Suffolk University Earns Green College Grade

Suffolk University Makes the Grade as “Green College”

Princeton Review Cites Coursework and Sustainable Practices 

BOSTON -- The Princeton Review has again included Suffolk University in its guide to the nation’s most environmentally responsible colleges, citing Suffolk’s “green-minded education” and its sound sustainable practices.

The Princeton Review’s Guide to 311 Green Colleges, created in partnership with the U.S. Green Building Council, profiles those institutions that demonstrate notable commitments to sustainability in their academic offerings, campus infrastructure, activities and career preparation. The Princeton Review surveyed hundreds of colleges across North America, asking administrators about their institutions’ green policies, practices and programs.

“Sustainability efforts have become a way of life at Suffolk University as we attend to environmental issues in the classroom, through outreach to faculty and staff, and by revamping our infrastructure,” said Marguerite Dennis, vice president for Enrollment and International Programs.

The 2011 guide notes Suffolk University’s more than 50 courses in sustainability in areas of study ranging from business to law to science.

“Suffolk University seeks to expand its sustainable projects on campus and in the greater Boston area through green-minded education and action,” the publication says.

The University’s building projects incorporate environmentally sound construction processes and sustainable principles in their design. New buildings use water conservation fixtures, energy-efficient lighting and HVAC equipment, and recycled materials. Suffolk’s 10 West Residence Hall, which opened in 2008, received LEED Gold certification.

Other Suffolk University environmental initiatives include:

• Composting in café kitchens
• Biking workshops
• A Bring Your Own Bag program to encourage use of reusable bags
• Mug Club that provides discounts to café customers with travel mugs
• A bottleless water filtration system at the University’s Rosalie Stahl Center that has decreased bottled water consumption and miles driven for deliveries

·         A reuse/donation program in residence halls to reduce trash output, ensure reuse of items and benefit area charities

·         A Green Event Checklist to facilitate more environmentally friendly catered events

• Opportunities for student involvement, volunteering, internships and workshops

The Princeton Review, which also featured Suffolk University in its first guide to green colleges in 2010, is but one organization that has recognized the institution’s environmental efforts. The University’s employee education program on waste reduction and recycling earned a Gold Achievement Award from the Environmental Protection Agency’s WasteWise Program, and the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection recognized Suffolk University as the 2009 WasteWise “Partner of the Year” for its comprehensive recycling and waste-prevention efforts.

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Suffolk University, located in historic downtown Boston, with an international campus in Madrid, is a comprehensive global institution distinguished by the teaching and the intellectual contributions of its faculty.  Suffolk University offers a wide range of undergraduate and graduate programs in more than 90 areas of study.  Its mission is to provide access to excellence in higher education to students of all ages and backgrounds, with strong emphasis on diversity. Learn more at www.suffolk.edu.

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Suffolk University Earns Green College Grade

Greening London: Dwell On Container City Design

The original Container City project, located at Trinity Buoy Wharf, in the heart of London's Docklands was completed in 5 months in 2001. Container City I was originally 3 stories high providing 12 work studios across 4,800 sq ft.

After high demand a fourth floor was added providing three additional live / work apartments.

As well as being very cost effective Container City I is environmentally friendly with over 80% of the building created from recycled material.

As the second phase of the original Container City project at Trinity Buoy Wharf, Container City II is both an extension and evolution of the first building. It is built adjacent to Container City I, with inter-connecting bridges, a new lift and full disabled access, Container City II was completed in 2002 providing a further 22 studios over five floors.

In contrast to the first phase, Container City II is a funky ziggurat shape and painted in bright colors to reflect the creative flair of those who work there.
Following on from the Governments initiative to lower industry carbon emissions, the new Part L building regulations that were introduced in April 2006 require all commercial buildings to produce 27% less CO2 than was formerly allowed. While many firms will struggle to fulfil this criteria the Container City™ system lends itself perfectly as a a cheap way to recycle industrial products.

