Buildings
Sewanee is home to several LEED designed and certified buildings: Spencer Hall (Biology - Silver), Snowden Hall (Earth & Environmental Systems - Gold), Ayres Hall (Residential, Silver), and The Wellness Commons (on track for Silver) . All new construction continues to strive for LEED excellence in design and build, though not all will pursue certification in order to accrue fiscal savings that are instead applied to include more LEED choices in construction.
Housed on the ground floor of Gailor Hall, the central Chilled Water Plant is working to bring efficient cooling to almost one-third of the square footage in central campus. The plant was initiated with the building of McClurg Dining Hall in 2000, and over the last 20 years, the buried water loop has been expanded to 14 major buildings.
In 2010, as part of Snowden Hall’s (Earth and Environmental Systems, LEED Gold) renovation and expansion project 162 solar panels were installed on the roof. Additionally, in 2016, a smaller array was installed atop Ayres Hall (residential) for a combined total of 50 kW (of what?). The panels, which collected an average of 44,000 kWh/year were part of a pilot study exploring the opportunities, capacities, and challenges of various campus-sourced sustainable energy pathways.
The Sewanee Wetland Research Station, located at the Sewanee Utility District, is a series of constructed wetlands operated since 2016 by students and faculty of the Sewanee Integrated Program in the Environment (SIPE) to study the effectiveness of constructed wetlands in treating wastewater.
Over 80% of the campus square footage is under the control of a Building Automation System (BAS). This network continually relays information back to HVAC equipment for cooling, heating, and airflow demands. The level of complexity in today’s systems takes into account numerous variables including schedule, occupancy, outdoor air temperatures, carbon dioxide levels, and optimal start times to name a few.
Older, energetically leaky buildings can be more costly to the environment than their shiny, newly built, efficient counterparts. From 2014-2017 Sewanee funded over $17 million in campus infrastructure renewal projects that included roof and window replacement, masonry repairs, replacement of HVAC systems and more - work that elevated overall campus sustainability efforts.
What's Next
Building Automation Systems are continuously evolving, as the Internet of Things (IoT) continues to grow. The University is continually looking at ways to make our buildings “smarter” when it makes sense financially, technologically, and in the life cycle of the building’s systems.
Campus Design Standards are established to generate a consistent approach to designing and constructing buildings on the Sewanee campus. These standards emphasize the importance of life cycle costs and maintenance reliability over time. Planning buildings that may be in use for 100 plus years requires careful attention be given in the planning and design stage.
