By Tonie Miyamoto
There are a world of options when it comes to programs that help preserve our resources. The selections below do not constitute an exhaustive list, but rather an attempt to introduce options and perspectives that often fit campus projects. Note that the level of difficulty and cost ranges for each certification were based on a straw poll of the design professionals and campus representatives who contributed to this article.
Originally introduced in Canada, Green Globes was brought to the U.S. by the Green Building Initiative in 2004. Green Globes certification offers modules for projects that are new construction or significant renovations as well as sustainable interiors. Projects can earn one to four globes, and the process is fairly intuitive, with a self-reported online assessment survey as the first step.
Focus Areas:
Green Globes projects earn points based on a 1,000-point scale that includes seven categories: energy, indoor environment, site, water, resources, emissions, and project and environmental management.
Advantages:
Considerations:
Difficulty to Achieve: one per globe
Cost: for one globe and up to for four globes
The WELL Building Standard measures, certifies, and monitors features of the built environment that impact human health and well-being. A relatively new addition to the building certification arena, the WELL standard was released in 2014 and updated to a second iteration in 2018. WELL certification requires that projects meet certain preconditions as well as on-site performance testing and assessment.
The WELL standard is awarded at silver, gold, or platinum levels based on 100 performance metrics or features across ten concepts: air, water, nourishment, light, movement, thermal comfort, sound, materials, mind, and community.
Difficulty to Achieve:
Cost:
Fitwel is administered by the non-profit Center for Active Design and brings together expertise from public health, design, facilities management, and research to create buildings focused on health and wellness. Fitwel claims more than 240 certified or pending certification projects and 840 registered projects in 180 countries. Less ambitious than some options, Fitwel may be a better fit (pun intended) for campuses thanks to an easy-to-use online platform and a streamlined, cost-effective process.
Fitwel is certified at one, two, or three stars based on a straightforward point system divided among 55 strategies in seven health impact categories: “impacts surrounding community health, reduces morbidity and absenteeism, supports social equity for vulnerable populations, instills feelings of well-being, enhances access to healthy foods, promotes occupant safety, and increases physical activity” (https://www.fitwel.org/standard).
Fitwel In Action
The Tower at the University of Washington in Seattle achieved a one-star Fitwel certification for one floor of this tower complex on campus. The floor was remodeled for IT staff and features standing desks as well as private and collaborative work spaces. While only the one floor pursued certification, Fitwel allows features of the building that are available to all employees to count towards certification, including lactation rooms, outdoor spaces, and access to public transportation.
“The thing I like about Fitwel is that it gets you thinking about the things that you can change in your building. I think it opens up a conversation with your stakeholders,” says Amy Kim, assistant professor in civil and environmental engineering at UW. Kim says she used a graduate-level course to start the certification process while her post-doc and the facility managers worked with her to complete it. Kim notes that they considered WELL certification for the project initially. “Our barrier as a public institution was looking at the cost of registering a project under [WELL]. As a public entity this would have been difficult for us to pursue, so Fitwel was a good alternative to that.”
The Passive House Institute US (PHIUS) administers a climate-specific passive building certification system specifically designed to lower energy use. Passive House started in Germany in the 1990s to make single-family homes more efficient. After achieving residential success, it rolled out to commercial projects and launched in the U.S. in 2007, with an update to PHUIS+ 2015, and now PHIUS+ 2018 in a pilot phase.
Passive House strategies can be summed up as optimizing a building’s gains and losses based on its surrounding climate. It adheres to five building-science principles: insulate to a very high level; eliminate thermal bridges (i.e., places where energy may be lost); achieve verified airtightness; take advantage of passive solar heating in cold climates/seasons and avoid solar heat gain in warm climates/seasons; and ventilate properly without undue energy consumption or loss.