HOW CONTAINER CITY™ COMPLIES

• Minimal concrete foundations required (existing structure strong yet lightweight)
• Little noise pollution (Off site construction and fast installation)
• Natural ventillation (No need for air conditioning)
• Photoelectric light sensitive cells (External lighting sensitive to light changes)
• Thermally efficient (uses external walkways and lift towers, double thick insulation and sealed south facing glazed units)
• Minimal artificial light required (fully glazed facades)
• Separate light and heat controls for each unit. (modular system less open plan)

Devised by Urban Space Management Ltd, the Container City™ system uses shipping containers linked together to provide high strength, prefabricated steel modules that can be combined to create a wide variety of building shapes and adapted to suit most planning or end user needs.

To date Urban Space Management Ltd has successfully used the Container City™ system to create office space, retail space, artist studios, a nursery, youth centres and live / work space. For More Info: Container City

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Greening NYC: One Bryant Park Receives LEED Platinum Certification

by: Alisa Ahmadian

At 6:30 PM, Thursday May 20^th, the lobby of the Bank of America Tower at One Bryant Park was filled with hundreds of people clad in business casual attire. With 8,000 employees regularly shuffling in and out of the 55-story skyscraper, passersby might have assumed that the hub-bub merely signaled the end of another workday in the building which has been officially operating for 2 years.

 

Greening NYC - One Bryant Park Gets USGBC LEED Platinum Certification

Instead, the crowd inside was composed of hundreds of people that literally helped to build the tower—a fraction of the team of thousands involved in the intensive six year long building process. Needless to say, the flutes of local sparkling wine passed about were long-awaited and much deserved, with laughter heard and warm embraces shared amongst those that had formed friendships after years of collaboration.

The grandeur of the Bank of America Tower cannot be denied; it is a 2.1 million square foot skyscraper erected in the heart of Midtown Manhattan, and the first commercial high rise to receive the US Green Building Council’s coveted LEED Platinum Certification. However, the tone of the evening was one of graceful deference and thanks. The speaking program included Jody Durst of the Durst Organization, the project’s developer; Rick Cook of Cook+Fox Architects; Christine Quinn, New York City Council Speaker; Anne Finucane of Bank of America; Rick Fedrizzi, founding Chairman of the US Green Building Council; Vice President Al Gore; and Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Jody Durst, who experiences the day-to-day operations of the building from his offices inside, joked about the irony of the event’s title-a “grand opening.”

All joking aside, what drew so many people to the lobby last night-- two years after the official opening, was an overwhelming sense of pride and accomplishment. Rick Cook noted that building a green building meant creating something that felt different, something that he would be “proud to be show his children and grandchildren.” It did feel different. Although the reception was held in the vast lobby of the skyscraper, attendees received views of trees in neighboring Bryant Park, as well as live, planted structures in the Urban Garden Room—a portion of the lobby created as part of the project’s effort to increase valuable public space. Aside from the Urban Garden Room, the building symbolizes a way of new of way of thinking about buildings: as a means to give back. This ideology was reflected by Rick Fedrizzi, who called the building’s conception a chance to “doing the right thing on as large a scale as possible.”

One Bryant Park, NYC, USGBC LEED Platinum Certification

The building gives back to its tenants; air filtration removes 95% of particulates, making the air inside cleaner than outside, and creating a healthy workplace that boosts worker productivity and happiness. The tower also gives back to New York City. A newcomer to an impressive skyline of historic skyscrapers, the Bank of America Tower’s contribution is unique—as a result of its construction, New Yorkers enjoy widened sidewalks, improved sightlines and views, and the City’s power grid gets a break due to the installation of a co-generation plant and a thermal storage plant that creates ice during off-peak hours, reducing daytime demand on the grid. Last night, the Bank of America also gave back to the youth of New York City in the form of a $125,000 donation to 100 schools to plant gardens. The announcement was happily received by three schoolchildren from PS 43 in the Bronx who arrived on the stage toting small plants.

