Buildings

Buildings are generally the largest user of energy and the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions on campuses and they use significant amounts of potable water. Institutions can design, build, and maintain buildings in ways that provide a safe and healthy indoor environment for inhabitants while simultaneously mitigating the building’s impact on the outdoor environment.

All buildings on the Stan State campus (except the Classroom Annex, Field House Annex, Bío dome, and Animal-care facility) are sub-metered by building for energy and are also submetered on a building-by-building level for water consumption. All water usage billing for the campus is tracked through EcoVox's Skyspark platform which detects anomalies and provides alerts for energy and water management issues.

Student Center Sustainable Design

The new Student Center was designed and built to reduce the heating/cooling, lighting, and water requirements for the building. The north/south orientation of the building reduces the western exposures that contribute to heat gain during the year. On the western exposures, predominantly at the theater space, there are overhangs and vertical fins that provide a significant reduction in energy use compared to leaving the western-facing glass fully exposed.

The Student Center’s air conditioning and heating system uses Stan State’s highly efficient campus central utility plant to provide chilled water for cooling and hot water for heating. The efficiencies of these systems were maximized by right zoning all of the air conditioning and heating systems based on hours of operation and type of use. This allows systems to completely shut off when the spaces are not in use as opposed to having to condition those spaces at part load. High efficiency plumbing fixtures are used throughout the building. Daylight is the primary method for lighting and high efficiency LED lighting is used to supplement where daylight is not available. Daylight sensors provide supplemental lighting as needed and occupancy sensors automatically turn off lights when rooms are vacant. 

Learn more about Campus Design and Construction at https://www.csustan.edu/cpfm/design-construction.