Lebanon Valley College's Mund College Center Awarded Prestigious LEED® Green Building Certification

Related Media

Mund College Center is Lebanon Valley College's first LEED-certified building

ANNVILLE, PA (04/17/2014)(readMedia)-- Lebanon Valley College's Mund College Center has been awarded LEED® Silver Certification. The LEED rating system, developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), is the foremost program for buildings, homes, and communities that are designed, constructed, maintained, and operated for improved environmental and human health performance.

The College will celebrate its first LEED designation with a small celebration and tree planting in front of Mund College Center Thursday, April 24 at noon. These activities are part of LVC's Earth Days programming and are open to the public.

"LVC achieved LEED certification for implementing practical and measurable strategies and solutions aimed at achieving high performance in sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection, and indoor environmental quality," according to Don Santostefano, senior director of facilities management at LVC.

LEED is the foremost program for the design, construction, and operation of green buildings. More than 58,000 commercial and institutional projects are currently participating in LEED, comprising more than 10.7 billion square feet of construction space in all 50 states and more than 140 countries.

"The green building movement offers an unprecedented opportunity to respond to the most important challenges of our time, including global climate change, dependence on non-sustainable and expensive sources of energy, and threats to human health," said Rick Fedrizzi, president, CEO and founding chair, USGBC. "The work of innovative building projects such as Mund College Center is a fundamental driving force in the green building movement."

The following components of the Mund renovation and addition were included in LVC's application for LEED certification:

• The new materials used for the renovation and addition were carefully selected according to their regional availability (within 500 miles of the project) and their recycled contents. Altogether, 12 percent of the materials were extracted and manufactured within a 500-mile radius, including concrete, CMU, and drywall. The materials also have a recycled content of more than 22 percent, including steel, drywall, carpet, ceiling tiles, and bathroom partitions.
• The College has a recycling plan for the entire campus. Paper, glass, plastics, and metals are collected in designated waste cans and go to a dumpster on site. From there, it goes to a collection dumpster at the edge of campus where a contracted recycling firm picks it up and sorts the materials at their site. The College collects and bales all corrugated cardboard from across campus, including the food service- and bookstore-generated cardboard, for sale to a cardboard recycler. In addition, the Mund Center kitchen pulper minimizes the impact of food waste.
• The College contracted with a green power provider (Constellation Energy) for all campus electricity consumption for three years. This energy is 100 percent derived through wind energy.
• A green cleaning program ensures that no cleaning agents are used that could affect air quality. The cleaning staff is trained on a regular basis to follow the guidelines and use only qualifying products.
• White membrane roofing minimizes the heat island effect during sunny summer days. The membrane reflects the sun's rays and lowers the roof temperature. This helps with the heat island effect and makes the building more energy efficient.
• Renovating the building on the existing site minimized the disturbance of other areas, as did bringing in new infrastructure.
• The building saves 35 percent of water compared to a base building by using low-flow fixtures, waterless urinals, and hands free electric sensor activated flush valves for all toilets.
• During the construction process, the contractor collected all waste in a dumpster at the site. The recycling company picked up the dumpster and brought it to their site. Here, the dumpster was weighed and the company's employees picked through and sorted all material to be recycled as cardboard, drywall, metal, clean fill, shingles, and wood. This material was then placed into specific containers and sent to an outside market. Eighty-six percent of the waste was recycled through this process, resulting in only 14 percent of all construction waste going into the landfill.
• Rain gardens manage storm water by delaying the water runoff into the municipal storm water system. Native plants were selected to withstand the dry summer months without irrigation. These native, drought-resistant plantings help reduce water consumption.

The Mund College Center renovation project increased the size of the building from 66,000 square feet to 74,000 square feet, and cost $13.3 million. The project was supported by more than $770,000 in pledges from trustees, alumni, the campus family, and other generous donors. Originally opened as the College Dining Hall in September 1958, the building was expanded to become a true student center through a $1.5 million addition that was completed in spring 1971. In honor of a longtime trustee and acting president, the Board of Trustees renamed the building as the Allan W. Mund College Center in October 1972.