flexiblefullpage
billboard
interstitial1
catfish1
Currently Reading

First Green Globes certification given to new University of North Carolina housing facility

First Green Globes certification given to new University of North Carolina housing facility

The updated Green Globes NC includes significant prescriptive criteria related to protection of the building envelope from the elements.


By The Green Building Initiative | July 18, 2014
The Green Building Initiative (GBI) announced that the University of North Carolina-Charlotte’s Belk Hall, a student housing facility for the college’s upper division students, is the first building certified under the 2013 Green Globes for New Construction (NC), according to GBI president Jerry Yudelson.
 
Belk Hall achieved 507 out of 918 available points for a score of 55%, which is equivalent to a 2 Green Globes rating.
 
“The current Green Globes for New Construction program very effectively captures essential sustainable components of a building project that ultimately result in an optimized life cycle cost and a ‘cradle-to-gate approach’ for evaluating building materials’ environmental impacts,” Yudelson said. “Belk Hall adopted many of these critical design elements and best practices, resulting in a high performance building with a long sustainable future.”
 
Specifically, the Belk Hall building project incorporated, in a very substantive manner, key criteria in the Green Globes NC Materials and Resources section, including current and cutting-edge materials performance criteria, with optional paths for a prescriptive approach dealing with a material’s environmental characteristics.
 
The updated Green Globes NC also includes significant prescriptive criteria related to protection of the building envelope from the elements, and also several current “best practices” building management criteria. Besides earning the maximum credit in the life cycle assessment performance path for core and shell materials, Belk Hall’s design team also developed a Building Life Service Plan, which sets the stage to optimize the entire building life cycle, ultimately assisting the building’s future managers in maintaining and improving sustainability over time.
 
“An in-person review [by the Green Globes Assessor] of the actual building and systems is helpful in determining whether the strategies we described in our submittal have been implemented successfully,” architect and project manager Tracy Randazzo, AIA, of Clark Nexsen Architecture & Engineering, Charlotte, said. “We want the end product to be the best it can be.”
 
Finally, UNC incorporated the vast majority of “best practice” prescriptive design criteria related to building protection associated with the roof, wall cladding and foundation. “The UNC – Charlotte team clearly demonstrated their commitment to environmental excellence through their efforts in this area, as well as stellar performance in energy and water efficiency,” Yudelson said.

Related Stories

| Sep 23, 2011

Okanagan College sets sights on Living Buildings Challenge

The Living Building Challenge requires projects to meet a stringent list of qualifications, including net-zero energy and water consumption, and address critical environmental, social and economic factors. 

| Sep 14, 2011

USGBC L.A. Chapter's Green Gala features Jason McLennan as keynote speaker

The Los Angeles Chapter of the nonprofit USGBC will launch its Sustainable Innovation Awards this year during the chapter's 7th Annual Green Gala on Thursday, November 3.

| Sep 12, 2011

PVs play new roles as a teaching tool

Solar installations are helping K-12 schools around the country save money and teach students the intricacies of renewable energy sources.

| Sep 12, 2011

Living Buildings: Are AEC Firms up to the Challenge?

Modular Architecture > You’ve done a LEED Gold or two, maybe even a LEED Platinum. But are you and your firm ready to take on the Living Building Challenge? Think twice before you say yes.

| Apr 13, 2011

Southern Illinois park pavilion earns LEED Platinum

Erin’s Pavilion, a welcome and visitors center at the 80-acre Edwin Watts Southwind Park in Springfield, Ill., earned LEED Platinum. The new 16,000-sf facility, a joint project between local firm Walton and Associates Architects and the sustainability consulting firm Vertegy, based in St. Louis, serves as a community center and special needs education center, and is named for Erin Elzea, who struggled with disabilities during her life.

| Feb 15, 2011

New 2030 Challenge to include carbon footprint of building materials and products

Architecture 2030 has just broadened the scope of its 2030 Challenge, issuing an additional challenge regarding the climate impact of building products. The 2030 Challenge for Products aims to reduce the embodied carbon (meaning the carbon emissions equivalent) of building products 50% by 2030.

| Feb 15, 2011

New Urbanist Andrés Duany: We need a LEED Brown rating

Andrés Duany advocates a "LEED Brown" rating that would give contractors credit for using traditional but low cost measures that are not easy to quantify or certify. He described these steps as "the original green," and "what we did when we didn't have money." Ostensibly, LEED Brown would be in addition to the current Silver, Gold and Platinum ratings.

| Feb 14, 2011

Sustainable Roofing: A Whole-Building Approach

According to sustainability experts, the first step toward designing an energy-efficient roofing system is to see roof materials and systems as an integral component of the enclosure and the building as a whole. Earn 1.0 AIA/CES learning units by studying this article and successfully completing the online exam.

boombox1
boombox2
native1

More In Category

Sustainable Design and Construction

Northglenn, a Denver suburb, opens a net zero, all-electric city hall with a mass timber structure

Northglenn, Colo., a Denver suburb, has opened the new Northglenn City Hall—a net zero, fully electric building with a mass timber structure. The 32,600-sf, $33.7 million building houses 60 city staffers. Designed by Anderson Mason Dale Architects, Northglenn City Hall is set to become the first municipal building in Colorado, and one of the first in the country, to achieve the Core certification: a green building rating system overseen by the International Living Future Institute.




halfpage1

Most Popular Content

  1. 2021 Giants 400 Report
  2. Top 150 Architecture Firms for 2019
  3. 13 projects that represent the future of affordable housing
  4. Sagrada Familia completion date pushed back due to coronavirus
  5. Top 160 Architecture Firms 2021