Green Up

From the official press release:

PLYMOUTH, N.H. — Plymouth State University President Sara Jayne Steen announced today that the University’s newest building, Langdon Woods, is the state’s first residence hall—and one of the nation’s largest—to earn gold-level certification by the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership-Energy-Environmental Design (LEED) program.

Following are select quotes from the press conference:

Plymouth State University President Sara Jayne Steen

“This commitment to the environment has been an ongoing one. Langdon Woods residence hall was carefully designed as a step toward energy leadership, and its certification recognizes that achievement in energy efficiency and sustainability.”

“Like most large scale efforts, it took a team. This project was a long-term collaboration involving students, who are dedicated to environmental issues and educational programming in the residence halls, and our large on-campus team, headed by vice president Bill Crangle, with the active involvement of the University System of New Hampshire and its Board of Trustees, the town of Plymouth planning and select boards, and our architects, engineers, construction firm, and our suppliers. Thank you all for your participation, your hard work and your support.”

Plymouth State University Vice President for Financial Affairs Bill Crangle

“This is an exciting project. We were committed to getting LEED certification, though we didn’t know that we would ultimately get gold.”

“We’ll save $250,000 dollars a year in energy costs from the energy saving elements in the building. There is less than a two-year payback on the savings from what we initially added for these design and construction energy efficiencies.”

“We instituted a sustainable site strategy, which included a landscape and design that makes it an attractive use of the existing natural shade of the adjacent Langdon Park to minimize energy use for cooling the building in the summer.”

“Over half of all the wood used in the building comes from a certified fast-growing forest to encourage environmental responsible forest management. Ten percent of the materials used in the building contain recycled content. 20 percent of the materials used in construction were manufactured locally.”

“This occasion is an announcement of a beginning. The president’s commission on environmental sustainability, chaired by Professor Brian Eisenhauer and myself, will ensure that we meet the commitment that we have made to meet climate neutrality and integrate sustainability, not only into our curriculum but the daily lives of our students.”

University System of New Hampshire Chancellor Stephen Reno

“This is a case study in ‘mission statement’ as an active verb.”

“Plymouth is really setting the pace for the rest of the University system in terms of new construction; we’re looking for every opportunity to duplicate what has been done here.”

Department of Environmental Services Commissioner Thomas Burack

“Perhaps the most important thing that our higher education institutions, like Plymouth State University, are doing is set the standard for issues like sustainability and climate change.”

“The principles incorporated into the design of this building will serve in the education of your students, the betterment of your community, and will certainly serve as an example to business, to industry and yes, even to folks in government.”

“On the behalf of the Department of Environmental Services and the people of the state of New Hampshire, I want to applaud the University for its tremendous effort in achieving this high level of recognition in sustainable building design and for the leadership you have demonstrated in pursuit of your wonderful educational mission.”

quotes, leeds certification, langdon woods, Sara Jayne Steen, Stephen Reno, Bill Crangle, Thomas Burack

Related items

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• PSU to Study Feasibility of Co-Generation Plant, Switching from Fossil Fuel to Wood Could Save Money, Reduce Pollution
• Mary Lyon Hall - Back to the Future, Saving Money and Energy
• University System of New Hampshire Colleges and Universities Join National Effort in Pursuit of Climate Neutrality
• PSU Residence Hall is First in NH to Strike LEED Gold: Langdon Woods Helps Establish University as Environmental Sustainability Leader

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 15th, 2007 at 9:00 am and is filed under Press Release. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.