Campus Green Builder

Educational

• The building can serve as an educational tool with displays, tours depicting and highlighting its green building features. This would educate the campus community as well as off-campus audience about all the benefits offered by green buildings, such as high energy efficiency, improved air quality, overall positive impact on the occupants’ health and productivity, as well as reduction in the institutional greenhouse gas emissions.
• Also, the project team strongly feels that it is crucial for the institution to educate its senior administration and decision-makers about the detrimental effects of the built environment on the natural environment and solutions that could help address this challenge. They should acquire at least the basic understanding of what building green entails and how it could assist in pursuing institutional sustainability through research, conference participation and other such learning opportunities. The understanding and knowledge of the Richland College’s administrative staff vis-à-vis green building proved to be a catalyst in the successful realization of this campus green building project.

Financial
Replacing the old Sabine Hall with the new science building became essential for Richland because the building could no longer accommodate the programs that it was needed to house, in terms of occupancy and standards for laboratories and other offered courses. The Sabine Hall building was entirely funded by the 2004 bond issued funds. The team learned that:

• Myths about green building costing more than traditional construction are just myths. There are tremendous advantages associated with designing, constructing and managing green building and facilities; for one, the extensive financial saving resulting from the installation of high-efficiency HVAC and MEP systems.
• And, there would be upfront premiums, but they can be recuperated through the long-term benefits and cost savings over the life cycle of the building.
• Since technology and green building knowledge have increased in last few years, there is a wide range of available expertise that could be hired for the project, and because of this growth in the industry, the premium charged by these consulting firms and experts have lowered significantly.
• Also, the project team learned that having a separate administration hired by the Bond office manage the architectural firm proved to be an excellent addition to the financial aspects of the processes. This provided a thorough monitoring and quality management mechanism to the entire project.

Social

• This project certainly brought the community’s attention to green building practice. It has enticed the peer institutions and neighboring communities to learn about sustainability. Richland’s new campus in Garland is also helping establish the institution as a leader in sustainability.
• The project has heightened awareness on the campus and brought a new focus to other campus buildings that could be retrofitted with sustainability measures. The old Sabine Hall is planned to undergo an adaptive reuse process that will make the building more efficient than the current facility.
• This LEED^® Platinum building is certainly proving to be a real life portal for green building information and platform for engaging the community into more sustainability focused initiatives.

Technical

• Not all design firms and professionals have experience and skill regarding green and sustainable building design and construction. During the interviewing process for the construction team selection, Richland realized that many did not have the qualifications necessary to make Sabine Hall the sustainability landmark following the institution’s vision.
• It is important to have a LEED^® Accredited Professional onboard from the beginning of the project; however, it is equally important to hire a firm that has credible and substantial portfolio of LEED^® and/or other green projects and has a local presence in your region/city.
• Participation in green events and conferences could certainly increase one’s awareness regarding firms and companies that are involved in and have excelled the green building practice. Richland College selected Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) as the project’s day-lighting consultant after learning about RMI’s commitment to sustainability at one of the green events.