Passive House In Action
The House at Cornell Tech is situated on Roosevelt Island in New York City with spectacular views of Manhattan and the East River. The largest and tallest residential Passive House building in the world, the 26-story high rise was completed in 2017 and houses more than 300 people, mostly graduate students, with a few top floors dedicated to faculty and staff. Urban living is balanced with 2.5 acres of green space and access to pedestrian paths.
A full-service apartment building, The House features a fitness center, lounges on the ground floor and rooftop, fully furnished modern units, and small study nooks. According to the Cornell Tech website, the energy efficiency of The House could save “882 tons of CO2 per year, equal to planting 5,300 new trees.” Groundbreaking technologies include a prefabricated metal panel system on the exterior, which acts as a thermally insulated blanket around the building, and color-changing exterior paint that shifts from silver to warm champagne when reflecting light. The House also achieved LEED Platinum certification.
The Living Building Challenge (LBC) is a performance-based building certification program administered by the International Living Future Institute. Considered by many to be the most rigorous building performance standard, to earn certification a building must achieve 100% net zero energy, water, and waste. According to the LBC website, the certification aims to create spaces that “connect occupants to light, air, food, nature, and community.” This certification focuses not only on the actual building infrastructure, but also on the systems around it in a holistic approach that requires building performance to be tracked for 12 consecutive months prior to certification. As of 2017, there were 380 registered LBC projects with 73 certified projects (15 Living Certification; 25 Petal Certification; 33 Net Zero Building Certification).
The LBC includes seven petals or performance typologies (place, water, energy, health and happiness, materials, equity, and beauty), and each has 20 mandatory imperatives along with a strict list of products that must be avoided. Buildings can be certified at three different levels. The Living Certification requires all imperatives assigned to all seven typologies. Petal Certification requires at least three of the seven petals (one of which must be water, energy, or materials) in addition to imperatives for Limits to Growth and Inspiration+Education. Finally, the Net Zero Energy Building Certification requires projects to generate all energy on site without combustion.
Living Building Challenge in Action
The Deep Green Residence Hall at Berea College in Kentucky earned Living Building Challenge Petal Certification for Place, Health, Materials, and Beauty as well as LEED Platinum certification. Opened in 2013, it showcases sustainability features like a geothermal heat pump, solar panels, and recycled brick for the exterior, which make the building energy efficient, while student engagement through a speakers series and the student-run campus organic farm transform the hall into a living-learning laboratory. How deep green was this project? Poplar trees harvested from Berea’s FSC Certified Forest were hauled by mule to a studio where students produced trim and furniture for each room.
Joan Pauly, the sustainability coordinator for Berea, said they discovered that LBC goes above and beyond code regulation when they tried to pursue composting toilets in every room, but Kentucky state code didn’t allow that. Pauly describes Deep Green as a “great learning tool” and noted that many of Berea’s students are first-generation, so the building is an excellent opportunity to expose them to sustainability on a daily basis.
The RELi Collaborative is led by the Institute for Market Transformation to Sustainability and Capital Markets Partnership with a number of private and public sector collaborators. Launched by the collaborative in 2014, the U.S. Green Building Council and the Green Business Certification Institute, the entities behind LEED, came on board in 2017 to partner on the RELi 2.0 rating system. RELi is considered the first standard for designing buildings and communities to withstand natural disasters including floods, tornadoes, droughts, and wildfires. It directly addresses the challenges associated with climate change like rising sea levels, power outages, interruption in communication systems, and warmer temperatures.
RELi projects must meet 15 requirements, with several optional credits offered across eight categories: panoramic approach; hazard preparedness; hazard mitigation and adaptation; community cohesion/social and economic vitality; productivity, health, and diversity; energy, water, and on-site food production; materials and artifacts; and applied creativity.
Difficulty to Achieve (pilot):
Cost (pilot):
Tonie Miyamoto is the director of communications and sustainability at Colorado State University in Fort Collins. Additional research assistance was provided by Mary Liang, Marianne Wieghaus, and Sylvia Cranmer. Tonie.Miyamoto@ColoState.EDU
