By: Wesley Holmes

Wednesday I had the opportunity to visit the Academic Center construction site and get a guided tour from the site manager. One thing I have come to learn about the construction industry is that there are a lot of players. As a laymen coming into this process I expected that Cox Schepp Construction was handling all the developments on the new building. It can be called handling, but perhaps wrangling is the more apt term. In this construction project, as with most projects, there are several companies working on the development of one building. All of these sub-contractors, “subs”, are private companies, independent from Cox Scehpp, who bring a wide range of expertise from many different fields. There are electricians, plumbers, steel framers, HVAC installers, brick layers, dry-wallers, and waste disposal technicians just to name a few. But all of these diverse companies, whatever their expertise, all operate under the guidance and organization of Cox Schepp Construction, the company charged with assuring adherence to the architects design and the owners expectations. On a day to day basis, responsibility for administering this guidance falls to one Ryan Boedicker.

Mr Boedicker makes for an imposing figure at well over six feet with the build of a football player. This sizable stature belies his easy going North Carolina accent and affable character. As the site manager for the Academic Center, Boedicker stays in high gear. If he’s not talking on the phone to a sub, rest assured he’s talking to one in person while texting another. He is the guy out at the construction site every day representing the interest of Cox Schepp and by extension the interests of APUS. Making sure deliveries are at the site on time, managing the work schedule, and monitoring the work of the multitude of sub-contractors, this is just some of the work of a project site manager. Mr. Boedicker jokingly sums up his position as a “babysitter of grown men”. But this supersized babysitter plays a crucial function, not only in bringing the building up, but in making sure its done in the most environmentally responsible manner possible.

While the USGBC LEED program is the largest and most well known sustainable development certification program in the United States, it is still a relatively new construction management paradigm and not all contractors are familiar with its guidelines and standard practices. On a day to day basis the site manager assures adherence to the guidelines laid out by the LEED rating system. He follows the work of each sub-contractor and assures that they are using materials with the appropriate amount of recycled content. He monitors the chemical sealants and adhesives being used to assure they are low emitting materials. He even makes sure that the tires on the trucks driven off site don’t track mud and other sediment out into the street where it can be washed into storm drains.

The United States Green Building Council has crafted a very valuable guide and certification system in LEED. But the real benefits to environmental quality and indoor environmental health can only be achieved if the professionals doing the job habitually follow the standards of practice outlined in LEED. In playing the part of babysitter and helping to engrain these green habits into building professionals, Mr. Boedicker provides an invaluable contribution to helping the Academic Center become the high performance low impact building APUS is striving for.

Manassas Park Elementary School (Image taken from AIA Top Ten Website)

Just in time for last weeks 40^th Earth Day Celebration, on April 21^st, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) announced its selections for this years Top Ten Green Projects. Each year the AIA accepts nominations for the greenest new buildings from across the country. The AIA’s Committee on the Environment (COTE) picks 10 buildings which demonstrate how design can reduce environmental impacts by reusing materials, connecting to public transit, conserving water and energy and improving indoor air quality. Apus-green-building.com is happy to announce that one of this years winners is an elementary school located just down the road from APUS offices in Manassas, Virginia.

Manassas Park Elementary School (MPES) is fundamentally designed around the premise that people, especially children, cannot be expected to preserve or protect something they do not understand; a theme which is echoed throughout the campus sustainability movement. As such, the school is conceived throughout as a teaching tool that shepherds children along a path of environmental stewardship. Inside and out, sustainable design is integrated with the elementary curriculum. Design decisions were made with the expressed goal of showcasing as many teachable moments as possible. Not only are children offered exceptional views of the schools surrounding forest, they are invited to use the numerous exterior break-out spaces and to explore the piedmont landscape directly. The principal bio-retention area, for example, is detailed to serve as outdoor classroom, performance stage, and parent pick-up queue. Additionally, a comprehensive signage program reinforces each teachable moment by highlighting green building facts, demystifying sustainable building systems, and describing flora and fauna found in the area.

