Buildings

Introduction

Buildings are generally the largest user of energy and the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions on campuses. Buildings also use significant amounts of potable water. Institutions can design, build, and maintain buildings in ways that provide a safe and healthy indoor environment for inhabitants while simultaneously mitigating the building’s impact on the outdoor environment.

Featured Resources

932 resources

Optimizing Sustainability Over a Building's Lifecycle

  • AKF Group (NJ)

From the U.S. Department of Energy Website: 'The higher education sector spends over $6 billion on annual energy costs and totals about 5 billion square feet of floor space ...

  • Posted Nov. 5, 2018
  • Conference Presentations
  • View more

State of Sustainability in Higher Education: Charting a Course for Continued Success

  • Texas A&M University (TX)
  • Gordian (SC)

Facilities leaders have invested a great deal of effort and financial resources towards pursuing the ideals enumerated in the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities), 12 ...

  • Posted Nov. 5, 2018
  • Conference Presentations
  • View more

Transforming Existing, Iconic, Landmark Buildings Into Modern, High-Performance Buildings

  • Duquesne University (PA)
  • AUROS Group (PA)

The challenge most universities face today is modernizing building performance (high indoor environmental quality and low energy consumption) cost effectively, while preserving the image of iconic structures dedicated to learning ...

  • Posted Nov. 5, 2018
  • Conference Presentations
  • View more

Green Globes Certification: A Practical Approach for Sustainable Campuses

  • University of Florida (FL)
  • Green Building Initiative (OR)

Green Globes is an affordable and practical, yet comprehensive nationally recognized sustainability certification for commercial and multifamily buildings. The Green Globes platform was modified and developed through the public, collaborative ...

  • Posted Nov. 5, 2018
  • Conference Presentations
  • View more

Evolving Building Sustainability: United Nations Economic Commission for Europe Framework Principles

  • Pennsylvania State University (PA)
  • Rochester Institute of Technology (NY)
  • University College Dublin, National University of Ireland

Buildings consume 40% of energy globally. As buildings are continuously enhanced to be more sustainable and healthy, a number of strategies have been employed to achieve energy reduction targets. This ...

  • Posted Nov. 5, 2018
  • Conference Presentations
  • View more

Green Revolving Reserve and LEED Platinum buildings at the U

  • University of Miami (FL)

Poster will explain: - The mechanisms of the U Green revolving Reserve that has been financing close to $1 million in energy efficiency retrofit. - Highlight of the sustainable features of a ...

  • Posted Nov. 5, 2018
  • Conference Presentations
  • View more

Performing at a Higher Level - Healthy Buildings for Your Campus

  • Agnes Scott College (GA)
  • U.S. Green Building Council (DC)
  • JLL (IL)

University campuses offer a unique opportunity to drive progress at the intersection of sustainability, education, public health, and the built environment. This session will explore how one institution is leveraging ...

  • Posted Nov. 5, 2018
  • Conference Presentations
  • View more

New Best Practices for Resilient Design: From Theory to Application

  • Arup (NY)
  • HGA (MN)

Taking resilient design beyond theory, speakers will illustrate how new tools and resources can inform design, including developing and piloting resilient design guidelines for university campuses. When clients, designers, engineers ...

  • Posted Nov. 5, 2018
  • Conference Presentations
  • View more

Computer Networks Doing Their Part to be Sustainable - New Industry Standards

  • The Sextant Group (PA)

College and University planners are challenged by the exploding demand for data services, as more and more devices are added to campuses. Administrators and students are asking whether this trend ...

  • Posted Nov. 5, 2018
  • Conference Presentations
  • View more

Becoming BREEAM: How UC Davis Achieved the First Institutional BREEAM In-Use Certification in the US

  • University of California, Davis (CA)
  • Healthy Buildings (VA)

In November 2017, University of California at Davis became the first academic institution in the country to achieve BREEAM In-Use (BIU) Certification for a building on their campus. BREEAM stands ...

  • Posted Nov. 5, 2018
  • Conference Presentations
  • View more

US Department of Energy Funding to Simplify Sustainable Campus Design

  • Seventhwave (WI)
  • MIST (IL)

Campuses that use fewer natural resources and buoy health, learning and happiness are increasingly vital for educational institutions, as students and faculty voice demand for it. To deliver a sustainable ...

