A survey released in summer 2009 by The Princeton Review showed that nearly 20 percent of high
school students are strongly influenced by a college’s environmental committment.
Colleges and universities are selling
services just like any business. For them,
attracting today’s best and brightest students is essential to helping them attract
the best and brightest tomorrow. Success
leads to more success. The higher the
demand for our classroom seats, the
more ability institutions have to charge
premium prices. The business model has
not changed for generations. What have
changed, however, are their clients’ preferences. The best and brightest kids coming out of our nation’s high schools are
very concerned about the impact their
decisions will have on the environment.
“What’s my carbon footprint?” is something the millennial generation wants to
know. These students are considering the
‘greenness’ of a campus in their college
selection decisions, and LEED is the brand
that means green! Whether we like it or
not, having LEED facilities on your campus is one of the easiest ways to convince potential students you are serious
about sustainability.
“I have a fifth floor or a geothermal system, but I can’t afford both.” “Do I want
to pay extra for products with certified
wood, or put that money into extra parking?” I have found consistently that the
fear of losing LEED points is the only thing
preventing the more ‘practical’ choice.
Right or wrong, I would bet there are few,
if any, owners that would make the same
choice if they were pursuing the vague
target of achieving LEED goals rather than
the concrete target of securing LEED certification.
• statement regarding compliance with
commissioning requirements (see third
quarter 2009 column, p. 74, for details)
Overwhelmed? I understand why. So
where do you start? Here’s a suggestion:
IDEA member Ryan Reid, assistant manager of plant engineering at The University
of Texas at Austin, has put together an
excellent Web page providing, in easy-to-follow language, all the information a
designer on his campus would need to
know about UT-Austin’s plant. Check it
out at www.utexas.edu/utilities/sustain
ability/leed/. It is laid out in a language
designers understand and provides easy
access to the information they require.
In addition, Ryan has included all
LEED guidelines related to district energy
so designers, who may be unfamiliar with
that aspect of LEED, can educate themselves. If you collect the same information on your campus systems and make
it available on your campus Web site,
designers will have easy access to the
information, and you will have one source
to update data as your district energy systems grow and evolve. If you do not have
the internal resources to do so, there are
consultants within IDEA that can help.
Ryan Reid from The
University of Texas,
Austin, has developed a Web page
about LEED that
could be a useful
model for all campuses to follow.
Q: True or false? We follow LEED
standards, but don’t pay for the
certification.
A: Really??? I don’t know how many campus leaders have made this statement to
me, but in my experience it is seldom, if
ever, true. In our business, we understand
building design and construction is always
about tradeoffs. When designing a LEED
project, inevitably budget comes into play.
When it does, tradeoffs have to be made:
Q: Can’t I just publish the efficiency
numbers for my plant?
A: This question refers to providing the
information a designer needs to determine
if a building connected to your district
energy system meets LEED requirements.
The answer to the question is ‘no’ and if
that is all you do, be prepared for a lot
of phone calls and requests for information from building design engineers. The
designer needs the following information:
• average monthly efficiency of your
campus chilling, heating and electric
generation (if CHP), and associated
thermal distribution efficiencies
• average cost of all fuels used in the district energy system
• statement that the campus is CFC
free or has taken another approach to
meeting the CFC requirement (see next
quarter’s column for details)
• summary of your system’s enhanced
refrigerant calculations
Q: Can anyone explain LEED’s
CHP guidelines?
A: This is certainly a tall order, but IDEA
is also leading in this effort. The new
district energy guidelines include specific
methodology for CHP within a district
energy system. However, it is so confusing
that even the USGBC’s district energy
work group had difficulty understanding
how it was applied. That’s where we
came in. IDEA has developed a ‘guidance
to the new guidance’ document whose
goal is to explain application of the
guidance document in easy to understand
language. So far it’s working. In fact,
this guideline was used effectively by
USGBC to explain CHP guidance to the
committee. Now that’s progress!
