Energy Efficient and Carbon Neutral by 2010 for College of Architecture and Design
The College of Architecture and Design at the University
of Tennessee, Knoxville, has committed to make its own
building -- as well as all its studio projects -- more environmentally
friendly. The college is one of only four design institutions in the
nation to make such a commitment.
By a unanimous vote of the faculty, the college has adopted a
plan to achieve a carbon-neutral design community and include the
elimination or reduction of the need for fossil fuel as a central tenet
in its design education.
This plan is part of the 2010 Imperative, a challenge issued
to colleges of design across the U.S. to incorporate environmental
principles by 2010.
The goal of the 2010 Imperative is to create young architects
who realize that the less energy used in construction and operation of
a building, the less greenhouse gases will be produced, and that such
design not only slows environmental degradation but creates meaningful
and beautiful architecture.
With input from UT Facilities Services, the college is
studying ways to increase the energy efficiency of the Art and
Architecture Building, in which it is housed, and reduce its carbon
footprint. Simple strategies involving waterless plumbing fixtures and
occupancy sensors for lights already are being implemented. Future
plans include the purchase of carbon offsets and potential LEED
Existing Building certification.
"We want our plan to be a prototype for change for the
university and design schools across the country," said John McRae,
dean of the College of Architecture and Design. "While many
institutions are working toward becoming more environmentally friendly
campuses, we're going a step further and teaching our students how to
put these principles into practice."
All courses from history to technology will consider the
interface between energy, building and the environment. Perhaps more
ambitious, the imperative requests that member institutions achieve a
carbon-neutral design school campus by 2010.
The 2010 Imperative challenge was issued by Architecture 2030,
a nonprofit whose mission is the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions
by the building sector, with the goal that all new construction should
be carbon-neutral by 2030.
Numerous national organizations are backing the 2010
Imperative, including the American Institute of Architects,
Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Green Building Council, American
Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineers, and
the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture.
By adopting the 2010 Imperative, the College of Architecture
and Design seeks to positively impact the threat of global climate
change and resource depletion.
"These changes will put us at the forefront of environmental
efforts nationwide," McRae said.
The college's action builds on a number of major environmental
steps taken by UT Knoxville as part of the Make Orange Green effort.
The campus was recently recognized for its work on climate change in a
report by the National Wildlife Federation, and was also the first
university in the U.S. certified by the Green Seal organization for
green cleaning practices.
Posted 1st February 2008
