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

Utilizing Geographic Information Systems to Conduct Indoor Waste Receptacle Inventory

  • Indiana University Bloomington (IN)

This presentation will highlight the methodologies and lessons learned in utilizing Geographic Information Systems to develop and implement a process to efficiently inventory all indoor waste receptacles on Indiana University ...

  • Posted Nov. 15, 2021
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From Brownfield to Habitat: Reclaiming a Site for Environmental Education

  • Washington College (MD)
  • Ayers Saint Gross (MD)

As the LEED rating systems have evolved from LEED 2009 to LEEDv4 and LEEDv4.1, LEED's bias for development in existing urban locations has become more apparent. How can ...

  • Posted Nov. 15, 2021
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Product Selection and Design that Prioritize People and Planet

  • Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute (CA)

Green and healthy buildings require selecting products that are safe for humans and the environment. As we transition from our current take-make-waste linear systems into models that enable greater cycling ...

  • Posted Nov. 15, 2021
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Enlightened Education: Solar Engineering Design to Energize School Facilities

  • Madison Area Technical College (WI)

This presentation will explore the potential for universities, colleges, and K-12 schools to implement solar electric infrastructure projects on their campus that also provide a learning environment and instructional opportunities ...

  • Posted Nov. 15, 2021
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Achieving University Circularity in 2050

  • Ayers Saint Gross (MD)
  • CannonDesign (NY)
  • Ellen MacArthur Foundation

It's 2050 and the world's civilizations have successfully implemented 100% recycled materials, 100% material waste diversion, 100% renewable energy-fueled systems and perpetual environmental regeneration. Within the design field ...

  • Posted Nov. 15, 2021
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Building Your Campus Energy Workforce: Opportunities for Students, Faculty and Staff

  • Washington University in St. Louis (MO)
  • U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (DC)
  • United States Department of Energy (DC)

Energy efficiency and renewable energy are exploding with interest from students while colleges and universities across the country are working to rapidly deploy both solutions. How can these interests be ...

  • Posted Nov. 15, 2021
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Piloting, Scaling and Committing to Healthier Materials

  • Colby College (ME)
  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MA)
  • Thornton Tomasetti (ME)

When it comes to the processes and chemicals used to make building materials, there is an urgent need for market transformation. It takes institutions, like the ones in this panel ...

  • Posted Nov. 15, 2021
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The Challenge and Promise of a Living Building Project in a Dynamic Urban Ecosystem

  • Unity Environmental University (ME)
  • Thornton Tomasetti (ME)
  • Simons Architects (ME)

Where many people see an unassuming drab brick building in a corner of Portland, Maine's, historic waterfront, Unity College sees an unprecedented opportunity for a physical manifestation our sustainability ...

  • Posted Nov. 15, 2021
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Building Energy Quotient, A Fresh Perspective on Sustainability and Engagement in Universities

  • ASHRAE (OR)
  • Hanson Professional Services (FL)

The ASHRAE Building Energy Quotient (Building EQ) program empowers facility owners to understand their building's energy performance in comparison to facilities of the same type in the same climate ...

  • Posted Nov. 15, 2021
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A Dynamic (Electrification) Partnership

  • Wells College (NY)

In partnership with Medley Thermal, Wells College provides a testbed for dynamically electrifying the College's boiler system. Dynamically electrifying our thermal load will significantly reduce Scope 1 emissions in ...

  • Posted Nov. 15, 2021
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Creating Engaging and Equitable Outdoor Experiences for Students and Staff

  • North Carolina State University (NC)
  • Legrand North America, LLC (CA)

Outdoor spaces are transforming the way we live, learn, work and play. Aside from the many health benefits that being outdoors can bring, people want to be productive outside-and spaces ...

  • Posted Nov. 15, 2021
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GeoX - Lowering carbon through ground source heat pump technology at Colorado State

  • Colorado State University (CO)

Colorado State University, in Fort Collins, CO has undertaken its first project to employ geothermal energy, also called ground source heat pump or geoexchange system. This CSU project, dubbed GeoX ...

  • Posted Nov. 15, 2021
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Energy Management During a Global Pandemic

  • University of Dayton (OH)

COVID-19 shutdowns and reopenings present new challenges and opportunities for the energy management profession. Generally, this has included reducing energy consumption during campus shutdowns, modifying facilities to accomodate new COVID-19 ...

  • Posted Nov. 15, 2021
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International Living Future Institute - Higher Education Cohort

  • International Living Future Institute (WA)

Higher education institutions around the country are pursuing the Living Building Challenge and Living Community Challenge - using the frameworks from ILFI to guide their sustainability efforts to go beyond doing ...

  • Posted Nov. 15, 2021
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Carbon neutrality should not be the end goal: Lessons for institutional climate action from U.S. higher education

  • Hamilton College-Clinton.NY (NY)
  • Smith College (MA)
  • Ceres (MA)

Climate action pledges have increasingly taken the form of commitments to net carbon neutrality. Higher education institutions (HEIs) are uniquely positioned to innovate in this area, and over 800 United ...


