Law School construction leads to greener UM

The debris and concrete removed for the new School of Law addition is being recycled. And, it’s just one small step toward creating a new set of greener construction standards for the University of Montana.

“Each project we try to get more conscientious so now we’re recycling materials or using recycled materials,” said Mike Panisko, project construction manager at UM’s Facilities Services.

UM Facilities Services is designing a new set of standards for campus buildings. The new standards will follow Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design building certification practices developed by the U.S. Green Building Council. The LEED certification system rates various areas of energy efficiency on a point system, said Kevin Krebsbach, associate director of planning and construction for Facilities Services.

But acquiring a LEED stamp of approval is costly. Certifying the UM Education Building could run as much as $100,000, said Laura Howe, assistant director of utilities and engineering.  That’s why Facilities Services is proposing another option, Griz Green, to the President’s Office, Krebsbach said. Griz Green would include a series of standards equivalent to the LEED certification.

The discarded concrete from the law school was hauled to L.S. Jensen Construction to be crushed and recycled, Panisko said, and trees from the front of the building in the area between the Adams Center and PAR/TV were hauled to EKO Compost.

Other projects on campus are sending waste to the recycling bin too, Krebsbach said, including cardboard and scrap wood from the construction of the Lewis and Clark Villages.

But what makes the law school project different is that there is such a conscious effort to recycle all the materials removed, Panisko said.

Making these new changes are all part of the Facilities Services’ efforts to “chip away” at the LEED certification criteria and work these into their new standards, said Panisko, who also sits on UM’s Sustainable Campus Committee.

“(Facilities Services) has pretty high design standards,” Panisko said, but “our standards are raising as we’re moving towards LEED (certification).”

Although recycling construction materials may be a fairly new thing for campus buildings, Panisko said, energy conservation and efficiency has always been a big goal.

Other law school renovations include geo-thermal cooling and lighting upgrades. With these renovations, Panisko said, the Law School would be pretty close to LEED certification.

But Facilities Services is working toward “investing funding into the buildings and not the (LEED) paperwork,” Krebsbach said.

The standards would be mostly applied to new campus construction, because older buildings are more complicated to green, Panisko said. And especially with limited funding, it may be some time before existing buildings are renovated.

The Griz Green proposal is still in its infancy. But Krebsbach said it’s in the University’s best interest to make campus buildings more sustainable for the long-term payback.

“We’re 100-year owners of every new building,” Howe said. “We’re not just making short-term decisions.”