Though I’m a LEED AP, and have worked on several LEED certified projects, I’ve never really been that impressed with the actual ‘greenness’ of the majority of buildings certified under the program; nor have I been that impressed with the certification itself. Among other things, it’s largely an expensive, convoluted, sometimes counterintuitive, over hyped, over marketed, and often times energy-inefficient distinction. So it’s nice to see some operational data being pulled from a LEED building that is inline with stated intent of the program.
The Proof Is In The ‘Green’ Pudding
About 50 miles south of San Francisco, Ohlone College’s Newark, CA location was completed, and certified LEED platinum, just over a year ago. The lead architecture firm on the project was Perkins+Will. Case study data was released a few weeks ago showing that Ohlone College had realized some unprecedented energy savings for a college. The facility incorporates 1585 solar panels that supply 50% of the buildings power, 26 miles of geothermal ground loops, and two 10-foot diameter enthalpy wheels fresh-air energy recapture systems. These systems are designed to be used in conjunction with each other to achieve maximum energy efficiency…and it seems they have.
According to the case study data collected, Ohlone College’s Newark Center has realized the following:
- Solar power generation that prevented 421-tons of CO2 from entering the atmosphere in 2008 – the equivalent of reducing vehicle traffic by more than one million miles, while generating enough clean power for 123 homes
- 69-percent reduction in purchased electricity and 72-percent reduction in natural gas consumption compared to the same facility designed to meet California’s Title 24 energy code – the nation’s toughest
- Combined electricity and gas cost of just $63,052, or only $0.48-square foot per year, for the entire facility in 2008, translating into a savings of more than $130,000 compared to the same facility designed to meet Title 24
- Net-zero energy consumption from April 2008 – August, 2008 – removing the campus from the electrical grid entirely and allowing the college to sell its unused power
In addition to its exceptional energy performance data, Ohlone College also has done a lot in regards to the land surrounding the campus. Part of the project site had been deemed a Brownfield by the EPA due to contaminated levels of pesticides in the soil. The Ohlone College project worked to remediate this site, while at the same time restoring the wetlands the site abutted and planting BayFriendly plants designed to not harm, and actually benefit, San Francisco Bay waters and wildlife. These restored areas are now used as a living laboratory by the college.
2 Steps Forward, 1 Step Back
While Ohlone College’s Newark Center is well beyond most colleges’ in terms of energy efficiency, it certainly isn’t the end all, be all sustainable school. It’s location is somewhat remote, considering the geographical location of much of its student body, and because it’s a community college, everyone commutes; mostly by cars. So a lot of the carbon saving gains realized by the facility’s energy production and conservation measures are most likely negated by the daily commuting made by its faculty and students.
When analyzing the overall environmental benefits of buildings, people tend to forget that these buildings are inhabited by human beings who would have otherwise not inhabited them if they had never been built. Considering this fact, the energy involved in transporting and supporting building inhabitants must be considered when gauging the actual benefits, or detriments, a building has on the environment. After all, If you build it; they will come. So building a facility in a location that requires less energy to commute is ideal if the goal is to reduce its carbon-footprint and overall energy-footprint.
LEED’s Focus On The Less Than Obvious
This is one of the big problems I have with LEED. The program focuses solely on the structure and doesn’t even ask the logical question “Should this project even be able to be considered for LEED?” While there are prerequisites in the program, there is no definitive line in the sand drawn that says “no, this projects location and/or operational purpose is so counter to the intent and goals of LEED that it could never be eligible for certification.” So hypothetically, you could have a LEED certified corporate headquarters located 50 miles outside a city in a rural area (they already exist), a weapons manufacturer, a oil company office building, an SUV production plant…you get the picture. While I would assume some these more ‘extreme’ examples would never come to fruition, considering it would destroy the USGBC’s credibility, there is nothing in the certification program that says it couldn’t just as long as these projects met the prerequisites.
While Ohlone College does not fall into this fictitious category of ‘LEED ineligibility’, it’s location on the outskirts of Fremont, must be taken into account when assessing its overall environmental benefit. Yes, the current facility, and its energy efficiency, is better than a comparative ’non energy efficient’ structure, but this is essentially, a faulty comparison as far as the environment is concerned. It’s like saying a factory is green because it doesn’t dump cyanide in the river like the other factories along it. If this is going to be the type of metric by which sustainability is measured, then we are never going to make real progress on the environmental front. As readers of this blog should already be aware, ‘doing less bad’ rarely equates to doing good.
The Good: Impressive energy efficiency with actual confirmed commissioning data. Remediation of surrounding Brownfield and restoration of surrounding wetlands. Role model for other colleges seeking to be more sustainable. Educational benefits.
The Bad: Unfortunately, a significant portion of the college’s carbon reduction is most likely negated by its daily commuting faculty, staff, and students. Its relatively remote location, on the outskirts of a small metropolitan area, is not conducive for mass transit or pedestrian traffic.
The Bottom-Line: Ohlone College Newark Center is a great example of a sustainable structure doing what it intended to do; though its commuter status and location quite possibly negate much of its yearly carbon reduction.
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