Spring 2007, Volume 10 Newsletter:
Green Building Guidelines in Development for Harvard University
Even though Harvard has the most LEED registered buildings of any University in the country and even though we have established LEED Gold as the standard for all buildings in Allston, there is still one last step that we are now taking to ensure that cost effective green building becomes business as usual here. We are developing a set of University-wide green building guidelines that will be thoroughly integrated into the University’s capital approvals processes.
The University Construction Managers Council (UCMC) asked the HGCI to convene a steering group of School project management representatives to develop the guidelines based upon the experience that Harvard has had to date in building green. This Steering Group has met twice and is already setting a course that will likely include a LEED certification requirement (minimum Silver and Gold aspiration), a minimum energy performance requirement that exceeds code, a requirement for the use of integrated design, energy modeling, life cycle costing and continuous commissioning. Draft guidelines will be finalized for approval by the UCMC and Harvard’s Capital Planning Review Committee late in FY07. Once approved, the guidelines will then be integrated into standard university contracts, Harvard’s online capital approvals process, the CPRC’s budget approval process and university-wide project management trainings. The HGCI’s team leader working on this project is Leith Sharp.