Florida Tech Alumni Center

  • Florida Institute of Technology (FL)

Florida Tech Alumni Center - The Folliard Alumni House at Florida Institute of Technology received a makeover in 2020, and was re-engineered as a zero-energy facility. The new center features a ...


The Albert Sherman Center at UMass Chan Medical School

  • UMass Chan Medical School (MA)

The Albert Sherman Center, a nine story 512,000 square-foot research and education building at UMass Chan Medical School, is certified LEED Gold.

  • Posted Sept. 15, 2021
  • Photographs
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State-of-the-art mechanical systems at UMass Chan Medical School

  • UMass Chan Medical School (MA)

Efficient mechanical systems at UMass Chan Medical School including chilled beams and energy recovery wheels.

  • Posted Sept. 15, 2021
  • Photographs
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GVSU Campus in Summertime

  • Grand Valley State University (MI)

GVSU Campus in Summertime


Bentley Arena

  • Bentley University (MA)

Bentley Arena, the nation's first LEED Platinum certified standalone ice arena.


Bentley University library and campus quad

  • Bentley University (MA)

Image of Bentley University Library and campus quad.


The Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design

  • Georgia Institute of Technology (GA)

The Kendeda Building - The Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design at Georgia Institute of Technology is the first building in Georgia to earn Living Building Challenge certification. The Kendeda Building ...


Dickinson College Achieves Carbon Neutrality

  • Dickinson College (PA)

Carbon Neutral 2020 - Dickinson College attained carbon neutrality in 2020, reaching a goal that was established in 2007. Dickinson reduced GHG emissions by increasing energy efficiency of the campus, switching ...


Creating or Improving Green Office and Lab Certification Programs: Best Practices

  • California State University, Stanislaus (CA)
  • Pennsylvania State University (PA)
  • The Ohio State University (OH)
  • AASHE (PA)

If your institution is considering creating a Green Office Certification Program (GOCP) or improving an existing one, you have company. In 2019, several universities and colleges were in the same ...

  • Posted July 22, 2021
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Embodied, operation, and commuting emissions: A case study comparing the carbon hotspots of an educational building

  • State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry (NY)
  • University of Florida (FL)
  • University of Vaasa
  • Jilin University

Building operational energy, mobility energy, and materials embodied energy contribute to a significant portion of the global greenhouse gas emissions. Buildings stand at the intersection of these three contributors and ...


The Living Building at Nuthatch Hollow | Binghamton University

  • Binghamton University (NY)

Binghamton University's Nuthatch Hollow is a hidden oasis just a short distance from campus. Professors Pam Mischen and Carl Lipo explain how this 75-acre property is ideal for the ...

  • Posted May 26, 2021
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Gritlab - The Green Roof Innovation Testing Laboratory

  • University of Toronto (ON)

The Green Roof Innovation Testing Laboratory, or GRIT Lab, is located at the University of Toronto, John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design.

A platform for multidisciplinary collaboration ...

  • Posted May 26, 2021
  • Research Centers & Institutes
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Campus Energy-Efficiency Project (CEEP)

  • University of Utah (UT)

$30M project on the Health Science Campus of the University of Utah, to use energy-efficiency to avoid the need for an expensive chilled water (CHW) plant expansion.


Brown University's Thermal Efficiency Project-2

  • Brown University (RI)

Brown University is a 6.5 million sq. ft. research university campus founded in 1764 in Providence, Rhode Island. Its annual energy bill is $20 million. It serves 7,000 ...


Auraria Campus Sustainable Development Handbook

  • Auraria Higher Education Center (CO)

Auraria Campus Sustainable Development Handbook Maintenance, Design, & Construction Guidelines for Campus Operations & Planning

The Sustainable Development Handbook for Auraria Campus synthesizes the existing sustainability goals of Auraria Campus ...


President's Sustainability Research Fellowship 20-21: Sustainable Space Utilization

  • Swarthmore College (PA)

The 2020-2021 President's Sustainability Research Fellowship Sustainable Space Utilization project was conducted by Alex Flowers '21 over the 2020-2021 Academic Year. The purpose of the Sustainable Space Management project ...


FY20 Energy-Efficiency Initiatives Project

  • University of Utah (UT)

The first phase of a series of campus-wide projects to target carbon reductions.

The FY20 Energy-Efficiency Initiatives project targeted industry proven low-cost, fast-payback measures focusing on carbon neutrality and energy-efficiency ...


Energy Efficiency Strategy

  • Swarthmore College (PA)

Project Name: Energy Efficiency Strategy Name: Christian Stone Project Mentors: Elizabeth Drake, Domenic Porrini Project Board Members: Greg Brown, Jim Adams, Janet Semler, Andy Feick, Roderick Wolfson, Aurora Winslade Faculty ...


The Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design – A Certified Living Building

  • Georgia Institute of Technology (GA)

In September 2015, the Georgia Tech Institute of Technology received a commitment for $30 million from The Kendeda Fund to building what the partners expected to become the most environmentally ...


