The neo-Gothic facade of Whitman College will delight those Princeton undergraduates for whom romantic arch sings, gargoyles and leaded windows are the ultimate Ivy League living experience. But the planet may be less happy.
Princeton's newest residence, currently under construction, will lack many environmentally friendly features, such as a white roof, recessed windows and a heat recovery system.
"If you're asking me, is Whitman College a green building by today standards? It was not built to be a green or sustainable building by today's standards," said Jon Hlafter, the University architect.
It's not just Whitman. Interviews with more than a dozen University officials, sustainability experts and campus activists suggest that Princeton's commitment to green building has been lukewarm. And while the University has recently begun to make an effort to incorporate eco-friendly standards into its new construction, it has some catching up to do.
Princeton refuses to sign up to the nation's foremost green building certification program, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) — the only Ivy League school, apart from the University of Pennsylvania, to do so. While some other Ivies are investing in renewable energy sources, Princeton continues to rely on fossil fuels, though officials said that the University's power plant is energy efficient.
In general, experts said, Princeton has come late to the game and lags behind other Ivy League institutions.
"Some other schools have gotten on board with green building earlier than Princeton," said Julian Dautremont-Smith, who is the associate director of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. "Harvard has been doing this for three or four years."
When Princeton selects the design of new buildings, greening can sometimes be the driving concept — as it was for the University's new chemistry building — but more frequently other goals take priority. In the design of Whitman, for instance, the building's aesthetic was of paramount importance, according to Hlafter.
"It is clear that undergraduates come here with the expectation that they will live in one of those nice collegiate Gothic buildings," he said. "Some felt cheated when they got Butler."
'In transition'
The University has incorporated some standards for "green buildings" — those that strive to incorporate environmentally friendly materials and construction practices, and energy-efficient heating and cooling methods — into the sustainability policy it adopted in March 2006, according to Thomas Nyquist, Princeton's director of engineering and Shana Weber, sustainability manager in the facilities department.
The sustainability policy says that all new buildings should aim to be 30 percent more energy efficient than the minimum required by law under New Jersey's construction codes. But the policy does not make this mandatory.
In addition, the cost of materials will be calculated over the entire life-cycle for new buildings. Previously, the University only considered initial construction costs, which favored cheaper, less environmentally friendly building supplies.
Whitman College and the replacement for Butler College, where the first brick has yet to be laid, are "in a transition phase," Nyquist said. They were designed before the sustainability policy came into existence and so do not follow its standards.
The planned chemistry building adheres to the new policy. The arts neighborhood is still being planned and "a lot of sustainability issues are being brought up," he said.
Nyquist said that the University will showcase its campus plan, including designs for the chemistry building, at a forum Wednesday afternoon in the Chancellor Green Rotunda. The University's flyer for the event sets out five guiding principles for campus development established by the trustees, one of which is to "develop in an environmentally responsible manner."
"As in everything we do, I suspect the University could be doing better in the area of sustainability," President Tilghman said in an email. "We are hoping that Shana Weber, who has just arrived, will help us identify areas where we can make improvements, but I believe the commitment is there to become leaders in this area."
But interviews with University officials suggest that while environmental sustainability is one of factors that the University weighs when selecting an architect and design for a new building, it is not the primary factor. Nor will it be under the new policy.
By design
"The architect may be the most creative around but is not necessarily thinking about green buildings," Weber said. "The ideal situation would be to choose an architect that fits with your policy, but we're not exactly there yet."
The President's Advisory Committee on Architecture, the body responsible for recommending architects to Tilghman, selects an architect based on range of criteria, according to Hlafter. Previous accolades, world renown and a reputation for designing aesthetically pleasing buildings can all be factors. But green credentials are not an explicit priority.
Renzo Piano, who built the steel-and-glass Centre Pompidou in Paris, and Rafael Moneo, who designed the glass-walled Kursaal Auditorium in San Sebastian, Spain, had agreed to work on campus, though Piano recently backed out of his commitment.
"Peter Lewis ['55], who is a trustee of the University and the primary donor, offered $60 million to construct the new science library provided that we work with architect Frank Gehry," Hlafter said. "Not every building we build has the opportunities the chemistry building did."
Gehry is a Pritzker-prize winning architect famous for designing the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain. His later work is known for its curvaceous steel-clad forms.
