Missouri Goes Eco-Friendly

Finding ways to sustain the resources of the earth has become a popular way of life lately, from how people eat to what they drive. Imagine all buildings being eco-friendly, ranging from homes to malls to college campuses. One green community in Missouri have already been built in the form of a college campus, and plans for living communities that meet LEED certification standards have been started as well.
Wildwood Community College in St. Louis has already received LEED gold certification, which makes it the first college to be considered eco-friendly in Missouri. The college combines the style of the Gothic era with the modern day green designs. They use a natural resource to insulate the building by planting sedum on the roof. Sedum is a plant that can withstand having little to no water and by planting it on the roof it insulates the building in the winter as well as reflect heat from the roof in the summer.
The campus also makes use of natural light via windows to reduce the need for lighting inside the building. In fact, seventy five percent of the building has access to natural light. For cooling the building, ceiling fans are used in strategic places to allow for optimal cooling with minimum energy usage. Other buildings of the same size use thirty percent more energy than the Wildwood campus for cooling. A college being this environmentally friendly is a great step towards a cleaner future.
While having large communal places such as colleges that are eco-friendly are an improvement for our society, homes are also an important change. It's become slightly more common for home-owners to use solar panel roofs, increase insulation in their home, and switch to appliances that use lower energy, but sometimes older building just aren't capable of greatly reducing the harm it causes the environment. There are now green communities in Missouri being built for residential life. While the current project is condos and not houses, the measures they're taking to reduce the energy usage are incredible.
Highland Park is being built in St. Peters with the environment in mind. The buildings are being made with recycled materials as well as the use of resources that are quickly renewed. The way the structures are built and the type of materials being used are durable and will limit the wear and tear of the buildings. Decks are being placed on the roof rather than next to the condos to reduce the amount of space that the buildings take up.
Parking is all-underground to not only save space but to keep the pavement from adding unnecessary heat to the community. All the appliances and fixtures in the condos that come standard are energy efficient. Windows are well insulated so there is less need for heating in the winter, and the environmentally friendly heating and cooling systems are state of the art. They have even lowered the amount of air pollution that occurs from the use of heating and cooling systems. Once the community is up and running, it will be one of the first green communities in Missouri.

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