OP-4
Building Design and Construction
(Examples)
FIU is committed to build all new construction to a minimum of USGBC LEED Silver certification.
The practice was adopted in 2007 when former President, Modesto Maidque signed the
American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment. All buildings funded and built
thereafter have met this criteria. The only buildings that are excused from this practice are
parking garages because they cannot be LEED certified. Market Station, the newest parking
garage on campus has some mixed use areas including offices, a food court, and classrooms.
This was built to LEED certification but could not be certified. While FIU is committed to
building to a minimum of LEED Silver, FIU strives to hit the higher levels. Currently FIU has one
LEED Silver and one LEED Gold certified building; there are currently 4 buildings under
construction that will hit LEED Silver or Gold certification.
Because sustainability is an ongoing process, we are continually challenged to achieve new
benchmarks. The University of California and UC Davis have set well-defined goals to measure
progress. The University of California most recently revised its Policy on Sustainable Practices in
2009. The current document sets sustainability goals for all UC campuses and is the product of a
process that started in 2002 in response to student requests. The policy addresses building
design goals:


Design new buildings (except for laboratories and acute care facilities) to
meet the equivalent standards of Silver-level Leadership in Energy and
Environmental Design (LEED), from the U.S. Green Building Council. Strive to
meet the Gold-level standards.
Design new buildings (except for acute care facilities) to exceed energy
efficiency standards of California Energy Code (Title 24) by at least 20
percent, striving for 30 percent or more.
All new construction is built to LEED standards. Facilities, Design and Construction (FD&C)
includes LEED consultants in all construction projects. LEED consultants work with Building
Commissioning and Sustainability staff to ensure they are consistent with campus goals and
that they are appropriately applied to campus baseline credits.
The UC Policy on Sustainable Practices states that all new University of California buildings will
achieve LEED-NC ‘Silver’ certification at a minimum. Design and Construction Services (D&CS)
oversees projects to ensure LEED achievement. Since the adoption of the UC Sustainable
Practices Policy four buildings have achieved LEED ‘Platinum’ while 7 have achieved LEED
‘Gold’. All new construction over the past three years has attained LEED certification.
New construction and major renovation projects on the Stanford campus must comply with
California Title-24 and California's Green Building Standards, as well as sustainability standards
imposed by local jurisdictions. Therefore, a LEED-NC equivalency analysis is performed on each
such project.
Stanford's Department of Project Management (http://dpm.stanford.edu) is responsible for the
development, design and construction of major capital projects at Stanford University. DPM
reports to the Associate Vice President for Academic Projects and Operations within Land,
Buildings, and Real Estate, and currently includes a staff of 28 professionals with backgrounds in
architecture, engineering, construction and cost management. These professionals serve as
Project Managers and Project Engineers, Quality Assurance Field Inspectors, and Project
Coordinators, who work as a project team that involves multiple stakeholders to ensure the
successful delivery of facilities that support the University’s academic mission. Together with its
colleagues in the departments of Sustainability and Energy Management
(http://sem.stanford.edu) and Buildings and Ground Maintenance (http://bgm.stanford.edu),
strive to employ life cycle cost analysis and sustainability measures in the delivery of all capital
projects.
For more information, please visit the following sites:
http://lbre.stanford.edu/dpm/PDP_Process
http://sustainable.stanford.edu/guidelines
http://maps.stanford.edu/fdg_available
In 2003 UCB students decided to fund construction of four major campus buildings ( Wolf Law,
ATLAS, VAC and Business School). Student main funding condition was to ensure these buildings
were designed and met the LEED silver level certification with up to 1% of of total project cost
in support of sustainable features. We have been able to achieve LEED Gold level certification
for all new constructions. Currently LEED Gold+ is our campus standard. Gold+ is intended to
drive deeper into the two main LEED categories; Energy and Water.