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Completed in 2005, the Carrington addition is the first building in the UNC system to receive Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. LEED certification is voluntary and based on design and construction practices that promote environmentally responsible buildings that are healthy places to work.

Carrington is the first campus building with an extensive, or thin, green roof to capture rain water and reduce stormwater runoff. Additionaly green features include drought resistant plants, high albedo surfaces, natural daylighting, recycled content, air monitoring systems, local building materials, and much more.

Resources:
Carrington Hall Fact Sheet building brochure

Completed in early 2006, the new Environment Health and Safety (EHS) building is the first on campus to incorporate controlled daylighting. Rooftop “monitors” harvest daylight while excluding glare and unwanted heat gain. Light sensors ensure that electric lights only turn on when required, thus reducing electricity bills and the need for cooling.

Because the EHS building and a new facility for the in-house, small project construction staff have joined the existing physical plant and warehouse space, a district cooling system was installed to serve the entire complex. This cooled water loop will improve efficiencies and result in less noise than stand-alone compressors.

Opened in the spring of 2007, the Global Education Center is home to multiple departments that uniquely integrate student and faculty services with academic instruction and research under one roof.

Previously a surface parking lot, the building site for the Global Education Center was designed around a grove of oak trees that remain part of the property. Next to this grove is a multi-purpose green area designed to store rainwater in an underground cistern. The stored water is used for on-site irrigation and toilet flushing.

An underground parking deck, comprised of 134 spaces on 2 levels, reduces impervious surface area. The slope of the land helps to conceal the parking garage. Expanded green space and underground parking resulted in a 7% decrease in impervious surface. The Global Education Center also features a green roof, which contains two permeable, drought-tolerant sedum gardens that minimize stormwater runoff and reduce the urban heat island effect.

Additional green features include local construction materials, day-lit spaces, air monitoring systems, water efficient plumbing, and much more.

Resources:
FedEx Global Education Center building brochure

Completed in Fall 2007, The Morrison Residence Hall renovation is another High Performance Building project. Long a favorite of students despite its age and lack of air conditioning, Morrison is now connected to the centralized chilled water system. A new heating system and energy-efficient windows were also installed.

Morrison was the first building on campus to incorporate renewable energy technology. 176 solar thermal panels were mounted on the roof of all four wings of the building to provide domestic hot water. The plumbing system draws first on solar-heated water from the storage tank and then adds steam-heated water when supplementing is required. The student-run Renewable Energy Special Projects Committee (RESPC) committed $184,000 for the solar array. The North Carolina State Energy Office also awarded a $137,500 grant to fund the project.

Morrison is also home to new sustainability themed housing. Students participate in learning programs on sustainability, compete in energy/water saving contests, and complete projects that further their understanding of sustainability.   Submetering of the building’s electricity, water, heating and cooling loads provides real-time, web-based feedback to the students. This can be accessed online or via a special touch-screen kiosk in the building's lobby.

Green features in Morrison include a more efficient HVAC system, water efficient landscaping, low emitting materials, and daylighting of 75% of spaces.

Resources:
Morrison Residence Hall Building Dashboard

Opened in fall 2009, the Education Center at the Botanical Garden aspires to be a LEED Platinum building—the highest designation of the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Building Rating System. It is the first at Carolina to employ a geothermal heating/cooling system and photovoltaic panels. By incorporating energy efficiency measures, controlled daylight, and renewable energy technologies, it is projected that the building will use 48 percent less energy per square foot than a typical building its size. The systems are projected to pay for themselves in ten years.

Almost all of the water used to irrigate the conservation gardens is harvested from rainfall and stored in cisterns. Reclaimed wastewater flushes the toilets, reducing potable water consumption in the building by 60 percent. Permeable pavers and an underground storage system manage the stormwater that falls on the parking lot.

The building incorporates a wide range of sustainable building practices, including local and salvaged materials, efficient lighting systems, and an abundance of porches and breezeways to connect occupants and visitors to the outdoors.

Links:
NC Botanical Garden - http://www.ncbg.unc.edu/

Located within a short walk of 8,000 residential students and most campus classrooms, Rams Head Center is part of the new connective tissue connecting South Campus and Main Campus. Built in place of an existing parking lot, the facility boasts a grocery store, dining hall, recreation center, intensive green roof, and two large rainwater cisterns all built around a 700- space parking garage. This dramatically reduces the need for driving on or around campus.

Besides offering a range of sustainable dining options, the Rams Head Dining Hall was also specially designed to be a more sustainable dining facility. Food waste from kitchen and dish lines is pulped and dehydrated for composting. Waste kitchen grease is also kept and turned into fuel.

Resources:
Rams Head Center Fact Sheet building brochure 

Links:
Carolina Dining Services - http://www.dining.unc.edu/

Another new building to benefit from increased daylight is the Facilities’ Service Station. Two of the five work bays have extended height ceilings and windows that wrap around all four sides of the extension. The daylight, coupled with white reflective floor paint, results in many of the electric lights remaining off during the day. The wash bay is open to the outdoors and requires no electric lighting.

UNC has installed a zinc roof on the Frank Porter Graham Student Union. Zinc roofing is 100% recyclable; often made with recycled/salvaged material; nontoxic (in fact, it is a vital mineral often lacking in the body), especially as compared to lead-coated copper roofing; and uses ½ of the energy in production compared with copper roofing, another metal roofing alternative. It also has a life cycle of 50 to 100 years, bringing its life cycle costs down below shingles or stainless steel.

UNC has specified manifold fume hood systems in the Science Complex and installed them in the McGavran-Greenberg building. These designs offer significant savings in energy use, materials, labor, operation and maintenance, and space. In addition, manifold systems offer flexibility, redundancy and safety - the dilution of exhaust from these designs lessens potential risks.

Approximately 50% of the carpets on campus contain recycled material.

Natural linoleum is made from rapidly renewable materials (such as linseed oil, pine rosin, limestone dust, and jute), lasts longer, and produces less offgassing than vinyl flooring. Natural linoleum floors are found in the following buildings:

• Giles Horney,
• Health Sciences Library,
• Brauer Hall,
• McColl, and
• Beard Hall.

Rubber flooring is made from natural rubber, which is a rapidly renewable resource, and contains 10-50% recycled rubber. Rubber also has a lower life-cycle cost due to ease of maintenance. Rubber flooring does not require stripping, waxing and sealing like VCT and linoleum. Rubber flooring is found in the following buildings:

• Neurosciences Research,
• South Building,
• Rosenau,
• Giles Horney,
• Housing Facilities Office (in Teague Hall),
• Graham Hall/Aycock Hall link,
• Bioinformatics,
• Taylor Student Health (Physical Therapy), and 
• Student Recreation Center.