LEED Gold-Design Features
Richland College’s vision is to be the best place we can be to learn, teach, and build sustainable local and world community. We continuously strive to achieve this vision by remaining committed to the Triple Bottom Line of social equity and justice, economic suffciency, and environmental stewardship, as we prepare our students to become responsible citizens committed to promoting a robust natural environment and an abundant quality of life for future generations.
In this spirit, we have designed the Richland College Garland Campus to LEED Gold-design standards, as established by the U.S. Green Building Council’s Green Building Rating System. LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and nvironmental Design. It is our intent that the systems and operations of this new building function in effcient ways that produce minimal impact to the environment and carbon footprint and provide lessons from which our students and community can learn how buildings can function in ways that are friendly, carbon neutral, and sustaining to the environment. It is also our intent that the effcient design and operation of this LEED Gold-designed building function in energy effcient ways to provide annual campus operating cost savings that can be reinvested in workforce development instruction, student outreach services, and student learning success.
LEED-Gold design features of this building are
- positioning the building footprint to minimize heat effects from direct west sun most times of the year;
- installing a white refective roof to reduce the sun’s heating effects on the building’s cooling system;
- locating the building immediately adjacent to the Downtown Garland DART Rail Station to promote the convenient use of public transportation;
- providing bike racks to encourage transportation not dependent on fossil fuels:
- installing shower facilities for the convenience of bike riders;
- employing external light shelves above windows and light monitors in rooms and offces to manage daylight effectively and minimize electrical use and costs;
- cleaning and maintaining the building using only green cleaning products;
- installing motion-sensor faucets and double-fush toilet mechanisms in restrooms to conserve water use;
- installing waterless urinals in men’s restrooms to save up to 20,000 gallons of water per year
per fxture; - using only building construction materials containing low VOC (volatile organic compounds) levels, reducing pollutants and improving indoor air quality for occupants;
- using renewable resources such as bamboo fooring in the tenant wing;
- installing an evaporative water chiller all in one unit to eliminate the need for a cooling tower;
- collecting evaporative condensate from air handlers to provide make-up water for the chiller; and
- collecting rain water run-off from the roof and parking lot in a 20,000 gallon under-ground cistern to be used for irrigating the landscape.