Hi Andy, Just an FYI: There actually is an entire program of the US Green Building Council for Existing Buildings- they call it LEED-EB. (http://www.usgbc.org/LEED/eb/ ) There will also be a new LEED-NC (that's new construction) rating system coming out shortly that increases how points are weighed for energy.
I agree that where possible, renovation is preferable, but since I don't know if the previous building was able to be renovated to fit their needs, I won't comment on Golisano Hall. I suspect the building was going up for a specific set of needs, and that the LEED rating was never a driver to build a 36,000 sq ft building. Dean Andy Goodell wrote: > There was quite a fuss made about the Golisano Hall LEED building which > is now finished at Hartwick College in Oneonta, NY. In order to make > room on the terraced slope of Oyaron Hill, they took down the college's > second oldest building. To meet a certain amount of LEED points, only > 18% of the building needed to be recycled, and the rest was added to the > landfills. > > The question that everyone had was: Is it more sustainable to add a $16 > million LEED building while landfilling an old one, or put that money > towards renovating the old building to become efficient. To my > understanding, LEED certification cannot be applied to existing > buildings, which is likely why that option was not seriously considered. > > In my opinion, LEED certifications need to be completely overhauled. If > it's true that many of these actually use more power than conventional > buildings, that confirms that this system is highly flawed. > > The problem is that most of these buildings are not going up for > sustainability reasons, but for marketing. College like Hartwick can now > say "Look! We are sustainable with a LEED building!" But I can assure > you that Hartwick has little care in the way of sustainability. > > -Andy > > > _______________________________________________ For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County area, please visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/ RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: [email protected] http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org
