Going green: for the first green, soon-to-be-LEED-certified law school in the country, details matter - Facilities/Construction

University Business, June, 2003 by Jeff Morris

RELATED ARTICLE: What is 'sustainable' construction?

When people speak of environmentally friendly construction, the term "sustainable" is bound to pop up--especially if true "green" construction techniques and materials are to be utilized. But what is sustainable construction, and why are higher education facilities planners now becoming so interested in it?

Though there are a variety of definitions, the concept of a "sustainable" facility generally includes the requisite that the structure's rate of pollution emission does not exceed the assimilative capacity of the environment. "A truly high-performance facility," explains architect Ron Fanning, of Fanning/Howey Associates, "is one that uses a lot of products that are sustainable, that don't take away from the environment, but add to it. Sustainable, or natural products, don't contain the toxins that are often found in building materials and furnishings," he explains. He also points out that there is an increasingly popular notion of three integrated sustainability goals, sometimes called the "triple bottom line": increasing profits, improving the planet, and improving the lives of people.

"Such products need to be searched for," he continues, "but they are becoming more prevalent. They have the potential to make construction much more energy efficient, to the point where a building can be 'zero-energy'--so efficient it doesn't take energy from the environment, but in fact, gives something back. While it is more difficult to achieve those kinds of results in a commercial or higher education setting than in a residential structure, it is possible."

Today, most approaches to new, greener construction and renovation focus on making sure newly installed materials are low (toxin) emitting. Dr. Marilyn Black, of Air Quality Sciences Inc. and the Greenguard Institute, contends, "You can't put something in place that's a high source of chemicals like formaldehyde and benzene and depend on ventilation to get them out." Fortunately, she says, most manufacturers are working on providing such low-emitting products.

Greenguard (www.greenguard.org) is a resource making it easier to find environmentally friendly products, and is a product certification program launched by Black. "Though there exist guidelines from the EPA and state governments," she explains, there's no federal standard. The program followed most frequently is from one of the pioneers in this area, the state of Washington. After they had SBS problems and had to evacuate a number of buildings in the state, they created a complete product specification program that has become a model across the country. Greenguard actually uses the Washington product specifications."

RELATED ARTICLE: What causes SBS?

The term "sick building syndrome" (SBS) is used to describe situations in which a significant number of people experience acute symptoms that appear to be linked to time spent in a building, with no specific illness or cause that can be identified. SBS entered the limelight with a number of welt-publicized cases during the 1990s--including one in which workers became ill in the new headquarters of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) itself. A World Health Organization report suggests that as many as 30 percent of new and remodeled buildings worldwide have problems with indoor air quality (IAQ).