Bolded in admissions marketing and quoted by many, most Miami University students and alumni can recite Robert Frost’s renowned proclamation that Miami is home to “the most beautiful campus that ever there was.” However, investments in campus maintenance and infrastructure are vital to uphold this claim.
Many of these necessary investments are seen in Miami’s utilization of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system. Founded by the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) in 1998, LEED holds companies and universities accountable for meeting sustainable building standards by grading them on a 100-point scale. Ranked from “certified” to “platinum,” points are given for meeting benchmarks in areas like energy and water usage, air quality and waste management.
Miami’s implementation of LEED
In 2011, a few years after a group of Miami students chaired a sustainability task force to curate a set of sustainability goals, Miami began using LEED on new construction projects. David Prytherch, a professor of geography, was the first sustainability coordinator at Miami during this period.
“One of those goals was to get Miami to commit to a minimum LEED Silver rating for all big projects,” Prytherch said. “Miami had said, ‘Oh yeah, we do green building, everything we do is green building.’ We said, ‘Well, why don’t we commit to this third-party verified standard?’ So, we committed to Silver.”
Miami’s 2011 commitment aligned with the Ohio School Facilities Commission’s 2007 requirement for all state-funded public schools to at least strive for LEED Silver certification. Beyond the 50 points needed from the USGBC and fees amounting to thousands of dollars, what does achieving a LEED Silver rating actually look like?
Attaining LEED Silver
Olivia Herron, the director of sustainability at Miami, said the university’s on-the-ground work needed to achieve LEED Silver.
“The actual LEED certification process is a collaboration, to some extent, between Miami’s project manager for that building or renovation and the architecture firm that Miami has hired,” Herron said. “All of the LEED features have to be designed before construction, then written into our contract that the firm submits to LEED on Miami’s behalf.”
Some of these features include more efficient energy and water usage, an incorporation of sustainable building materials, like LED lights, and a reduction in a building’s carbon footprint.
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LEED’s benefits and downfalls
While not explicitly stated in President Crawford’s 2040 Climate Action Plan, LEED standards help align Miami’s infrastructure to achieve carbon neutrality and “institutionalize” this goal campuswide by 2040.
“LEED really just helps us all speak the same language,” Herron said. “Whether it’s a new building or a renovation, it will be around in 2040. So we need it to be aligned with our goals.”
Cody Powell, the associate vice president of facilities planning and operations at Miami, echoed Herron’s commendation of LEED, but also said it has some downfalls.
“We wrangled with LEED when we built the Farmer School of Business years ago,” Powell said. “To get points, we needed to build showers into the facility in case somebody wanted to ride their bike and then take a shower when they arrived at work. And so, you’re adding a pretty substantial cost to the project and maintenance over time for something that isn’t going to be heavily utilized.”
Despite this downfall of LEED and its associated costs, Powell said the beneficial perspective of LEED forcing builders and property owners to adopt environmentally-friendly infrastructure. Because of its point-based incentives, LEED works as a gamified, yet realistic, way for developers to incorporate less carbon-intensive features into new constructions and renovations. In turn, LEED’s rating system allows for companies and universities, like Miami, to better meet decarbonization goals — as seen in Miami’s 2040 Climate Action Plan.
“LEED forces building owners to consider the long-term benefits of sustainable decisions rather than just short-term pluses,” Powell said.
LEED amid Miami’s potential hotel and arena projects
With 36 LEED-certified buildings, Miami is on track with its commitment to sustainable infrastructure. Despite being on track, the potential construction of a new hotel and plan for a new arena has caused some to question whether these investments align with Miami’s sustainability goals.
However, Powell said he was optimistic about how the potential constructions of the new hotel and arena will impact Miami’s long-term commitments to sustainable infrastructure.
“The developers that we talk to certainly understand the value of committing to our sustainability initiatives,” Powell said. “I will say that it is out of our hands as to exactly what they pursue since they have to make these projects financially viable. If these initiatives can be incorporated while still meeting their return on investment, they definitely will incorporate them.”
While the arena’s construction will be on Miami’s property, the hotel will be on land that is sold to the developer. Since the land will be sold, it will fall outside of the LEED Silver standard that Miami and the state require for its publicly-funded buildings. Herron said that this is a unique situation regarding the potential hotel.
“[The hotel] would be on a land lease, so it would be up to the developer to build according to LEED,” Herron said. “It’s really out of our control if it went further but it’s also so preliminary at this point so it’s difficult to say.”
Prytherch similarly said how the early stages of these potential projects are murky when discussing their sustainable alignments.
“I don’t think that Miami has yet analyzed the impact all that new construction will have on our campus. I’m skeptical that the net result will be positive for our sustainability trajectory,” Prytherch said.
While the hotel is still just potential, the recent Board of Trustees’ decision to welcome plans for the arena has also welcomed controversy, both for LEED and campus aesthetics.
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