Ayla McDonald
Reporter
The Parkland College Student Union has recently been awarded LEED Certification for sustainability.
According to news.usbcg.org, website of the U.S. Green Building Council, “LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is the most widely used green building rating system in the world. Available for virtually all building, community and home project types, LEED provides a framework to create healthy, highly efficient and cost-saving green buildings. LEED certification is a globally recognized symbol of sustainability achievement.”
All buildings in the state of Illinois that are constructed using public funds are required to meet LEED status for certification.
LEED Certification is awarded based on a point system consisting of four levels of point accumulation.
According to a Parkland College Press Release on September 28, 2018, “LEED uses a point system to evaluate and report the environmental performance of a building, rating it in terms of energy and water efficiency, air quality, and building materials.”
In June 2018, Parkland College’s Student Union achieved the LEED Certification rating level of Silver, earning 50-59 points for having water-efficient landscaping and for having a good system in place for storm-water control.
The Student Union has also reached the Silver level for being a location of easy access to public transportation with the Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District, being a center of community connectivity for students from all over Champaign-Urbana.
An event will be held to celebrate the LEED Certification acceptance for Parkland’s Student Union on Monday, October 8th at 2:00pm in the Student Union Atrium. Parkland President Tom Ramage, Vice President Michael Trame and architect of the Student Union Michael Dolter are to speak at the event. A tour of Parkland’s architecture led by the architect himself will be given, and refreshments are to be provided.
While Parkland’s Student Union received the LEED Certification this year, it is not the first building on the Parkland Campus to do so.
“Parkland’s other LEED Silver-certified building on campus is its Parkhill Applied Technology Center,” the Press Release states. “The college identified sustainability and environmental responsibility as a college-wide priority in 2007 with its Sustainable Campus Initiative (SCI). President Ramage signed American College and University President’s Climate Commitment in 2009, with the main goal to reduce carbon emissions.”
Sustainability has been a focus of the Parkland College campus for many years.
Parkland’s Sustainable Campus Committee has been a driving factor behind implementing environmentally friendly practices at the College over the past decade.
Some examples of sustainable activity on campus are the green roof installations at the Parkland library, placement of water refill stations around the College, installation of electric vehicle charging stations, energy efficient occupancy-sensor lighting in campus buildings, and restorative prairie projects.
“I think that institutions of education have a higher responsibility to educate on why sustainability and environmental issues are so important,” says Hilary K. Valentine, Associate Director and Market Analyst of Marketing and Public Relations at Parkland College. “Environmental issues are very prevalent now on such a broad level, spanning societal relations to the economy, I think colleges should be at the forefront of making environmental education accessible.”
A long-time member of the Sustainable Campus Committee, Valentine has been an active promoter of student involvement with sustainable awareness at Parkland.
“Students should care about sustainability,” Valentine says. “Administration listens to the student voice. The only way to make significant change is by collective action and policy. The more voices are heard, the more change we can make.”
