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West Campus Residential Hall

Cornell's facilities staff weigh many potential community and environmental impacts while planning and designing new facilities. Factors important in this process include:

  • Site Selection: Selection of the building site, orientation of the building, and use of the site during and after construction can impact the environmental. Site selection can affect transportation needs, water needs, water runoff, utility needs, viewsheds, natural lighting opportunities, and community character.
  • Energy: Commercial and residential buildings account for 68% of US electricity consumption.1 A building's energy use is a primary consideration in its long-term environmental impact. Both the heating and cooling design and the equipment selected contribute to this impact.
  • Building materials: The US consumes 40% of raw global material use in commercial and residential housing.2 The materials selected for construction can impact indoor air quality, energy efficiency, and natural resource use. For example, use of local materials can help regional economies and reduce transportation costs in terms of money and pollution. An additional example is replacing contaminants like formaldehyde with green materials, which can help improve both the environment and occupant comfort.
  • Construction practices: The impacts during construction are often more apparent than the impacts of the building itself. In the US, 136 million tons of construction and demolition waste (approx. 2.8 lbs/capita/day) are used in housing initiatives.3 Impacts that need consideration include construction stormwater run-off, noise, dust, personnel, and traffic.
  • Commissioning: Commissioning involves the verification, calibration, and set-up of mechanical equipment to ensure that it operates in a manner consistent with the design intent.

All of the above factors affect the University's imprint on the campus. However, with many competing goals for a building project, a tool has been developed to help focus the interests of a sustainable construction process. The US Green Building Council (USGBC) provides this support.

Recently, several significant projects on campus used guidance documents produced by the US Green Building Council (USGBC) to help "rate" their design process for sustainability and the incorporation of green building practices. The rating system, called the Leadership in Environmental and Energy Design (LEED™)rating system, provides a national benchmark for consideration and comparison of design and construction standards and practices that reduce environmental impacts from construction.

Building projects that have used the LEED™ rating system as guidance during the design process include the North Campus Residential Initiative, the West Campus Residential Initiative, and Weill Hall on central campus.

In 2005, the first phase of the West Campus Residential Initiative was approved LEED™ Certified and, recently, Weill Hall completed construction and was certified LEED™ Gold. Other projects currently pursuing LEED certification on campus are:

  • Combined Heat and Power Building
  • Human Ecology Building
  • Martha Van Renneslaer '33 Phase I renovations
  • Milstein Hall
  • Physical Sciences Building
  • Rice and Fernow Hall
  • Riley Robb Biofuels Research Laboratory
  • Warren Hall

For more information, check out the web sites listed in the sidebar above or contact Steve Beyers, LEED Accredited Professional, Service Team Leader, Environmental Compliance & Sustainability Office (ECOS) at smb75@cornell.edu.

1U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Information Administration, March 2001, Monthly Energy Review.

2 U.S. EPA, 1998, "Characterization of Building-Related Construction and Demolition Debris in the United States."

3 Lenssen and Roodman, 1995, "Worldwatch Paper 124: A Building Revolution: How Ecology and Health Concerns are Transforming Construction," Worldwatch Institute

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