Educational-Aspects

=2011 Spring Semester Greening  of Aiken Educational Aspects Wiki Page =

Al McIntosh and Michelle Smith
 * Mentors: **

Paige Cornell pecornel@uvm.edu Mike Frank Colleen Horigan chorigan@uvm.edu Alex Marcucci amarcucc@uvm.edu Marissa Patti, mpatti@uvm.edu
 * Team Members: **


 * Meeting Time:** Every Monday night at 6pm on the fourth floor of the Davis Center

Our group is focused on creating the education aspects that will inform the public of the many ways in which the new Green Aiken Center will be an environmentally responsible place. We are currently creating a series of temporary, outdoor signs to be posted along the construction fence to let passers-by know what is actually going on within the fence. We will also be designing permanent interior informational signs to educate occupants of the building's green features and break-through technologies.


 * Goals: **
 * Educate students and faculty of how the Green Aiken Center will strive toward sustainability and reduce the Rubenstein School's ecological footprint as they pass by the construction site.
 * Create a design plan detailing all aspects of the informational signs to be installed into the interior of the Green Aiken Center.
 * Write an article for the Rubenstein School newsletter.

Draft of the Poster Final Poster---

Did you know?

 * The Green Aiken Center will have waterless/low-flow fixtures that will reduce water use by 52% compared to similarly sized conventional buildings.
 * 17 solar trackers have been installed behind the US Forestry Building on Spear St. to provide the Green Aiken Center with an estimated 96,880 kWh/year, 20% of the building's load.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The Green Aiken EcoMachine, or biological waste water treatment system, will have the capacity to treat up to 2,000 gallons of waste water per day . The expected load is only 568 gallons per day.
 * The total energy use is targeted to be less than 100 kWh per square meter per year.
 * The new building will incorporate natural ventilation and lighting where possible.
 * The renovated building strives toward LEED platinum certification, making it one of the greenest renovated building's in the nation.

CAN THIS LAST DATA BE COMPARED TO AVERAGE BUILDINGS?

Indoor Informational Signs: (all subject to change once actual values are calculated)
Please give us your feedback!



The indoor informational signs are the permanent signs that will educate occupants of the Green Aiken Center of how the building strives towards sustainability. We would appreciate your input on the wording of these signs since they will be a permanent reflection of the Rubenstein School's mission. As draft copies of each sign are completed, each will be posted below to receive comments and suggestions from you, the Rubenstein community!

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">1. Solar Trackers: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">The electrical energy supplied to the Aiken Center is supplemented by an off-site photovoltaic (PV) system. The seventeen 4kW dual axis tracking PV arrays are located at 705 Spear Street and have a projected annual output of 96,880 kWh/year or about 20% of the buildings electricity needs. The solar trackers were provided by AllEarth Renewables and use GPS technology to follow the sun throughout the day. (Colleen Horigan)

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">2. Local/Recycled Materials: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">75% of the original Aiken Center was re-used in its renovation, including the walls, floors and roofing materials. Additional materials used to complete the renovation were sourced locally or recycled when possible. Local materials include FSC-certified wood from the UVM-owned Jericho Research Forest. (Paige Cornell)

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">3. EcoMachine: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">An EcoMachine, or biological waste water treatment system, is used to treat all the waste water in the Aiken Center. The water is purified by living organisms within the machine, and returned to the toilets and urinals as “gray water”. This system is designed to treat up to 2,000 gallons of waste water per day, while the actual load is approximately 568 gallons per day. This water would otherwise be sent to the Burlington wastewater treatment facility. (Marissa Patti)

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">4.Insulation: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">EcoBatt® insulation, the next generation of sustainable insulation, lines the interior walls of the Aiken Center. EcoBatt® is made of sand and a minimum of 30% post-consumer recycled glass bottles. It contains no toxins, such as phenol, formaldehyde, or acrylics that are commonly used in traditional fiberglass insulation. (Paige Cornell)

