Arts Center Gets LEED Gold Certification
Edith Kinney Gaylord Cornerstone Arts Center. Photo by Timothy Hursley.
Colorado College’s Edith Kinney Gaylord Cornerstone Arts Center has been awarded gold level Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification by the U.S. Green Building Council.
The 72,419-square-foot arts teaching and performance building, designed by award winning architect Antoine Predock and opened in fall 2008, earned LEED points in the categories of sustainable sites; water efficiency; energy and atmosphere; materials and resources; indoor environmental quality; and innovation and design process.
LEED-certified buildings are designed to protect local ecosystems, conserve natural resources, reduce building operation costs, enhance asset value and profits, have superior indoor air quality and foster occupant health and productivity. Certification is awarded to only those buildings that meet strict performance and sustainability goals.
aCClimate14 Conservation Campaign
Students with the EarthTub food waste composter. Photo by Brad Armstrong.
During spring semester 2009, when Colorado College was taking significant steps to reduce overall spending, a conservation campaign helped save CC nearly $100,000 in utility costs. The campaign also cut greenhouse gas emissions by 378 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent.
The 14-week “aCClimate14” effort was a campus-wide resource conservation campaign designed to achieve at least a 14 percent reduction in electricity, heat, water use, and trash through behavioral change. Each of the 14 weeks in the semester focused on different daily habits, such as computing, bathing, transportation, or studying, and included the use of various tools to encourage behavioral shifts, such as drying racks, shower timers, and plug in electric meters.
The initiative was launched by the Campus Sustainability Council and EnAct, the student environmental action group.
Watch a video about the aCClimate14 campaign:
Car Sharing
A new car sharing program, Connect by Hertz, is now available to students, faculty, and staff at CC. This provides an environmentally friendly alternative to bringing cars to campus. Qualified drivers age 18 and older are able to rent either a Ford Escape or a Toyota Prius at a low cost, by the hour or the day. The cars are parked on campus and are accessed by “smartcards.”
Accolades for Sustainability Efforts
The Princeton Review named CC one of its 15 Green Rating Honor Roll colleges for 2010. In its second year of the rating, The Princeton Review collected data about environment related policies, practices, and academic offerings from 697 colleges and universities. CC is among the 15 that received the highest possible score.
CC has also moved up — from a C+ in 2008 to a B in 2009 to a B+ in 2010 — on the Sustainable Endowments Institute’s College Sustainability Report Card. Learn more about CC’s environmental efforts by visiting the sustainability Web site at http://sustainability.ColoradoCollege.edu/
