The Farmer School of Business hopes to lead the way in making Miami University a greener campus.
Farmer Hall has applied for LEED certification, which stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, and as construction on the new facility nears completion, Miami hopes to also be near to completing its first environmentally efficient building.
LEED was developed in 1999 by the United States Green Building Commission-a nonprofit organization of leaders in the building industry who promote environmental values.
In 2004, an honors business class at Miami suggested the school have its new building LEED certified. After researching the program, the class gathered university officials and architects for a presentation, according to Farmer School Dean Roger Jenkins, who credits the acceptance of the proposal to the "advocacy and professionalism of the students."
Once the students persuaded the Farmer School, the idea was taken to university offices and the department of planning and construction who gave the green light to the green building.
"(Planning and construction) has for years been applying sustainable design principles, but consciously decided not to pursue LEED certification," said Bob Keller, university architect. "But, it is a good project for the new building."
LEED certification is a nationally recognized standard for green buildings, which are defined as being environmentally responsible, profitable and a healthy place to live and work.
Whether certification is achieved depends on the building's score after an evaluation of the completed building. Points can be earned in each of LEED's five key areas of human and environmental health: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection and environmental quality, with additional points being earned for innovation and design. LEED evaluation will be an ongoing process throughout construction.
The number of possible points is 69, but a building only needs 26 for certification.
There are however four levels of certification with platinum being the highest, followed by gold, silver and basic certification.
Though energy and the environment have long been considered in Miami's design process and according to Keller, the LEED certification process involves many new activities for the department of planning and construction, which means greater time and effort spent by university architects, consultants and engineers.
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Despite the hard work to meet LEED criteria, according to both Keller and Jenkins, it will not affect the schedule of construction.
What it does affect, however, is cost.
According to Jenkins, the only negative issue the Farmer School anticipated was that certification would be cost prohibited, but after receiving expense estimates they realized the goal was financially within reach. The exact increase in cost to complete LEED certification will not be known until after the project is finished. The building of Farmer Hall will cost approximately $65 million.
In addition, the benefits of the building are anticipated to relieve the financial burden of its construction. Jenkins said an energy efficient building would decrease the long-term cost of operation, which was a major point in the students' presentation.
As for a potential second Miami LEED certified building, nothing is in the works yet. According to Keller that will be determined on a per project basis, but only after construction on the new business school is completed and the facility has been evaluated.
"In some situations we may choose not to complete the certification because of a specific requirement that we feel is not appropriate in our context," said President David Hodge via e-mail, "but in general terms our goal would be to achieve a level of efficiency at least equivalent to LEED certification."
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