New Hampshire College Goes Green!

It seems colleges are in the lead when it comes to building sustainable communities in New Hampshire. Plymouth State University built a new residence hall named Langdon Woods in 2006 that was designed to minimize energy use without taking away from the comforts of living. Proof of their success was when they were awarded the LEED gold certification in 2007. LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) evaluates buildings on a number of different levels, including energy efficiency and how the buildings affect the environment.
One of the more unique factors about the residence hall is that instead of changing the landscape to suit the needs of the building, the Langdon Woods building was built to follow the layout of the land in order to not change the wetlands. The building also has managed to be in a location where it can receive the most natural light possible, which is an excellent way to reduce the amount of artificial light and energy that needs to be used.
The building itself is made of materials such as brick, wood, and glass, which limited the amount of non-renewable sources that were used in it's making. These materials also allow for better insulation, which in return reduces heating and cooling costs.
Keep in mind that it's not just the structure of the residence hall that makes it one of the best eco friendly communities in New Hampshire. The inside of the building is just as important as what the building itself is made of. When the residence hall was in production, students of Plymouth State University were allowed to draft ideas and include their input about ways the building could be energy efficient and become the first of the sustainable communities in New Hampshire. Some of the ideas that were used in the construction were urinals that don't use water and dual flush toilets. All appliances found in the building are the latest models in energy efficiency. An amazing feature they included was their heating system, which is the waste-heat co-generation plant that can be found on the campus itself. The college has managed to greatly reduce the amount of energy and water it wastes with all of the residence hall's features.
Normally, large buildings that house such a large number of people are very damaging to the environment, as energy usage, water usage, and waste tend to add up. At the Langdon Woods residence hall they actually have reduced the typical usage numbers of a building it's size greatly. The heating system they use needed only four days worth of actual heating fuel throughout the whole winter one year. They've saved approximately $230,000 in energy usage and reduced the amount of water they use by about 1.4 million gallons annually. The residence hall has also done it's best to limit the amount of damage it does to the environment by limiting the carbon it releases. Hopefully this building can be a leader and model for future eco builders in New Hampshire.

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