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">5. Motion Sensor Lighting: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">All rooms are equipped with motion sensor devices that turn off the lights when spaces are unoccupied. These sensors also have a daylight cutoff, or automatic dimming function, to conserve energy when the sun's light is sufficiently bright enough to illuminate a space. (Alex Marcucci)

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">6. Building Ventilation: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">The ventilation system was almost entirely replaced during the renovation of the Aiken Center. Systems have been installed to recover and reuse heat and moisture from the exhaust air that previously would have been lost. The new system also incorporates automatic natural ventilation for cooling of the solarium, EcoMachine space, Green Conference Room, and North Atrium. (Alex Marcucci)

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">7. Building Ventilation: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">In offices and small closed spaces, sensors recognize whether people are present and adjust ventilation appropriately. Ventilators are turned off when the spaces are unoccupied to conserve energy. In larger spaces such as classrooms, carbon dioxide sensors adjust ventilation rates to match occupancy. (Alex Marcucci)

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">8. Green Roof: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">The Aiken Center’s green roof gives members of the Rubenstein School a chance to research and experiment with various soil medias and plants. All water that lands on the roof is passed through the various soils, and then collected in tipping buckets to test water chemistry. (Colleen Horigan)

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">9. Heat Island Effect: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">An "urban heat island" is an area that is significantly warmer than its more rural surroundings due to impervious surfaces and a lack of vegetation. The green roof is intended to reduce the Aiken Center’s heating effect on the local microclimate by increasing vegetative cover. It also provides habitat for birds, insects, and other fauna.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">10. Water Usage: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Low-flow water fixtures, no flow urinals, and a biological gray water system result in a total reduction in water use of 52% from that of the old Aiken Center. (Alex Marcucci)

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">11. Carbon Emissions: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">The renovation of the Aiken Center reduced the building's carbons emissions from approximately 19 tons of CO2/ft.2/year to 7 tons of CO2/ft.2/year. This reduces the total annual carbon emission by XXX tons and saves the school about $1.33 per ft.2 per year in energy costs. (Marissa Patti)

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">12. Vermicomposting <span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 19px;">The Aiken Center's vermicompost is a low-tech, small scale way of composting food scraps in an enclosed box using worms. The worms used are a type of earthworm called “red wigglers” which can be shipped almost anywhere depending on the season and temperatures. (Paige Cornell) <span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 19px;">*Replace shipping ability sentence with a sentence describing how the worms compost food?

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">13. Building Structure <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">The Green Aiken Center was constructed within the existing framework of the old building structure, reducing the amount of materials and energy needed for the renovation. Approximately 77.97% of the original structural materials were reused. (Alex Marcucci)

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">14. Green Power <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">35% of the Aiken Center’s electricity comes from renewable sources provided by the power grid. (Alex Marcucci) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">*Unclear- How and where? The school buys "green energy", but where does the power company get the energy from?

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">15. Green Roof Species <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">The green roof incorporates many Vermont native species such as Poverty Oat Grass //(Danthonia spicata)//, Field Chickweed //(// //<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Cerastium arvense //<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">//)//, and Mountain Sandwort //(Minuartia groenlandica)//. (Marissa Patti)

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;"> 16. Pipe Insulation <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;"> The pipes in this building are insulated using ECOSE technology, a revolutionary way of creating fiber glass insulation from rapidly renewable bio-based materials. This material replaces non-renewable, petroleum-based materials made from toxic phenol, formaldehyde, or acrylics. (Marissa Patti)

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;"> 17. Green roof area <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;"> The Aiken Canter's 11,472 ft.2 green roof is separated into 8 watersheds used to test the effectiveness of different growing mediums and species combinations. The watersheds allow different types of green roofs to be compared side-by-side. (Marissa Patti)

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Outdoor Informational Signs:
The outdoor informational signs are intended to educate UVM students, faculty, and visitors that may not know why or how the Aiken Center is changing. These signs will be printed, waterproofed, and posted along the construction fence. As the outdoor signs are completed and hung along the construction fence, I will be posting .jpeg copies of each one below. We are always open to suggestions or comments of any kind!

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