Energy Efficiency Strategy

  • Swarthmore College (PA)

Project Overview

We began by providing a platform for all key stakeholders, including faculty, facilities and capital planning managers, and administrations, to have their perspectives considered through the interviewing process ...


MIT Climate Resiliency Initiative

  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MA)

MIT’s Climate Resiliency initiative was launched in 2016 as a multifaceted, collaborative effort centered on preparing the campus community in collaboration with the City of Cambridge for the impacts ...


Bennington College Commons Renovation

  • Bennington College (VT)
  • Efficiency Vermont (VEIC) (VT)

Bennington College’s Commons building is the original center of its 1932 campus plan. This 45,120 square-foot renovation is the first substantial upgrade to the building since its inception ...


Green Building, Green Behavior? An Analysis of Building Characteristics that Support Environmentally Responsible Behaviors

  • Texas Tech University (TX)

This study examines the environmentally responsible behaviors (ERBs) of undergraduates (n = 575). ERBs were measured in an online survey and the influence of situational context on behavior was explored at ...


Energy Efficiency Improvement in K-12 Schools: A Case Study in Florida

  • Florida Institute of Technology (FL)

K-12 schools are responsible for over 1.4% of the total annual energy consumption in the United States. In a collaboration between Florida Institute of Technology and Brevard Public Schools ...

  • Posted April 22, 2021
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Lessons from unsuccessful energy and buildings sustainability actions in university campus operations

  • University of Coimbra

Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are increasingly striving to deploy actions that promote the efficient use of energy and other resources on university campuses. Successful sustainability initiatives are vastly described in ...

  • Posted April 22, 2021
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Exploring transformative pedagogies for built environment disciplines: the case of interdisciplinarity in low carbon transition

  • Oxford Brookes University

The integration of transformative pedagogies into curricula is recognized as a strategy to deal with the new demands of complexity in learning, which include equipping future professionals with the necessary ...

  • Posted April 22, 2021
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The motivation and development impact of energy saving to sustainability in the construction of green campus: a case study of the Zhejiang University, China

  • Zhejiang University
  • University of Kitakyushu (Fukuoka)

The construction of green campus is related to the global sustainable development. Under the guidance of campus energy-saving policy, China’s green campus mainly focuses on campus’ energy saving. In ...

  • Posted April 21, 2021
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IoT Platform for Energy Sustainability in University Campuses

  • University of Coimbra
  • Universidad Politécnica de Madrid
  • Comillas Universidad Pontificia (Madrid)

University campuses are normally constituted of large buildings responsible for high energy demand, and are also important as demonstration sites for new technologies and systems. This paper presents the results ...

  • Posted April 21, 2021
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Smart and learning campus as living lab to foster education for sustainable development: an experience with air quality monitoring

  • University of Passo Fundo
  • Universidade federal de Santa Maria

Higher education institutions are widely known both for their promotion to education for sustainable development (ESD) and for their contribution as living labs to urban management strategies. As for strategies ...


Business Schools as Living Labs: Advancing Sustainability in Management Education

  • Duquesne University (PA)

The buildings in which we teach management and decision analysis are ideal labs for advancing sustainability in management education, experiential learning, and integrated performance measurement. Utilizing building-based learning and design ...


Maximizing the Financial and Environmental Benefits of Distributed Energy Resources

  • New Jersey Higher Education Partnership for Sustainability (NJ)
  • GridMarket (NY)

AASHE member, GridMarket, partnered with the New Jersey Higher Education Partnership for Sustainability for a "lunch and learn" in December 2020. The webinar summarized current opportunities for higher education campuses ...

  • Posted Feb. 2, 2021
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Impact of “healthier” materials interventions on dust concentrations of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, polybrominated diphenyl ethers, and organophosphate esters

  • Harvard University (MA)
  • New York University (NY)

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), and organophosphate esters (OPEs) are found in building materials and associated with thyroid disease, infertility, and impaired development. This study’s ...

  • Posted Jan. 12, 2021
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Willingness to pay for green buildings: A survey on students’ perception in higher education

  • University of Delaware (DE)
  • University of New Haven (CT)
  • TED University

For most students in higher education, a green residence hall could form their first impressions regarding green buildings. As these students may be expected to make decisions regarding their place ...

  • Posted Jan. 12, 2021
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Master of Science in Building Performance & Diagnostics (MSBPD)

  • Carnegie Mellon University (PA)

The Master of Science in Building Performance & Diagnostics (MSBPD) degree program is intended for practitioners, researchers, and educators in architecture and the building industry who wish to be leaders ...

  • Posted Dec. 17, 2020
  • Academic Programs
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PhD in Building Performance & Diagnostics (PhD)

  • Carnegie Mellon University (PA)

The PhD in Building Performance & Diagnostics degree program is intended for practitioners, researchers, and educators in architecture and the building industry who wish to be leaders in advanced building ...

  • Posted Dec. 17, 2020
  • Academic Programs
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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