  • Posted Nov. 5, 2018
  • Conference Presentations
  • View more

Biophilic Design Principles and Green Infrastructure: Forging New Possibilities for Nature, Harmony and Resiliency in Urban Environments

  • Urban Horticulture Consulting, LLC (GA)
  • GreenStructure, Ltd (IL)

Green Infrastructure practices are being mandated and implemented in urban communities for multiple beneficial outcomes. Often referred to as grey infrastructure alternatives, these practices include the design, installation, and maintenance ...

  • Posted Nov. 5, 2018
  • Conference Presentations
  • View more

Earning AASHE STARS credits via the ENERGY STAR Buildings program

  • U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (DC)

Colleges and universities can use ENERGY STAR's free tools and resources to earn credits in all four categories of AASHE STARS v2.1 -- Academics; Engagement; Operations; and Planning & ...

  • Posted Nov. 5, 2018
  • Conference Presentations
  • View more

Hampshire College's R.W. Kern Center- A Living & Learning Building

  • Hampshire College (MA)

Located at the heart of Hampshire College campus, the R.W. Kern Center is a certified Living Building: generating its own energy, capturing and treating its own water, and processing ...

  • Posted Nov. 5, 2018
  • Conference Presentations
  • View more

The Trials and Tribulations of Building a Living-Learning Sustainable Campus

  • Chatham University (PA)

What does it truly mean to be a living-learning sustainable campus? Eden Hall, just outside Pittsburgh, is a new 388 campus site, encompassing farmland, forests and two head-water catchments. Acquired ...

  • Posted Nov. 5, 2018
  • Conference Presentations
  • View more

Rising to the Challenge of Creating and Maintaining Living Buildings and a Living Campus Community

  • International Living Future Institute (WA)

Campuses have been early adopters of livability, equity, and climate commitments. This session takes a deep look at how campuses can and are taking action to achieve these commitments and ...

  • Posted Nov. 5, 2018
  • Conference Presentations
  • View more

Evolving Pennsylvania State University's Sustainability Policy Within a Regenerative Paradigm

  • Pennsylvania State University (PA)

Penn State University (PSU) is a public research university serving Pennsylvania and the global community with a vision to integrate sustainability throughout its campuses and to prepare students to be ...

  • Posted Nov. 5, 2018
  • Conference Presentations
  • View more

Creating an Ecologically Restorative, Socially Just, and Culturally Rich Campus

  • International Living Future Institute (WA)

The higher education campus, what better place to implement the most innovative & forward-thinking design frameworks? As HEIs support the next generation's transition into the workforce, it's time ...

  • Posted Nov. 5, 2018
  • Conference Presentations
  • View more

Nailing Net Zero, From Design to Certification

  • Allegheny College (PA)
  • Community College of Allegheny County (PA)
  • United States Department of Energy (DC)

More than 400 firms have signed onto the American Institute of Architects' (AIA) 2030 Commitment, targeting 70%+ EUI savings; however a 2016 AIA survey of participating firms revealed the portfolios ...

  • Posted Nov. 5, 2018
  • Conference Presentations
  • View more

Green Infrastructure Planning on Campus: Case Studies from University of Massachusetts-Amherst

  • University of Massachusetts Amherst (MA)

College campuses pride themselves in being leaders in promoting innovation in both technical and theoretical aspects of all fields of study, including sustainability. The drive for sustainability in higher education ...


University Buildings: The Push and Pull for Sustainability

  • RMIT University

Universities are a key stakeholder in our built environment with buildings in many major cities around Australia and the world. Due to their primarily urban locations, size and number of ...


EPA’s new ENERGY STAR College Course

  • Murray State University (KY)
  • AASHE (PA)
  • U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (DC)

ENERGY STAR now offers an updated curriculum on commercial building efficiency. The three-unit, college-level curriculum is more focused and interactive, and can be integrated as a module into existing courses ...

