Fall 2010 issue — Salisbury University covers 155 acres and contains 56 buildings, which is a total of 1,641,277 gross square feet of building space. Over time, the campus’s students, faculty and staff have asked themselves how they can make that mass space more energy efficient and environmentally friendly. And, over the last 20 years, actions have been taken toward doing just that.
Wayne Shelton, SU director of Campus Sustainability and Environmental Safety explained, “The roots of our eco-friendly campus go back to 1990, when we started our recycling program and offered curriculum with a focus on the environment. However, the most significant event for SU occurred in 2007, when President [Janet] Dudley-Eshbach signed the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment.”
The ACUPCC became effective on Jan. 2, 2008, and since then significant changes to the campus’s sustainability effort have been made. According to the Climate Action Plan, the ACUPCC is a pledge made by a coalition of leaders from a number of colleges and universities across the country, all concerned about the impact of global warming and dedicated to reducing greenhouse gas emissions from their institutions.
Following in Dudley-Eshbach’s green footsteps, students, faculty and staff on campus became eager to make eco-friendly changes on campus. They decided to join the Climate Action Plan Workgroup in 2009. A group of 20 students, faculty and staff from 16 university schools, offices and departments have been meeting and created a project that is divided into six theme areas: administrative policies, power and operations, transportation, solid waste, education and research, and financing the plan.
For each of the theme areas, members work to devise emission reduction strategies, as well as ways to integrate sustainability, climate-change learning and problem solving into teaching, research and the campus community.
With the president, students, faculty and staff now eagerly involved in making changes to benefit the campus’s future, physical change to the campus seemed to be the next step. SU immediately began making changes to existing buildings.
The dormitories – a large category of building that uses a mass amount of energy – immediately became a target. The 23-year-old St. Martin residence hall was the first to be renovated.
Shelton explained, “SU embarked on what we call our ‘comprehensive housing project,’ which includes new construction and major renovations. In the fall of 2009, a major renovation was completed for the St. Martin Hall.”
According to Salisbury University, new features include an Energy Star-compliant roof coating to help reduce heat-island effect, an energy recovery unit to recapture up to 80 percent of the heated and cooled air in the buildings that otherwise would escape, and a solar stairwell for improved ventilation overall.
Low-flow aerators on the building’s faucets allow the hall to use 10 percent less water than before the renovation. Exterior lobby and lounge walls were replaced with full-height glass, allowing more natural daylight into those spaces. Shelton added that a “low volatile organic compound (VOC) furniture and paint for better indoor air quality” was also included.
Jeff Downes, director of facilities planning and capital projects at SU, said, “While most of these upgrades are not immediately visible, they make a tremendous impact to the building by making the residence hall much more energy efficient, cost effective and sustainable to the environment.”
The Pocomoke residence hall re-opened its doors in spring semester of 2010, when students returned to a newly renovated eco-friendly home. According to Salisbury University, it was a $7.1 million renovation that has turned the hall into one of the most environmentally friendly secure structures at that time.
The renovations are very much similar to those done for St. Martin. In addition, crews replaced existing tile and floor coverings with carpet produced by Tandus, a Georgia-based company that includes recycled materials in its products. The new carpet can be cleaned in a more environmentally friendly manner, said Dave Gutoskey, SU director of housing and residence life.
Shelton added, “The building is also home to students in a ‘living-learning environment,’ where they choose to reside with students with similar interests, such as the same major or sustainability.”
Pocomoke Hall’s lower level now has a classroom for instruction associated with the majors or minors of the Living Learning Community. The hall has been renovated in accordance with that program and in hopes of receiving the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Silver certification.
According to the U.S. Green Building Council, LEED is an internationally recognized green building certification system, providing third-party verification that a building or community was designed and built using strategies aimed at improving performance across the metrics that matter most.
The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) explains that the LEED rating system offers four certification levels for new construction: Certified, Silver, Gold and Platinum, which correspond to the number of credits accrued in five green design categories: sustainable sites, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, materials, resources and indoor environmental quality.
