flexiblefullpage
billboard
interstitial1
catfish1
Currently Reading

At Penn State, sustainability is more than a goal

Sustainability

At Penn State, sustainability is more than a goal

The university, encompassing 13 colleges and 24 campuses, adheres to protocols established by the UN.


By John Caufield, Senior Editor | September 10, 2018

The Morningstar solar house is one of the features at Penn State's Sustainability Experience Center, where the university is contemplating a permanent structure for classrooms, research labs, and offices that would be built to Living Building Challenge standards. Image: Patrick Mansell

This fall, Penn State University could start site planning for the first commercial building at its Sustainability Experience Center, a 9.5-acre destination near famed Beaver Stadium in State College, Pa., which features technologies and facilities designed to support sustainability education.

The Sustainability Experience Center, whose origin dates back to the early 2000s, currently includes a solar house, greenhouse, community gardens with nearly 100 plots, power plant, and wind turbines. In 2009, Penn State added an Eco Machine, a series of tanks teeming with live plants, trees, grasses and algae, koi and goldfish, tiny freshwater snails, and diverse microorganisms and bacteria, all of which are designed to eat and break down waste to create clean water.

Penn State is also home to The Sustainability Institute, founded in 2013, which supports sustainability efforts for the university’s 13 colleges and 24 campuses through student and staff engagement, curriculum development, community projects, operations, and research. The Institute’s work plan is based on the 17 sustainable goals that the United Nations has agreed upon. Those objectives—11 of which are socially oriented—comprise the framework, with indicators and metrics, for the university’s sustainable programs.

“Our goal is to put Penn State and Pennsylvania on the map as global sustainability leaders,” says Paul Shrivastava, the university’s Chief Sustainability Officer and Director of The Sustainability Institute. He notes that Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf is also the chancellor of the university, which as a land-grant school is obligated by law to be a steward of the environment. “We are taking a Commonwealth approach,” says Shrivatava.

An academic entrepreneur, Shrivastava came to Penn State about a year ago from Future Earth, where he was Executive Director of this global research platform with 50,000 employees that coordinates new, interdisciplinary approaches toward sustainable transformations.

During his tenure with Future Earth, one of the construction projects Shrivastava was involved in was a 13-story, LEED Gold-certified building in Montreal that, he now concedes, “was obsolete the minute it opened” from a sustainability standpoint because it didn’t fully take into account the environment surrounding it. That taught Shrivastava that “no building alone can promote sustainability. Buildings must be part of larger eco systems,” he says.

The 21,500-sf Gary Schultz Child Care Center at Hoyt Woods on Penn State's University Park campus is LEED Platinum certified. LEED is now the minimum standard for all new construction on the university's 24 campuses. Image: Patrick Mansell

 

For a place as vast as Penn State, that’s easier said than done. Over the past several years, every new building has met LEED standards at a minimum, and there are several LEED Silver-, Gold-, and Platinum-certified buildings on its campuses.

The building being considered for the Sustainability Experience Center would meet more-rigorous Living Building Challenge standards. “We are already thinking ‘eco system’ here,” he says. The building—which would include classrooms, labs, and offices—requires fundraising to initiate design and construction, so if all went as planned it probably would take five years before it’s up and running, says Shrivastava. (The university has yet to select AEC firms for this project.)

Meanwhile, Penn State continues to move forward on its sustainability path. Each college’s dean and each campus’ chancellor is responsible for guiding that journey through mentoring, identifying standards, and bringing resources to the table. (Penn State, whose annual budget is $5.6 billion, also owns an airport and hotels, “so there are a lot of moving parts,” says Shrivastava. He adds that the university’s sustainability framework is broad enough to accommodate difference campuses’ needs. “There’s no ‘one size fits all.’ ”)

Paul Shrivastava, Penn State's Chief Sustainability Officer, is striving to make the university and the state  of Pennsylvania global hubs for sustainability that goes beyond building construction to incorporate social goals. Image: Penn State University

 

The university is also working with the private sector. Shrivastava points, by way of example, to PepsiCo, the multinational food and beverage supplier, which has an exclusive contract with Penn State. Shrivastava says that PepsiCo has agreed to invest $100,000 per year for the next 10 years to support sustainable ventures such as a student farm.