  • Posted Oct. 11, 2018
  • Videos & Webinars
  • View more

Sustainable Building Systems Concentration (Building Sciences BS)

  • Appalachian State University (NC)

Energy efficiency matters. As state and federal agencies prioritize energy efficiency, they need leaders who understand how buildings work and how to find ways to make them work better.

Appalachian ...

  • Posted Aug. 30, 2018
  • Academic Programs
  • View more

1 MegaWatt Battery Energy Storage System

  • California State University, Long Beach (CA)

In 2017, California State University, Long Beach installed a 1 Megawatt energy storage system on campus as part of a multiphase project with Advanced Microgrid Solutions (AMS) made possible through ...


South Seattle College SBST Students Engage with Energy Dashboard

  • South Seattle College (WA)

Students in South Seattle College’s Sustainable Building Science Technology BAS program use an energy dashboard to help track utilities at SSC’s Georgetown campus.


Colorado College Net-Zero Library

  • Colorado College (CO)

Main entrance of Colorado College's net-zero energy/net-zero carbon Tutt Library. Sustainable features highlighted in the photo include a rain screen, open design and natural lighting, green roofs and ...


Colorado College Net-Zero Energy/Carbon Tutt Library

  • Colorado College (CO)

Balcony view of Colorado College's net-zero energy/net-zero carbon Tutt Library. Highlighting rainscreen, shading structures, black locust domestic hardwoods, green roofs and planters, photovoltaic shade structures, and open views.


Temple Tiny House

  • Temple University (PA)

The Temple University Tiny House project is a student designed and student constructed sustainable building located at Temple Community Garden on main campus. Completed in spring 2017, the 175 square ...


University of Dayton Green Roof Installation

  • University of Dayton (OH)

Kennedy Union Green roof

In September 2017, HSI, in collaboration with facilities management and Enterprise Roofing, led the installation of UD's first green roof on the Kennedy Union patio ...


Delta College Living Wall

  • Delta College (MI)

The campus Health Professions Building North atrium at Delta College showcases a living wall, an architectural feature and natural ventilation system that acts as a bio filter to improve air ...


University of Dayton Student Neighborhood

  • University of Dayton (OH)

The University of Dayton owns more than 400 residences in its student neighborhood. Launched in fall 2017, the Energy GPA program provides students in University-owned neighborhood housing with a grade ...


Architectural Studies: Environment and Behavior Studies (MA/MS)

  • University of Missouri (MO)

Environment-behavior research explores a variety of environments, linking them to a range of behavioral concerns. This program is suitable for persons who seek careers in research, consulting, and/or teaching ...

  • Posted July 5, 2018
  • Academic Programs
  • View more

Ecological Footprinting as a Top-Down and Bottom-Up Approach to Complete Campus Engagement and Transformation Towards the One Planet Goal

  • Macquarie University (NSW)

Enabling students to apply well-informed and skill-based understandings to their own decision-making about the dynamic relationships between individuals, societies, environments and economies in a resource constrained world is a central ...

  • Posted June 25, 2018
  • Publications
  • View more

Leadership for Sustainability in Higher Education

  • Canterbury Christ Church University
  • Manchester Metropolitan University

Sustainability is a complex concept, and the challenge of understanding it and applying it to a diverse, multi-agent, organizational setting with its potentially conflicting priorities cannot be underestimated. Leadership for ...


R.W. Kern Center- A Living Building

  • Hampshire College (MA)

Located at the heart of Hampshire College campus, the R.W. Kern Center is a multi-purpose facility that embodies the highest threshold of forward-thinking sustainable design: generating its own energy ...


Portland State University: Driving Rigorous Sustainability through Top-Level Policies

  • Portland State University (OR)

Portland State University (PSU), situated in the University District of downtown Portland, Oregon, is the only public urban university in the state located in a major metropolitan city. A recognized ...


University of California Merced 2020 Project

  • University of California, Office of the President (CA)

In 2012, UC Merced launched the “2020 Project”, an initiative to add a significant amount of new teaching, research, housing, recreation and support facilities to the campus that would accommodate ...


Deep Energy Retrofits at Humber College's Building N

  • Humber College (ON)

In 2015, the College developed an Integrated Energy Master Plan (IEMP) with impressive goals to greatly reduce energy and water use by 2034. Specifically, Humber’s IEMP sets the following ...


