that both clean the water and nourish miniature gardens of indigenous plants.
Rizy said that even though the Henderson Hall and Theatre 101 building renovations experienced three separate phases of budget cuts, the project was still able to devote about one to two percent of the construction budget for LEED features.
“We were on a very tight budget, but were still able to incorporate the LEED features,” Rizy said.
Cochrane said that he did not anticipate the costs to be too much more to build LEED-certified buildings and that in the long run, there would be greater benefits.
“We used to be concerned about just getting a building up as fast as we could,” he said, “but now we’re talking about lifecycle costs.”
He also said that the money saved in the long run through the conservation of energy and water would hopefully help keep other costs, like tuition and student fees, as low as possible.
“The sustainability movement is here,” Cochrane said. “It’s time to take a little bit of ownership. It’s a team effort.”
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Blacksburg Motor Company and Theatre 101 has recognized the potential of being LEED certified.Using recycle materials and ensuring there is sustainability in building will help in making projects become Silver of higher LEED certified. Congrats to both companies for your contribution to the environment in becoming LEED certified.
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Great start - I'd love to see VT aggressively initiate a massive network
of rooftop solar (photovolic) grids as well as green roofs. VT represents hundreds of thousands of square feet of flat, manageable roof surface that beg for a lush network or green material integrated with supplemental solar. From a 'heat absorbtion + runoff management' point of view the development of green roofs (which has been successfully been in use extensively in Chicago for years) is a winning proposition; add to that the potential for solar to reduce even a small percentage of our coal-powered use is just another win. (And lest we forget these efforts pump income into the community and generate jobs to develop). Need we say more?
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