Green buildings are becoming a concrete reality as Virginia Tech and Blacksburg continue to work together in a commitment to sustainability.
The newly renovated Blacksburg Motor Company on South Main Street and the new Theatre 101 building on College Avenue will be among the first LEED-certified buildings in the town.
LEED, which stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is an international system of rating buildings based on their environmental impacts. It takes into account water and energy efficiency as well as the materials used during design and construction.
All new construction on campus will be certified on at least the silver level of LEED, according to the Climate Action Commitment Resolution, approved by Tech’s Board of Visitors in June.
The resolution is a 14-point plan that outlines Tech’s goals for environmental friendliness.
The plan includes a commitment to LEED-certified buildings.
Denny Cochrane, manager of the office of sustainability, said that the plan would function as a roadmap for future construction.
“Although we tried to design and build to LEED standards in the past,” Cochrane said, “this puts a little more teeth into it.”
In order to become fully LEED certified, a building must be registered with the United Sates Green Building Council, the independent nonprofit organization that administers and oversees LEED certifications in the U.S.
While neither the Blacksburg Motor Company building nor the Theatre 101 building have received official certifications, both are expected to garner gold certifications.
The certification categories are certified, silver, gold and platinum.
Buildings are given points for water and energy efficiency, the sustainability of the site and the materials used, the indoor environmental quality and the innovation of the design process.The more points a building is awarded, the higher the rating climbs.
The Theatre 101 building, along with the renovation of adjacent Henderson Hall, is expected to receive a gold rating. Cochrane explained the breakdown of the scorecard. Some points are pre-awarded during the design process. During design alone, it won enough points to be certified.
Gillian Rizy, sustainability coordinator for Mosely Architects, the architecture firm that worked on the Henderson Hall renovation, predicted that post-construction, the building would be awarded enough points to hopefully give it a gold certification.
The Blacksburg Motor Company building is also expected to receive a gold rating.
Lenore Duncan, project manager and main architect for the renovations of the Blacksburg Motor Company building, said she expects the building to receive “a very high gold or hopefully platinum.”
Duncan said it is often easier for buildings that have been renovated to receive a higher rating because renovations offer more space for improvement.
“It’s easier to build an efficient building than update an existing one, but you get more points for improving an existing building because the new one is already so efficient,” Duncan said.
Both the Blacksburg Motor Company building, and the Henderson Hall and Theatre 101 projects incorporated certain sustainable features that are characteristic of LEED-certified buildings.
Rizy said that using LEED standardized sustainable features provides a benchmark of progress during the construction process.
“If you’re not tracking your progress, it’s hard to tell how green your project really is,” Rizy said.
Both projects incorporated certain types of recycled building materials. The Forest Stewardship Council certified the wood used in both projects, which means that there were no chemicals used in the processing of the lumber. Additionally, lights were
installed with sensors, so they only turn on when people are in the room.
The Blacksburg Motor Company building also faced complications because of the historic nature of the building. The project was required by town regulations to retain 75 percent of the original features. Many components of the building that would not have been up to LEED standards were re-used in other locations. Large, un-insulated windows were removed from their original locations and used as decorative fixtures.
Another important component of achieving LEED certification is recycling materials used during construction.
“At least 98 percent of things removed (during construction) that weren’t contaminated were recycled,” Duncan said.
Rizy said that the Henderson Hall project was “able to recycle about 79 percent of the things we took out.”
Cochrane said having more LEED-certified buildings would help Tech be recognized as a “leader in campus sustainability” according to the first point in the resolution.
“Universities are a logical place to model change,” he said.
However, having the certified label on a building also gives political and economic benefits.
Duncan said “some reasons for having LEED-certified buildings are definitely political.”
The first LEED-certified building in Blacksburg now houses the Blacksburg Town Council and other important town functions, and Cochrane said that Tech chose to write the 14-point Climate Action Commitment Resolution as an alternative to signing President Barack Obama’s climate plan in the spring.
“It’s not one size fits all,” Cochrane said.
Cochrane also spoke to the importance of including the town in Tech’s sustainability plans.
“If we’re going to be successful, if the town’s going to be successful, our plans have to dovetail,” he said.
Cochrane also said the Theatre 101 building was “always intended” to be the first LEED-certified building belonging to Tech. The fact that it is located on College Avenue, at the edge of the campus and downtown Blacksburg, “sent a big signal to the town.”
Despite the potential for using LEED certification as a measure of political success, an increase in LEED-certified buildings in the area will also be beneficial to the environment and the buildings’ occupants.
Many of the construction materials and practices involved in the making of LEED-certified buildings are more environmentally friendly than previously used materials. Also, one component of LEED buildings is the protection of the people who use the building.
In the Blacksburg Motor Company building, the chemicals that could be harmful to workers are enclosed in a separate room. There, the copier, printer and other machines cannot leak harmful chemicals into the building’s air.
In the Theatre 101 building, an indoor air quality monitor was installed. Along with a carbon monoxide detector, these tools will work together to ensure that the people using the building will not experience adverse effects from chemicals that may be embedded in their surroundings.
Cochrane concurred that LEED-certified buildings can bring great benefits to their occupants.
“It’s proven that people will do better if they’re in a better building,” he said.
It should also be considered inevitable that more and more buildings in Blacksburg, at Tech and elsewhere, will seek LEED certification in the future.
Cochrane said that 12 of the 27 new buildings that are currently either in the design or construction stage have already applied for registration with the U.S. Green Building Council.
Before ever beginning the construction process, a building’s design must be submitted to the USGBC. If it is not, the building cannot be considered for LEED certification at a later date, unless it is drastically renovated. Renovations involving additions of over 5,000 square feet are considered large enough to apply for certification.
This means that some projects currently under construction cannot be considered for LEED certification because they were started before Tech’s June 1, 2009 adoption of the Climate Action Commitment Resolution as university policy.
However, Cochrane said, even though recently-completed buildings such as New Hall West cannot be LEED certified because their design wasn’t submitted to the USGBC at conception, they have incorporated features used in many LEED-certified buildings.
Duncan agreed that more LEED-certified buildings would pop up in the future.
“More things will become required versus a good thing to do,” she said.
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.”