In 2013, O’Brien Hall, one of the newer residence halls on campus, was awarded LEED Gold Certification. While this may seem on the surface may seem minimal, the reality is quite the opposite. LEED, a program (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), established by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), is a rigorous process that demands a vast amount of work to construct and demonstrate the efficiency of the building in question.
To see how efficient this building really was and how it achieved that efficiency, I joined my Team Green colleague Linda and Amy Kadrie, the Recycling Coordinator at the University of Rochester and Team Green leader, to embark on a tour of O’Brien Hall this past Friday. The results? It became apparent that the environment was considered in a so many areas of the building’s construction, literally and figuratively. Literally because our closely knit tour group walked flights of stairs, across the halls, to the roof, outside, and to the basement just to see these measures, and figuratively because the building excelled in areas of sustainable landscape design, operations, and construction.
Firstly, in terms of landscaping, we traveled outside on the tour to the Towers courtyard to see the new paved pathway and garden that the project included. While that pathway was thick and looked like they added concrete to the area, after measurements were calculated they showed that the area that contained pavement was drastically reduced! This is considered a key to building sustainability, as when rainwater picks up chemicals from concrete and hardscape and then flows into the nearby grounds leading to contamination. Outside of O’Brien hall, 80% of the water runoff is actually collected ad treated.
Next, we wandered up the stairs to see the features of the building’s operations that contribute to sustainability. After walking up five flights of stairs and losing some of our tour group members to asthma and knee surgery, we got to the access door to the roof. Our guide suddenly warned us that we should squint. Without knowing why I followed directions, and surely enough when he opened the door I was glad I did. Before me was a vast roof covered in white rocks that appeared blinding due to the sun’s reflection off them. That was just the point, the guide explained. In the summer, the white rocks that cover the roof reflect as opposed to absorb sunlight which “minimize[s] “urban heat island” effect, and reduce the amount of energy used for cooling.” Moreover, the walls of O’Brien are insulated with spray foam to create a “thermal envelope” to help trap warm air in. This helps reduce the energy needed to heat the building. High-efficiency air filters are also implemented in the residence hall to improve air quality. The combination of these items leads to a lower impact of operations of the building in all seasons.
Lastly, the construction of the building itself was sustainable. Although O’Brien has a beautiful, new hotel like atmosphere inside the halls, many of those materials are anything but new. In fact, 30% of all the materials that were used to construct the hall were recycled! Not only this, but many of those materials were purchased locally, within 32 miles, of the site itself, limiting the amount of travel and gas that was needed to transport these materials. The materials themselves also had low amounts of Volatile Organic Compounds (or VOC’s) which are toxic to the environment.
All of these factors contributed to the buildings 26% higher efficiency than a standard building and gave it the LEED certification it deserved. This award great for the University as it sets a standard for on campus sustainability, and for the students living inside, as they know they are contributing to the environmental movement by dwelling in a sustainable residence! Overall, I agree with LEED’s award and seeing the specific attributes of the building made it that even more clear.
Written by Julie Elliot, Class of 2015