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Energy at Cascadia

LEED Buildings

LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. LEED is a framework for healthy, efficient, carbon and cost saving green buildings. LEED certified buildings are designed in order to save money, improve energy efficiency, lower carbon emissions and create healthier buildings for people. To achieve LEED certification, a building project earns points by following prerequisites and credits that address carbon, energy, water, waste, transportation, materials, health and indoor environmental quality. Buildings go through a verification and review process by GBCI and are awarded points that correspond to a level of LEED certification: Certified (40-49 points), Silver (50-59 points), Gold (60-79 points) and Platinum (80+ points). Platinum is the highest level of LEED certification. Learn more about LEED certification here. Links to an external site.

The goal of LEED is to create better buildings that:

  • Reduce contribution to global climate change
  • Enhance individual human health
  • Protect and restore water resources
  • Protect and enhance biodiversity and ecosystem services
  • Promote sustainable and regenerative material cycles
  • Enhance community quality of life

LEED Certification and Cascadia

If you've ever had a class or been to CC3, you may have noticed that the building has a slightly different "feel" than CC1 and CC2. The Global Learning and the Arts building (CC3) is a LEED certified platinum building, having scored a 52/69 total points in the certification process. View the complete scorecard here Links to an external site., but here are some important elements of the building to highlight. 

  • Renewable energy production - CC3 has solar panels installed on the roof of the building in order to supplement energy consumption and offset energy costs. Solar panels are also found on the parking garages of Cascadia's campus. 
  • Green power - Cascadia and UWB purchase mostly renewable energy in the operations meaning the energy used on campus is being produced primarily by renewable sources.
  • Optimized Energy Performance - CC3 uses a wide variety of strategies to reduce unnecessary energy consumption. For example the windows on the building are large and let in massive amounts of sunlight, reducing the amount of lighting needed to illuminate the building. The classrooms/hallways are on motion sensors so when not in use, they don't consume energy. 

Learn more about Cascadia's sustainable campus here! Links to an external site.