LEED Certification of UNE’s Sokokis Hall
LEED or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design is “the most widely used green building rating system in the world”.
Back in 2012, the University of New England’s building, Sokokis Hall, became LEED certified. To become LEED certified, a building must meet certain requirements when it is built. Sokokis Hall meets 33/69 of these requirements, granting it a Silver Certification.
Sokokis’ scored:
- – 4/14 Sustainable Sites
- – 4/5 Water Efficiency
- – 10/17 Energy & Atmosphere
- – 3/13 Materials & Resources
- – 9/15 Indoor Environmental Quality
- – 3/5 Innovation
The numbers may not appear to be that high, and of course there is room for improvement; however, this was a huge step in the right direction for the university. UNE is currently building/planning to build a new campus for the College of Osteopathic Medicine on the Portland campus and I would hope they would strive to build their buildings up to LEED standards and hopefully be Gold Certified. That truly is the goal.
A few ideas to raise Sokokis’ ranking would be to add solar panels to the top of the building seeing as it gets a large amount of sunlight, which would save the University roughly $77,000 dollars after 20 years. I understand that this seems like a long time; however, I would consider it to be an investment. It would not only save UNE money, but it would also prevent about 21.1 metric tons of CO2 annually. Sokokis could also implement new wastewater technologies that would properly and sustainably dispose of wastewater in a way that benefits both the building and the environment.
I would love to see UNE take more incentive to build their buildings with regard to LEED certification. It would build up the university in more ways than one.
