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The Massachusetts Maritime Academy was among the first in the past week to celebrate the designation from the U.S. Green Building Council for achieving high marks based on the council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standards. The assessment system of the council, based in Washington, D.C., awards ratings at four levels: LEED certification, LEED Silver, LEED Gold and LEED Platinum, the highest rank.
The Academy's cadet residence hall, located on the Cape Cod Canal with panoramic views of Buzzards Bay, supplies its energy needs with three on-site green sources: a 242-foot-high wind turbine, a rooftop photovoltaic array that was installed with help from a Massachusetts Technology Collaborative grant and powers a high-efficiency lighting system, and natural gas-powered cogeneration turbines that warm the complex, heat hot water and convert waste to additional electricity. The project to expand the existing residence hall was completed in spring 2007 at a cost of $3.5 million for upgrades and $13 million for a two-story addition.
The hall is the first campus structure of its kind to receive LEED Gold status in the state. It is one of two projects built by Erland Construction of Bourne, Mass., to be featured in a walking tour next month when the U.S. Green Building Council brings its annual Greenbuild International Conference and Expo to Boston.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's New England Regional Laboratory, also an Erland project, is the other site on the tour. The lab received its LEED Gold rating in 2003, making it the first national laboratory in the country to attain LEED certification.
Former Canadian Forces Base Goes Green
In Calgary yesterday, the Canada Lands Company announced that the roughly 200-acre Currie Barracks, the last and largest swath of the Canadian Forces Base decommissioned 10 years ago, was awarded LEED Gold status for its neighborhood development plans.
The plan to build 3,200 housing units, 300,000 square feet of commercial and office
