Another LEED: UAF BB Campus: first in UA system to be certified.

• Author: Dischner, Molly
• Position: SPECIAL SECTION: Building Alaska

In what could be a model for rural building and University expansion alike, the University of Alaska system received its first Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification in 2014. But the LEED certification didn't go to one of the newly built buildings in Anchorage or Fairbanks. It wasn't part of a concentrated effort by the University regents to earn recognition for their leadership. Instead, the UA system's first LEED certification is housed in what was once an old auto parts store in downtown Dillingham.

Green Building

Project Champion Tom Marsik has a long history of involvement and interest in green building. So when the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) Bristol Bay campus was looking to expand, it just seemed natural to him that the building would incorporate energy-efficiency and green building techniques.

Now, the campuses Applied Sciences Building in Downtown Dillingham is the university's first to receive a LEED certification. Marsik hopes it won't be the last.

"My hope is that it encourages others, or other parts of the University of Alaska system, to be more energy efficient," says the assistant professor of sustainable energy at UAF's Bristol Bay campus.

The LEED certification is given by the US Green Building Council and based on a wide range of criteria, from making the building a healthy work space to minimizing energy use. The applied sciences facility received the council's basic level of certification, out of four possible levels.

The LEED certification looks at seven different areas. Some criteria were out of reach for the Applied Sciences building, including those that looked at how far building materials had to be shipped. Little material is available locally in Dillingham. Access to public transportation was also unattainable; there isn't such a system in the town. So Marsik and others focused on the criteria achievable for rural Alaska like site selection and energy use and savings. That helps make it a little more of a model for the region, too, because they targeted practical achievements that others could work on as well.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Putting it Together

The architectural firm on the project was McCool Carlson Green, under a contract from the university's facility services department. Marsik says he was one of several people who made suggestions along the way for energy efficient components. He and others also provided documentation as to how some of the suggestions, like...