He adds that building and construction companies “are always wanting to use Penn State to test new technologies.” These have included Siemens and Bechtel. And developers “are eager to support this kind of phenomenon.”

Related Stories

K-12 Schools | May 7, 2024

World's first K-12 school to achieve both LEED for Schools Platinum and WELL Platinum

A new K-12 school in Washington, D.C., is the first school in the world to achieve both LEED for Schools Platinum and WELL Platinum, according to its architect, Perkins Eastman. The John Lewis Elementary School is also the first school in the District of Columbia designed to achieve net-zero energy (NZE). 

K-12 Schools | Apr 30, 2024

Fully electric Oregon elementary school aims for resilience with microgrid design

The River Grove Elementary School in Oregon was designed for net-zero carbon and resiliency to seismic events, storms, and wildfire. The roughly 82,000-sf school in a Portland suburb will feature a microgrid—a small-scale power grid that operates independently from the area’s electric grid. 

Contractors | Apr 26, 2024

AGC releases decarbonization playbook to help assess, track, reduce GHG emissions

The Associated General Contractors of America released a new, first-of-its-kind, decarbonization playbook designed to help firms assess, track, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions on projects. The AGC Playbook on Decarbonization and Carbon Reporting in the Construction Industry is part of the association’s efforts to make sure construction firms play a leading role in crafting carbon-reduction measures for the industry.

Mass Timber | Apr 25, 2024

Bjarke Ingels Group designs a mass timber cube structure for the University of Kansas

Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) and executive architect BNIM have unveiled their design for a new mass timber cube structure called the Makers’ KUbe for the University of Kansas School of Architecture & Design. A six-story, 50,000-sf building for learning and collaboration, the light-filled KUbe will house studio and teaching space, 3D-printing and robotic labs, and a ground-level cafe, all organized around a central core.

Laboratories | Apr 22, 2024

Why lab designers should aim to ‘speak the language’ of scientists

Learning more about the scientific work being done in the lab gives designers of those spaces an edge, according to Adrian Walters, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, Principal and Director of SMMA's Science & Technology team.

Codes and Standards | Apr 8, 2024

First federal blueprint to decarbonize U.S. buildings sector released

The Biden Administration recently released “Decarbonizing the U.S. Economy by 2050: A National Blueprint for the Buildings Sector,” a comprehensive plan to reduce greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions from buildings by 65% by 2035 and 90% by 2050.

Green | Apr 8, 2024

LEED v5 released for public comment

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) has opened the first public comment period for the first draft of LEED v5. The new version of the LEED green building rating system will drive deep decarbonization, quality of life improvements, and ecological conservation and restoration, USGBC says. 

Codes and Standards | Apr 8, 2024

Boston’s plans to hold back rising seawater stall amid real estate slowdown

Boston has placed significant aspects of its plan to protect the city from rising sea levels on the actions of private developers. Amid a post-Covid commercial development slump, though, efforts to build protective infrastructure have stalled.

Sustainability | Apr 8, 2024

3 sustainable design decisions to make early

In her experience as an architect, Megan Valentine AIA, LEED AP, NCARB, WELL AP, Fitwel, Director of Sustainability, KTGY has found three impactful sustainable design decisions: site selection, massing and orientation, and proper window-to-wall ratios.

Sustainability | Apr 4, 2024

Skanska Elevates Commitment to Sustainability

Skanska, a global leader in sustainable building, has restructured its Sustainability Team to better serve client and company goals. Co-led by Steve Clem and Myrrh Caplan, who together bring decades of experience, the team will allow Skanska to continue to set the bar for the industry.

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