The COTE Top Ten Green Projects program, now in its 14th year, celebrates projects that are the result of a thoroughly integrated approach to architecture, natural systems and technology. The criteria for submitted projects parallel the same design and process requirements outlined by the USGBC LEED program. As noted by the AIA Press Release the projects selected by the committee make a positive contribution to their communities, improve comfort for building occupants and reduce environmental impacts through sustainable design strategies. The MPES project and the  nine other winners will be honored at the AIA 2010 National Convention and Design Exposition in Miami. However, since this amazing project serves the communities that support APUS staff and their families, apus-green-building.com would like take this opportunity to congratulate and thank Manassas Park City Schools for taking an environmentally conscious approach to this development. APUS faculty and staff work diligently to equip adults with the knowledge and skills necessary to make our communities safer, healthier and more sustainable, but we learn our most long lasting lessons and habits as children. The lessons and ethics that can be garnered from schools like MPES are sure to make an invaluable contribution to realizing a greener future for our children and our communities.

By Wesley Holmes

As APUS has grown and expanded it has consistently embraced an environmentally conscious business model. The decision to achieve LEED Gold standards of performance for the new Academic Center is a continuation of this sustainable philosophy and representative of a collective movement among colleges and universities across North America to make our educational institutions more environmentally sound and economically sustainable. A quick Google Scholar search of “greening our academic institutions” reveals that the idea of colleges and universities taking a lead role in environmental sustainability emerged in the early 1990’s and has been steadily gaining in momentum over the past two decades. The growth of this movement has manifested in organizations such as the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) and organized institutional efforts such as the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment (ACUPCC). These collective efforts have come to be known as the Campus Sustainability Movement.

The origins of this movement within academia are best articulated by Leith Sharp of the Harvard School of Public Health and founder of Harvard’s Office for Sustainability. According to Sharp, the Campus Sustainability Movement was born out of frustration with the clear disconnect between the environmental threats and ecologic principles expounded upon in the classroom that were being largely ignored in campus facility design and operation. For many students and faculty the idea of teaching sustainability without demonstrating it is highly problematic. Students and faculty alike wanted to take a more proactive role on their campuses and turn theory into practice. It has been suggested that this drive for ecologic stability on campuses largely mirrors growing desires for sustainability across the country. Advocates for campus sustainability initiatives note that the higher education sector serves as an ideal proving ground for sustainable technologies and practices. These sentiments have helped fuel a movement dedicated to transforming our educational institutions into living laboratories for the demonstration and practice of environmental sustainability.

Over the last decade the Campus Sustainability Movement has made significant strides. According to a National Wildlife Federation Campus Ecology Survey conducted in both 2001 and 2008, of the 1,068 schools surveyed in 2008, 65% had some form of written commitment to address environmental sustainability or stewardship (or at least had a plan in place to create one), compared to just 43% of the schools surveyed in 2001. In 2007, the American higher education sector had approximately 285 construction projects underway that had been certified under the United States Green Building Council’s (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program (USGBC, 2007). At the time, this accounted for about 10% of LEED projects nationally. According to AASHE, between mid-2007 and March 2009, over 620 presidents of colleges and universities in the United States endorsed the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment (ACUPCC). One of these signatories was APUS President Wallace Boston. President Boston on joining the ACUPCC.

Since signing the Commitment, APUS has taken several significant steps toward reducing its overall carbon footprint and working toward achieving carbon neutrality in its operations.  Under President Boston’s guidance, APUS has implemented a Sustainability Committee which is tasked with managing the various aspects of the Commitment.  Comprised of employees from nearly every department within the online university, the Committee is dedicated to addressing various aspects of the school’s operations in order to achieve greater sustainability.  The school has implemented a recycling program in both its Charles Town, WV and Manassas, VA locations.  Additionally, the school’s admissions process is now completely paperless, leading to a more streamlined experience for students and staff as well as a more environmentally sound operation overall.  The school is currently working to implement systems to create a paperless accounts payables process as well.  In late 2009, the university installed an environmentally friendly porous paving system in its Charles Town, WV location.  The system prevents storm water runoff by providing a compacted layer of stone beneath the pavers which serves as a filter for water prior to its absorption into the ground.  Nearly all buildings in both APUS campus locations have been outfitted with occupancy sensors which have greatly increased energy efficiency.  Members of the school’s Sustainability Committee have recently launched a blog, http://apus-sustainability.com, which will serve as an outreach mechanism for sharing ideas related to sustainability in higher education, in general, as well as a means of documenting and sharing APUS’ experiences as it works toward achieving a more sustainable future.

