LEED Conference adds to ‘greening’ of CCCC in Chatham

By Katherine McDonald
Posted Thursday, May 31, 2007

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Pittsboro, NC – The Chatham County Campus of Central Carolina Community College is rapidly getting “greener” – and it has nothing to do with the color of the grass.

The campus is big on community sustainability – “green” living. It offers several programs that educate people on how to live in harmony with the environment, leaving a small footprint on nature while building a better life and world through sustainable agriculture, biofuels and “green” construction.

The college expanded the reach of its community sustainability education May 18 with a conference for contractors and construction managers. The Chatham Campus’ Continuing Education Department and the North Carolina Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council jointly sponsored the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Conference, which attracted 51 participants from as far away as Texas and Utah.

LEED is the USGBC’s national standard for construction of residential and commercial buildings that are friendly to both the environment and the people who use them. LEED rates building design and construction on a point system based on a wide variety of factors, such as use of natural resources (daylight, water, etc.); incorporation of renewable and recyclable materials, and indoor environmental quality.

Construction industry professionals came to Pittsboro to hear presenter Christian Klehm discuss LEED and how they can become LEED certified and move into the rapidly growing market for “green” construction. Klehm is president of Clearview Project Services Company and vice president of K2 Integrated Project Solutions, Pennsylvania-based firms that specialize in sustainable building and design construction.

He reviewed and discussed LEED certification building requirements, including the standards of design and materials required to achieve LEED building certification at the Certified, Silver, Gold or Platinum levels. Klehm also discussed how to become LEED certified, budgeting for LEED projects, and other information to help contractors and construction managers to move into this market.

Harry A. Baulch, president of Atlantic General Construction Services, Inc., in Cary, was among those at the conference.

“Sustainable building has become a very hot topic,” he said. “A lot of property owners are very interested in having it. I think, to a large degree, it is driven by operating costs of buildings – people are looking past their capital budgets to their operating budgets.”

Baulch said that he found the resources identified by Klehm very useful, including web sites for further information.

The conference was part of the college’s plan for its Chatham Campus to be a center for sustainable education, according to Carl Thompson, the campus’ Continuing Education director.

“The vision is to establish a comprehensive Community Sustainability educational program,” Thompson said. “Our goal is to enhance the county and regional economy to be economically and environmentally proficient, as well as socially responsible.”

The Chatham Campus currently has three sustainability programs:

• Sustainable Agriculture offers an Associate in Applied Science degree, as well as Continuing Education courses in vegetable farming and livestock. It also operates a community supported land laboratory that provides organic produce to members.
• Biofuels Technology has been offered as a Continuing Education program for years. The college now has a Biofuels Technology curriculum degree program under development that is expected to start in fall 2008.
• A Green BuildingEducation.

CCCC Chatham not only provides sustainability education, but also is incorporating “green” into new campus buildings. The college, in partnership with Chatham County, is moving forward with the design and construction of three buildings built to LEED standards: a joint college/county library and a classroom/laboratory building on the Pittsboro Campus, and a new Siler City Center building. All will be built to LEED standards, with the Pittsboro buildings expected to be LEED Silver certified. They will be among the first LEED certified community college buildings in North Carolina.

At the conference, Louis Cherry, of Cherry Huffman Architects, Raleigh, joined by Alicia Ravetto, of Carrboro, both LEED certified architects, talked about the college and county’s vision for the new buildings and “green” building generally. Cherry is the project architect.

“The campus theme is sustainability,” Cherry said. “All buildings should be ‘green’, but particularly here where it is part of the mission of the school. This is the best opportunity I can dream of: sustainable design buildings creating a nucleus of the community and making a context for understanding sustainability and how it can contribute to quality of life in the community.”