Ticker

Issue date: 5/12/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Edward Drakhlis

Although Baruch College does not have an organized sustainability program in place, the college is working on numerous projects right now that can go a long way to making the campus greener.

One major project in the works is a joint effort from CUNY, Dormitory Authority State of New York and Baruch to do retro commissioning of the Newman Vertical Campus and the Information and Technology buildings. Those two buildings together consist of about two-thirds of Baruch's total space.

Retro commissioning is a process by which a group of experts come in and determine how building equipment and systems function together. This would be a major step for Baruch.

"When you do retro commissioning, you're 90 percent of the way of getting to a LEED certified building. It's probably the most recognized certification program in the world," said Assistant Vice President of Campus Operations Jim Lloyd.

LEED, the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, created by the Green Building Council is perhaps the most recognized certification program in the world.

This project kicked off on Monday, April 28 and the process of identifying the opportunities to reduce energy will take about a year. In addition, Lloyd pointed out that obtaining some capital funding from the state to make some corrections to the facilities could take upwards of five years on the North Campus. On the South campus, he feels Baruch has a huge opportunity with the renovation of 17 Lexington to basically design and build a sustainable building.

Other green projects that the school is working on include the selection of the new cafeteria vendor. In that scope of work, Lloyd has required that the chosen vendor develop a sustainable operation, which does not mean just getting rid of Styrofoam cups. It also includes the water and energy usage reduction and where the vendor chooses to buy their food.

"Buying locally, organically and fresh all fits into the sustainability program. To the extent that you have waste, do what you can to minimize what goes to landfills. Food scraps can go to a composting pile somewhere outside of Manhattan," said Lloyd. Baruch officials said they will be naming the new vendor within the next four weeks.

Another project in the Vertical Campus and the Information and Technology Building involves the replacement of all the sink valves in the restrooms with automatic shut-off valves.

Continued...

Page 1 of 2 next >

Article Tools