Low-flow plumbing fixtures, passive solar design and stormwater management are increasingly frequent terms within the higher education world as universities and colleges steadily build and renovate their way toward sustainable design. Schools are unveiling high-performance laboratories with features like variable air volume fume hoods and occupancy sensors. Residence halls are receiving renovations like individual temperature controls and drought-resistant landscaping. Many campuses are installing green roofs that help to insulate buildings, reducing heating and cooling costs.

The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education’s annual digests of AASHE Bulletin stories reflect the rising growth of campus green building in the U.S. and Canada. In 2007, the Bulletin featured 60 green campus buildings that were planned or certified. In 2008, that number more than doubled with the planning, opening or green certification of 130 green campus buildings reported in the Bulletin. In 2009, another 165 eco-friendly campus structures were covered as opening or receiving green certification.

While many institutions use internal green standards, the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) voluntary LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification program is the most commonly-used green building standard in higher education. LEED measures performance in areas including water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, innovation and design, indoor environmental quality and sustainable sites. The USGBC reports an increase from 42 LEED projects (certified or registered) on higher education campuses in 2001 to 3,866 such projects as of July 15, 2010, reflecting exponential growth.

“Higher education is leading in green building,” says Jaime Van Mourik, USGBC’s higher education sector manager. The sector has the highest number of registered and certified LEED projects in terms of square footage.

Campus green building projects have grown in numbers and ambition in the past decade. For example, Butte College recently announced that it is on track to become the first grid positive—contributing electricity to the grid rather than drawing on it—institution by May 2011 with the addition of 15,000 solar photovoltaic panels to its existing 10,000 for a system total of 4.5 solar megawatts. In 2000, institutions were just starting to become familiar with LEED standards and the concept of sustainable building. Ten years later, the goal of producing more electricity than an institution uses is within reach.

Students, both existing and prospective, have influenced the rise in green building projects. “We have students knocking on our door,” says Van Mourik. “They are interested in advocating for green building. They want to be part of the experience. They want to be part of the solution.”

In response, USGBC will debut “Hands-on LEED: Guiding College Student Engagement” in the fall, a document that explains how institutional leaders can guide students to become involved in green building projects and contribute to LEED certification efforts.

There is also a newfound emphasis on sustainability as prospective students weigh the decision of where to go to school. “Until recently, there was only anecdotal evidence that an institution's sustainability performance was important to prospective students,” writes University of Michigan graduate student Julian Dautremont-Smith in a March 2009 AASHE blog post[1]. That changed as quantitative evidence emerged from admissions decisions. “Sixty-three percent of the 10,300 respondents to The Princeton Review's 2008 College Hopes & Worries Survey indicated that they would value having information about a college’s commitment to the environment and that it might impact their decision to apply to or attend the school,” he writes.

In a July 2010 article, USA Today reported on the growing trend by colleges and universities to use sustainability to attract student enrollment. In 2009, 27 percent of colleges and universities incorporated a sustainability message during admissions and student orientation processes. In 2010, notes the story, the number has increased to 69 percent.

Green building is also growing in higher education because of new legal requirements, says the 2010 University of Michigan report, Green Building in the Higher Education Sector Analysis. At least 25 states and many municipalities have adopted policies mandating green building for new construction projects that meet certain criteria.

Perhaps the most notable motivator for implementing green building practices is lower operating costs. On average, green buildings can reduce energy use by 30 to 50 percent, says a 2010 Green Building Trends report by Yudelson Associates: “Reductions in environmental impacts also produce corresponding operational cost savings, providing a significant incentive for building green on the campus.”

“We have a lot to do and time is not on our side,” says Ciannat Howett, director of sustainability initiatives at Emory University in Georgia. “More and more the climate crisis requires us to take action even if we don’t quite know the path ahead.” Emory adopted a resolution that all future buildings be built to at least a LEED Silver standard. The result, says Howett, has been “economically rewarding with reduced water and energy costs.”

The trend to incorporate sustainability and green building into the master plans that guide campus development is also growing within the higher education community. There are nearly 700 signatories to the American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC), an institutional commitment to neutralize greenhouse gas emissions. ACUPCC signatories undertake one or more “tangible actions” to reduce greenhouse gases while their climate action plans are being developed.

