At Ithaca College, in New York, two dormitories are now proudly ‘Energy Star’ approved. The two dorm buildings, Clarke and Hood, have added greener features such as energy efficient broilers, weather stripping and others. These changes, along with eager student participation, have helped the campus become more environmentally friendly. In fact, Ithaca is one of many colleges with Energy Star certified dormitories in the United States and the trend is growing as environmental concerns continue to take center stage.
The EPA’s Energy Star rating of buildings, whiles not a widely known practice, is not a new phenomenon. Energy Star is primarily used for appliances but has also been applied to energy efficient buildings for more than a decade. Dorms are only one of the twenty two building categories eligible for an Energy Star rating. Some of the others include banks, petroleum refineries, courthouses, and hotels. In order to be rated a building inputs statistics such as building size, local climate, and occupancy into a program that then compares it with those of other buildings. A professional engineer also performs an audit of the building.
While the upgrading of facilities to those that are less energy intensive may be a cost exclusionary process, many colleges have proven that such costs pay for themselves in a very short amount of time through the energy and waste treatment that they save. Ithaca, for example, is estimated to have saved about a half million dollars annually in the last 5 years as a result of the building improvements.
Awareness of environmental issues is of growing importance on college campuses in our country. College aged students are the leaders and workforce of the future and must stop the current trend of wasteful lifestyles and pursue career paths that will benefit the environment. The good news is this seems to be the trend- the environmental movement is “one of the hottest social causes on campus” and spearheaded by young adults. It is great that students are exposed to greener lifestyles while living away from home for the first time. These are some of our most formative years and much of how we life now, we will take with us when making homes in the future.
Its great that campuses are getting involved with going green and helping spur on their students awareness of green solutions. I am curious though, did they try getting any other approvals? I mean I primarily associate "Energy Star" with appliances, and from the student topic days in class, it seemed that there are more well known, thorough seals of approval for buildings.
ReplyDeleteI'm interested to know what the difference is between the EPA's Energy Star rating of buildings and the LEED certification of buildings. Does one have stricter rules or guidelines to follow? Is one more appropriate for a college setting and one better for homes? It's great how commonplace these systems are becoming. I also think it is an excellent marketing point that they are making the ratings prestigious. This will make the developers and people funding the projects want to make their buildings Energy Star rated, or LEED certified, that much more. Not only does it make the building sound more "swanky" but it adds a huge selling point to the building, making it worth much more in the long run and more marketable.
ReplyDeleteI know that Virginia Tech's Theatre 101 building is LEED certified, but I would like to know what Tech's plan is for all the new buildings that they have planned to construct in the coming years. Also according to the blog "While the upgrading of facilities to those that are less energy intensive may be a cost exclusionary process, many colleges have proven that such costs pay for themselves in a very short amount of time through the energy and waste treatment that they save." I would urge Virginia Tech to look into this, since tuition bills just keep increasing each year. They should do all they can to keep them low and get rid of unnecessary waste. This would also help to grow awareness of environmental issues to students here.