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UA a pioneer in green building practices
By: Shain Bergan
Issue date: 3/31/08 Section: News
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Building officials are currently taking these advances out of the research lab and onto the UA campus.
Although green living may be all the rage now, the UA was adopting such practices before being kind to the environment was the popular trend, said UA President Robert Shelton.
"The UA should lead by example," he said. "What's really important is what we're doing."
The standard for building eco-friendly structures has been the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design system since its global inception in 1998.
LEED employs a ratings system that classifies LEED-certified buildings as silver, gold or platinum based on such factors as structural sustainability, water and energy efficiency, indoor environmental quality, and innovation in design, said Brooks Jeffrey, preservation studies coordinator for the College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture.
The university's green building practices began more than 100 years ago, when structural experts and architects teamed up to create buildings out of materials that would last for several decades.
To officially establish a green building policy upon taking the UA presidential reins, Shelton said he signed an agreement with the Association for the Study of Higher Education to help the university become a leader in sustainability efforts.
Because of the agreement, it has become a UA policy for all new campus buildings to achieve at least a silver certification from LEED.
Some current green structures on campus include the Meinel Optical Sciences building and the Student Recreation Center expansion, said Peter Dourlein, associate director for UA Facilities Design and Construction.
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