The true significance of the event was memorialized in one of the more sobering remarks made last night by speaker Al Gore, a tenant of the building. He mentioned the comprehensive reports issued by the National Research Council on May 19^th that stress the need for the United States to develop a strategic plan to address climate change. Specifically, Gore cited the fact that “30% of CO2 emissions in the United States come from inefficient buildings.” Despite the glamour of the event, the true intentions of all attendees and project leaders present were clear: taking real action to address and reverse these global concerns. Although the Bank of America Tower is one LEED Platinum skyscraper, in just one of America’s large cities, it certainly won’t be the last. With any hope, its completion serves as a tipping point, with many others closely following its lead and even surpassing its pioneering standards.

All Images credited to Cook+Fox Architects.

To learn more about LEED Certification, please visit the USGBC website at www.usgbc.org

Alisa Ahmadian recently migrated to New York City, where she will begin work shortly for Cook+Fox Architects. In her past life in California, she was an environmental activist, a UCLA student and a vegan foodie.

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Greening NYC: One Bryant Park Receives LEED Platinum Certification

Las Vegas Goes LEED Retro

The first Las Vegas LEED Retrofit, 302 Carson, was unveiled yesterday by Shangri-La Construction and Thompson National Properties, LLC. It's located downtown at 302 East Carson Avenue and had its grand opening yesterday afternoon. It is, in fact, the first LEED Certified Retrofit in the state of Nevada.

Approximately 250 green jobs, primarily in construction, were created by this LEED Retrofit building project about a block and a half from Las Vegas's off-strip Fremont Street. In a current U.S. jobless economy that has seen construction as one of the hardest hit industries, averaging approximately 25% unemployment, this is a welcome RetroFit.

"This was an unusual type of construction project for Las Vegas where more often you see buildings imploded and then something huge replaces it, built from the ground up," commented Andy Meyers, President, Shangri-La Construction.

(Photo Credit Denise Truscello, Wire Image)

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Pictured In Photos: Former President Bill Clinton, founder, Clinton Foundation and sponsor of the Clinton Climate Initiative;  Mayor Goodman, Las Vegas; Rick Fedrizzi, president and CEO of the U.S. Green Building Council; Andy Meyers, president of Shangri-La Construction; Tony Thompson, chairman and CEO, Thompson National Properties, LLC, the building’s owner.

Meyers stated that 302 Carson was "very much a collaborative effort" between the original client, Thompson National Properties, themselves, Shangri-La Construction, and Las Vegas department of planning, fire department and even Las Vegas Mayor Goodman's office. They put primarily Union  members to work for the construction jobs who bid competitively on the employment offered.

He also acknowledged that Las Vegas Tax Commissioner, along with Mayor Goodman, took a very pro-business. "progressive with tax incentives" stance when it came to this Cutting Edge LEED Green Building Retrofit. "In tough times, they want to create jobs," commented Meyers.

New Building Features Include:

·         Window System Replacement – to reduce heat transfer, lower utility bills and increase tenant comfort.

·         Chiller Replacement and Extensive HVAC Efficiency Upgrades – to improve building performance by more than 30 percent, saving an excess of $50,000 per year in electricity costs.

·          “Cool” Roof Installation – to reduce the building’s urban heat island effect and interior temperature.

·         Upgraded Lobby, Elevator and Finishes – to modernize the building to current Class “A” standards.

Former President Clinton was also on hand, along with USGBC President, Rick Fedrizzi, to commemorate this groundbreaking LEED construction project. "He's been passionate about our cost-competitiveness in terms of Green and LEED building retrofits," explained Meyers. "This has been the Clinton mantra in terms of green building, unless it's affordable, it's never going to happen."

302 Carson earned the Gold certification under the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED® (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Rating System™.

The formerly obsolete, 1960’s vintage energy-wasting building is now the new state-of-the-art standard for property redevelopment in Las Vegas’ downtown revitalization zone. LEED design strategies and efficiency upgrades are projected to decrease building energy use by more than 30 percent and water consumption by 40 percent, resulting in sustained operating cost reductions and improved tenant comfort and productivity.

Yet again Shangri-La Construction, along with partner client Thompson National Properties LLC, have proved that sustainability is absolutely affordable. As of yesterday's Grand Opening of 302 Carson in Las Vegas, it was already 40% occupied. It is to date the only LEED Certified building in Las Vegas downtown that's not 100% leased.

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Las Vegas Goes LEED Retro