Links and Citations

LEED Certified Projects Directory

National Wildlife Federation Campus Ecology Program

The College Sustainability Report Card

Sharp, L. 2009. Higher education: the quest for the sustainable campus. Sustainability: Science, Practice, & Policy 5(1):1-8. http://ejournal.nbii.org/archives/vol5iss1/editorial.sharp.html.

United States Green Building Council (USGBC). 2007. LEED Registered Projects. https://www.usgbc.org/ShowFile.aspx?DocumentID=2313. (March 19, 2010)

By: Wesley Holmes

Value: 1 Point

Intent- To limit disruption and pollution of natural water flows by managing stormwater runoff.

Multiple Sources of Stormwater Pollution

Stormwater runoff is a rush, or more appropriately a flush of water that is capable of conveying large quantities of contaminants to waterbodies in a short amount of time. Storm events are typically discrete and relatively short (hours to days) and produce exposures to contaminants potentially lasting from only minutes to hours. Pollutants, including sediment, trash and construction debris from development sites are picked up and washed into receiving streams and other aquatic resources during storm events. Pollutants that accumulate on impervious surfaces (auto fluids, chemical spills) and on compacted pervious surfaces, such as lawns, parks and athletic fields (Pesticide, fertilizer, pet waste) during dry weather are picked up and transported into receiving waters during rainfall events.

In addition to gathering pollutants as it moves  through the developed landscape, stormwater runoff will also pick up a less obvious but still harmful additive, heat. Impervious surfaces, such as rooftops, roads and parking lots, tend to retain heat when exposed to sunlight. This is what is known as a heat island effect. As stormwater runoff moves over these impervious surfaces it absorbs the radiant heat and increases water temperature. Studies conducted by the Center for Watershed Protection and others have found that when this heated stormwater is conveyed into a river, stream, wetland or other aquatic resource, it can decrease the amount of dissolved oxygen contained within the water column, which reduces the amount of oxygen that is available to aquatic organisms causing damage even death to some.

To help prevent the flow of contaminants picked up by stormwater from reaching valuable natural habitats the USGBC requires that projects seeking certification implement a stormwater management plan that captures and treats the stormwater runoff from 90% of the average annual rainfall. The Best Management Practices (BMP’s) utilized for treatment must be designed in accordance with standards and specifications from a state or local stormwater management plan which is capable of removing 80% of the average annual post development total suspended solids (TSS) load (Dirt and other waste). For the project in Charles Town APUS is utilizing a BMP pond, designed by the Civil Engineering firm Dewberry, to capture and treat runoff from the site. Given that the project site is a capped Brownfield, this treatment pond plays a crucial role in containing and treating the runoff from the impervious site cap.

In a typical stormwater management (SWM) pond, a flow regulator is attached to the ponds drain pipe to reduce the size of the outlet. A smaller outlet causes the pond to collect excess flow and reduces the erosion potential of the initial pulse of water. These conventional stormwater retention ponds will release stormwater over 2-3 hours. In a BMP pond the flow regulator attached to the end of the pipe is even smaller. The smaller outlet forces the pond to hold the water for a longer period, allowing more time for the sediment and attached nutrients to settle out in a collection area. Whereas a conventional SWM pond will release stormwater over 2-3 hours, a stormwater management BMP pond may release the water over 2-3 day days allowing for optimum removal of sediment and nutrient loads.

The treatment approach APUS has selected will not only maintain the pre-development rate of runoff from the landscape, it will reduce the impact of the water on receiving ecosystems. This approach complies with the BMP’s of the state and the USGBC and will aide in improving water quality for the Ranson and Charles Town communities.

Images Provided by EPA Watersheds Site

Links of Interest

EPA Urban Stormwater BMP Performance Tool

EPA National Menu of Stormwater Best Management Practices

Center for Watershed Protection

West Virginia Stormwater Management Plan