Chesapeake College - "A Living Lab."

  • Chesapeake College (MD)

Chesapeake College, founded in 1965 as Maryland’s first regional community college, serves five counties on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, 20 percent of the state’s land, 3 percent of ...


Partnership Development of Sustainable Learning

  • Triton College (IL)

From a partnership of labor and industry and a community college grew an educational program geared toward meeting industry needs while highlighting facility sustainability and environmental awareness.


Northwestern University Comprehensive Building Energy Data Audit

  • Northwestern University (IL)

Northwestern University is committed to fostering environmental and ethical stewardship. The University’s Strategic Sustainability Plan establishes a vision for reducing environmental impacts. In terms of the University’s built ...


Michigan Tech Sustainability Demonstration House

  • Michigan Technological University (MI)

The goal of Sustainability Demonstration House (SDH) project is to retrofit the former University President’s residence, built in 1953, titled the Kettle-Gundlach Building into a sustainability demonstration house. The ...


Enable by House by Northwestern - a 2017 U.S. DOE Solar Decathlon Team

  • Northwestern University (IL)

The U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon showcases innovative solar powered houses that are designed, built, and operated by collegiate teams. It is a collegiate competition of 10 contests ...


Fashion Institute of Technology Energy Master Plan

  • Fashion Institute of Technology (NY)
  • NYC Mayor's Office of Sustainability (NY)

The Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), a leading art and design school in New York City, has made impressive strides to reduce its energy and carbon footprints. By implementing an ...


Avoided Costs from Shared Laboratory Equipment and Space at CU Boulder

  • University of Colorado Boulder (CO)
  • AASHE (PA)

CU Green Labs at the University of Colorado Boulder has spent the last year writing a case study to highlight the benefits of our Biochemistry Cell Culture Facility to our ...

  • Posted May 4, 2018
  • Videos & Webinars
  • View more

Green Your Room

  • Princeton University (NJ)

This is an educational video created by James Tralie, Princeton University student, to inform students about how to be sustainable in dorm rooms. He describes ways to conserve energy including ...

  • Posted April 23, 2018
  • Videos & Webinars
  • View more

Reducing Electricity Use in Campus Residence Halls

  • Radford University (VA)
  • AASHE (PA)

Our quasi-experimental design exposed first-year students in four matched residence halls to three different interventions designed to encourage energy conservation, specifically electricity conservation. We employed active and passive programming and ...

  • Posted April 20, 2018
  • Videos & Webinars
  • View more

AASHE Webinar: Retrofitting Existing Buildings for Energy Efficiency and Demand Response

  • Western Michigan University (MI)
  • AASHE (PA)
  • Cypress Envirosystems (CA)

This is an educational webinar presented by AASHE Business Leader Cypress Envirosystems.
Compared with new facilities, existing buildings and plants often have legacy equipment which waste energy, require more maintenance ...

  • Posted April 12, 2018
  • Videos & Webinars
  • View more

Green Building Certificate Program

  • Colorado State University (CO)

IBE specializes facilitating the integrated design, construction and operations processes to help teams realize their green building and sustainability goals.

  • Posted April 12, 2018
  • Academic Programs
  • View more

Sustainable Built Environments (BS)

  • University of Arizona (AZ)

The College of Architecture, Planning, and Landscape Architecture is pleased to offer an extraordinary degree opportunity for students interested in entering the new green economy. The Bachelor of Science in ...

  • Posted April 12, 2018
  • Academic Programs
  • View more

This tab provides access to data collected through AASHE’s Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System™ (STARS). STARS is a transparent, self-reporting framework for colleges and universities to measure their sustainability performance. STARS enables meaningful comparisons over time and across institutions using a common set of measurements developed with broad participation from the campus sustainability community.

All responses reference content from reports under the latest version of STARS, version 2.2. AASHE membership and log-in is required.

OP 3: Building Design & Construction

OP 4: Building Design & Construction

Additional analysis on scores and quantitative fields can be conducted using the STARS Benchmarking Tool.

Buildings Partners