WPI Shows Off Its Green Campus | Officials go behind the scenes at LEED-certified residence hall
Photo/Matt Pilon
HANDS ON: Rep. James McGovern, D-Worcester, checks out the roof garden at WPI's new LEED-certified residence hall.
Worcester Polytechnic Institute took some time this month to show off its newest dormitory, East Hall, which is certifiably green and sustainable, to a group of legislators.
U.S. Rep. James McGovern, D-Worcester, and state Reps. James O’Day, D-West Boylston, and John Mahoney, D-Worcester, and several city councilors followed Naomi Carton, WPI’s director of residential services, on a tour that highlighted East Hall’s environmentally friendly features, including natural light and a stormwater quality monitoring system.
The dorm also features motion sensors for lighting to save electricity, a smart heating or cooling system and “green” furniture. Even the doormats are made of recycled soda bottles, Carton said.
East Hall, which has 232 beds, uses approximately 30 percent less energy than a normal building of its size and 32 percent less water, she said.
Unsoiled
The tour capped off with a look at the dorm’s “living green” roof, the first of its kind in Worcester.
The roof is covered with hundreds of planters, which were just starting to sprout chives and other plants that absorb rainwater, helping to reduce groundwater runoff around the property.
McGovern picked and tasted a sprig of chives, which Carton said the school recently used to garnish a meal for its trustees.
McGovern praised WPI’s green dormitory and said that he wants to see climate change legislation passed in Washington. But the congressman said that some Republicans have stymied those efforts, arguing that “the science isn’t there.”
Illustrating the divisiveness that has surrounded the topic, McGovern lamented that even efforts to green the Capitol in Washington have fallen flat after the November elections, with legislators back to drinking from Styrofoam cups.
Audrey Richardson of Environment Massachusetts, which organized the tour, said that her nonprofit is pushing the Massachusetts Legislature to adopt increasingly stricter building codes with the aim of requiring new buildings to produce as much energy as they use by the year 2030.
“The technology is out there and we can make our buildings more efficient,” Richardson said.
The five-story, 103,000-square-foot dorm on Boynton Street was completed in 2008. It is the second building on campus that is certified under the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program. The other is the Bartlett Center, the admissions and financial aid building that opened in 2006.
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