Document story

Savings in energy efficiency off-set LEED certification costs in the CUB


In the spring of 2006, WSU began the renovation of what students now know as the "new CUB." According to the WSU Board of Regents write-up for approcal of the schematic design for the CUB, the cost to renovate the CUB totaled $86 million. However, the CUB may soon be making that money back through its energy efficiency and its sustainable design.

According to the write-up, the CUB renovation was paid for through a student tuition increase ($51.88 million), retial operations ($11.5 million), university funds ($9.68 million), S&A fee allocation ($8.44 million) and a one-time design cost allocation. CUB Director Sean Greene said because the new building achieved the Leadership in Energy and Evironmental Design (LEED) Silver Certification, the total cost of renocation was about two percent higher than normal. He said that is approximately $1.72 million more in capital construction.

Greene said the energy cost savings, material resource replacement and other utility savings from "green" amenities are about a 16 percent reduction of the CUB Operations Budget.

"This computes to about an annual savings of between $235,000 and $260,000 per year," Greene said. "You can see that the payoff for these construction costs is less than nine years."

Jeff Lannigan, WSU Capital Planning project manager who oversaw the CUB renovation, said a case study was developed highlighting some of the sustainable features of the CUB building to help people understand how it was sustainable. According to the case study document, a few of the CUB's "green" amenities include a recycled building shell and construction waste from the old CUB; radiant cooling and heating; displacement ventilation in areas of the building where there are more people; Carbon Dioxide detection; dual-flush toilets that reduce water use by 30 percent; "green" interior finishes and adhesives; and "green" power from solar energy.

Lannigan said the building received a LEED scorecard, which awards a certain number of points for each sustainable feature. For example, the dual-flush toilet handles are worth two points on the scorecard. These points are added together and determine which level of LEED certification a building has - the CUB having silver certification.

Dyonne Davidson, another WSU Capital Planning project manager, said the higher cost of the CUB because of its LEED certification really has nother to do with LEED itself. She said most of the time these kinds of buildings are more expensive to build because the products themselves are more expensive. For example, she said the floors in the CUB, which are made of linoleum, are a bit more expensive because linoleum is more expensive than vinyl. The same is true, she said, with the dual-flush toilets. Standard toilets are everywhere, but dual-flush toilets are unique and are therefore more expensive.

"Energy systems, building techniques and products may have been chosen with an agenda of achieving some of LEED's stated goals, but their pricing is independent and has to do with the state of the marketplace," Davidson said.

However, Davidson said LEED itself is indeed affecting the marketplace.

"As more and more building owners are either interested or mandated to build LEED certified structures, this does increase the demand and availability of products and systems that meet LEED requirements," she said. "In some cases this may raise a price and others lower it."


SOURCES

Sean Greene: 509-335-2305
smgreene@wsu.edu
Jeff Lannigan: 509-335-7221
lannigan@wsu.edu
Dyonne Davidson: 509-335-5974
dyonne@wsu.edu

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Document story proposal

For my document story, I am writing about how much it cost to renovate the CUB and breaking it down into how much it was specifically for the "green" amenities. I will be writing about if it was more expensive to go this route, how much money it will save the university in the long-run and how long it will actually take for the university to "make up" the money spent to rebuild the CUB. Also, I will be looking at how the "green" features will help to better the environment.