One of the most popular tangible actions listed by the ACUPCC, selected by nearly 450 schools to complete, is to: “establish a policy that all new campus construction will be built to at least [USGBC’s] LEED Silver standard or equivalent,” notes the University of Michigan report.

Another guide to campus sustainability is AASHE’s Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System (STARS). More than 200 Charter Participants have signed on to use the transparent, self-reporting framework for implementing sustainable practices on campus. Using the STARS Technical Manual, a go-to guide for STARS credits that debuted in January 2010, institutions can earn credits toward a Bronze, Silver, Gold or Platinum sustainability rating.

To earn credits for sustainable building practices through STARS, institutions are encouraged to adopt a green building policy and take design, building and maintenance steps that provide a safe and healthy indoor environment for inhabitants while simultaneously mitigating the building’s impact on the outdoor environment.

While in the past the focus in higher education has been the debut of new green buildings, future projects will look more at existing ones. “What we’ve been seeing is that the growth is exponential but it’s really been focused on new construction up until the collapse of the economy,” says Van Mourik. “With the budgets drying up, we’re starting to see energy retrofits and a focus on green building policies and procedures on campus.”

“Higher education faces billions of dollars of deferred maintenance on campus buildings and how they respond will determine their long term fiscal stability,” says AASHE Executive Director Paul Rowland.

The Chronicle of Higher Education senior reporter Scott Carlson says that a number of institutions, particularly public schools, are in crisis mode when it comes to maintaining the buildings they already have. Maintenance, utilities, and renewal costs can compose about 70 percent of the lifetime costs of a building, he notes.

“Building to LEED or your own definition of green building is great,” says Carlson, “but we’re at a period now in higher education where we really need to think about whether we need to be building at all.”

Carlson also points out the separation between the money it takes to put up the building and the operational investment. “They don’t come out of the same pot. So you have faculty and deans that say they need a brand new lab to make their program the best in the world, but their department doesn’t have to pay the cost of the heating, cooling and other operational costs.”

Individual metering that would allow institutions to keep track of each department’s energy usage was a future trend discussed at the 2010 annual meeting of the Society for College and University Planning (SCUP). Each department would have its own maintenance budget and be held accountable for the operating costs of the building.

“It’s like living at home with mom and dad,” says Carlson. “You don’t know what mom and dad are paying for the energy bill, so you don’t worry about leaving your computer on all night.”

Another emerging trend within campus green building is to look for ways of growing without adding to the campus’ square footage. A common theme among stories covered in AASHE Bulletin is the reuse and renovation of existing buildings and materials. The recent renovation of the Dexter Library at Northland College in Wisconsin, for instance, repurposed the rubber roofing removed during construction as a hoop house door for a campus community garden.

“LEED makes you look at water, energy, reusing materials,” says Howett. “And that requires creativity.”

The University of Chicago’s “Uncommon Garden Project” is a creative example of effective utilization of campus open space. The university recently announced plans to create student-maintained gardens with available land space outside dormitories. The project encourages dorm residents to plant, cultivate and harvest their own fruits, vegetables and herbs just outside their kitchens.

“There has been a sense on campuses for a long time that if you’re not growing, you’re not going places,” says Carlson. “That is an attitude that has to change otherwise campuses won’t be able to keep up.”

Whether it is the renovation of a historic campus library or the debut of an energy-efficient, state-of-the-art science center, an institution’s buildings are often the face of its sustainability efforts.  “Nothing is ethics made manifest more than a building,” says Howett. “That’s an opportunity to walk the talk.”

[1] http://www.aashe.org/blog/how-do-campus-sustainability-initiatives-affect-college-admissions

About the Author
Margo is AASHE’s publications coordinator. She has an M.S. in Environmental Studies from the University of Montana with a focus on environmental writing and sustainable agriculture. Her previous writing credits include Billboard Magazine, Edible Missoula, Outdoors Unlimited, and Camas.

For more information, resources and discussion about green building in the higher education sector, visit the AASHE Resource Center’s Green Buildings Resources.