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By Wes Holmes
I was expecting to find a typical, inefficient office park complex on my first visit to American Public University System’s (APUS) offices in downtown Charles Town, West Virginia.  Upon my arrival, I quickly realized that President Wallace Boston and the academic community at APUS were already setting very high standards for responsible, community-oriented growth and sustainable development.

 The APUS offices have been created from historic homes and buildings, mostly within walking distance of each other. I am honestly impressed by the facilities of the University.  It makes me even more proud to be an APUS student knowing that the institution implements a community oriented and culturally conscious business model.

In keeping with this unique paradigm of business growth coupled with community development, APUS recently broke ground on an ambitious project to convert a former scrap yard into a new academic center. In this effort APUS, will turn a vacant patch of land into an environmentally sound and cost-efficient place to work.

In the selection of this site, APUS has conformed to the site selection criteria necessary for LEED certification. The certification system specifies that when selecting land for development, areas that are designated as prime farmland or which serve as valuable habitat for important species should be excluded from consideration. The criteria also call for developers to avoid any land on or near a floodplain, wetland or waterbody.

The LEED site selection credit is intended to reduce the amount of valuable natural landscape developed annually. The goal is to encourage developers to focus on land that has already been altered and preserve what remains of the natural landscape. According to the Natural Resources Inventory, between 1982 and 2001, 34 million acres of natural landscape were developed for human uses. That’s an area roughly the size of Illinois, cleared, graded or otherwise altered from its natural state. In Charles Town, West Virginia however, APUS is effectively adding 45,000 square feet of commercial work space to the city of Charles Town while adding zero square feet to the city’s landscape footprint.

Through adherence to LEED principles, APUS has managed to create new economic opportunity while preserving landscape integrity.  Thus, taking a significant stride in establishing their institution within the Campus Sustainability Movement.