As Salisbury University is focusing on making existing buildings on campus more environmentally friendly, new construction on campus is being built with new sustainable technology of today, from the very beginning, following LEED guidelines in their plans for new additions to the campus.
Salisbury University’s Teacher Education and Technology center (TETC) is a $65 million, 165,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art facility that opened in fall of 2008. According to Salisbury University in fall of 2009, it earned LEED Silver certification from the U.S. Green Building Council, becoming the Eastern Shore’s first LEED-certified “new construction” project.
The building includes everything from reflective paving on the roof and sidewalks, to reduce heat-island effect, to recycling waste materials from construction, of which 72 percent – some 1,357 tons – was recycled. Downes said the LEED certification ushers in a new era of construction sustainability at SU – an extension of the American College and University Presidents Climate Community pledge.
Shelton noted, “Beginning with the construction of the LEED Silver TETC building, all of our future buildings or major renovation projects will be LEED Silver, at minimum. Each building contains sustainable elements, such as bamboo flooring, sheet flooring from recycled material, occupant sensors, daylight in open spaces, low-water fixtures, high efficiency HVAC with energy recovery, a sustainability education kiosk, integrated recycling areas and more.”
The new parking garage on campus was also built with many sustainable amenities. Light Emitting Diode (LED) lights, along with a daylight harvesting control system – which shuts off lights in areas of the garage when a sensor detects natural sunlight, to adequately illuminate the interior – were installed.
A reflective roof reduces heat-island effect, and 100 percent of the waste concrete and metal created during demolition of existing building and construction of the new parking were recycled.
Salisbury University has even gone as far as installing charging stations for hybrid and electric cars. Though the parking garage doesn’t qualify for LEED certification, as an unoccupied building, if it were occupied, it would have received at least a Silver certification.
A new building being constructed at SU currently is the Perdue School of Business, and that building is going for the Gold! According to Salisbury University, the $56 million, 112,800-square-foot facility is scheduled to open by the fall of 2011.
In addition to daylight harvesting control systems, energy efficient glass, recycling of construction materials and a reflective roof and pavement, the facility incorporates the use of carbon dioxide sensors to better control the flow of outside air mixing with pre-heated and pre-cooled air inside the building.
Shelton said, “One of the notable differences with this building is the Perdue Museum, which will be heated and cooled geothermal energy. Also, a significant amount of effort will be put into the kiosk for the Perdue Business School, which will establish a template for all future sustainability kiosks on the campus.”
A 15-ton geothermal heat pump will be utilized for the Perdue Museum portion of the building. In addition to air-conditioning the museum, it will serve as a learning tool for SU environmental studies students.
The sustainability efforts being made by Salisbury University are not just happening to the physical structure of the campus. The strength within the campus is its academic life, of course, and the student body has taken whatever actions possible to improve the environment of the campus.
For example, SU philosophy students collect vegetable garbage from their homes and residence halls for compost piles on campus. They have planted a wildlife garden on campus to attract insects and small animals, as well as a self-watering rain garden. Environmental literacy classes are studying sustainability measures in SU’s daily operations. Students have conducted environmental research abroad in Honduras with Dr. Laura Marasco of the Education Specialties Department and in India with Dr. Micheal Lewis of the History Department. The students are very involved in making campus life as healthy as possible. They even celebrate Earth Day.
Along with the students, Salisbury University staff feels it is their responsibility to educate the community, as well.
Dr. Danny Ervin of the Perdue School of Business explained, “One of the important aspects in the university’s sustainability committee is to educate the students, faculty members, and surrounding communities.
“In the academic commons, we are talking about including a sustainability center. It will have exhibits – for example, a progression of windows, single pane to double pane to triple pane, and talk about the different thermal characteristics. Also, it will include a few touch-screen TVs, with a variety of videos. For example, we could have the campus president talk about the initiatives that have been going on around the campus and a little bit of the history and where we’re going.”
SU is determined to become a green icon in the community and to influence surrounding areas in becoming more involved in making the region better for the environment.