The architect's environmental record, however, is sometimes the clincher. Michael Hopkins, the London-based architect chosen to design the new chemistry building, was selected for his innovative approach to environmental design. Publicity material shown to The Daily Princetonian says the University is considering strategies for the chemistry building that include a roof canopy of solar panels and a rain garden for on-site storm water capture.
'Green-wash approach'
Campus environmentalists question whether putting the choice of architect before the eco-friendliness of the design will lead to the highest environmental standards.
Nina Robertson, a graduate student in the Wilson School who campaigned for green building standards while she was an undergraduate at Stanford, criticized what she termed "the green-wash approach," which she defined as holding out a single flagship project, such as the chemistry building, to burnish green credentials, when in fact it is not representative. This is "the kind of thing that Wal-Mart and Exxon do, which is more of a public relations exercise," she said.
Scott Moore '08, an activist with Greening Princeton who is studying Princeton's contribution to global warming, said, "It should be understood from the very beginning of a project that environmental performance should be the organizing principle.
"Donors should be able to have a large input into a project but the 30 percent energy efficiency target needs to be met," Moore, who is also a member of The Daily Princetonian's Editorial Board, added.
University officials strenuously defend the University's environmental performance. According to Hlafter, once the design has been chosen, Nyquist and Weber work with project teams to ensure sustainability goals are met. "I regard my position as that of a steward with responsibilities towards the leadership of the institution," Hlafter said. "An architect would say that by going back to the basic ways construction used to be done, you make the building sustainable."
Whitman College's thick stone-clad walls will help to insulate the building, Nyquist said. But for Butler College, Weber said the University was "going back and forth" on the possibility of a "living roof" planted with grass. Nyquist said "we haven't yet seen the benefits of this for the given cost."
LEEDing by example
Princeton aims to use guidelines set by LEED, a standards program administered by the U.S. Green Building Council, in its new construction, officials said. But, unlike most other Ivy League schools, Princeton does not certify its new buildings to ensure they meet LEED standards.
Harvard has certified or registered 16 buildings under the LEED program, Leith Sharp, director of Harvard's Green Campus Initiative, said. According to a comparison of Ivy League schools produced by the University of Pennsylvania and the U.S. Green Building Council's project database, Cornell, Dartmouth and Yale have certified or registered three buildings each. Columbia and Brown have certified or registered one each. Princeton and Penn have none.
LEED appraises a range of environmental factors during construction of a new building, including the ecological sensitivity of the site, energy performance, water efficiency, indoor environment and use of recyclable materials, awarding points for each. Extra points can be won for innovation. The resulting scores determine the level of LEED certification, which ranges from "certified" through silver, gold and platinum.
The process is rigorous and is becoming an industry standard. The U.S. General Services Administration, which acts as the federal government's landlord, described LEED in a September 2006 report as "the most credible and appropriate sustainable buildings rating system available."
The energy efficiency goal in Princeton's new sustainability policy is equivalent to that in LEED silver standards, Hlafter said. "But do we try to get the Boy Scout badge? We don't think it's necessary," he explained.
But Nadav Malin, editor of Environmental Building News, a company that provides the technical review for projects submitted to the American Institute of Architects' green building awards, took issue with Hlafter's statement that certification was unnecessary.
"This is total and utter bulls––t," he said. "Every architect will tell you they can build an environmentally friendly building. But if they haven't signed up to LEED, then 99 percent of the time they are not really building an environmentally friendly building. It may be perfectly attractive and functional, but it is going to be a liability down the road ... in terms of air quality, day light, water use ... and it won't be energy efficient for the long term."
Robertson also questioned the University's policy. "Certification systems exist for a reason," she said. "We have health inspectors who inspect our cafeterias to ensure they meet health and safety standards. Standards for green buildings work in a similar fashion. You need to check the integrity of the process. If you don't meet the standard, you shouldn't claim that you do. Essentially you're making a claim that you can't substantiate."
University officials say that there are good reasons not to embrace LEED certification. "It's very expensive," Weber said. "It takes a lot of extra work hours to get the documentation. You could devote your finances and work hours towards designing a green building."
Jamie Garrido, associate dean of Chandler-Gilbert Community College in Arizona, which has just built a LEED certified building, said the price-tag was around $80,000 in consultancy and registration fees to certify an $8 million project — or one percent of the building's cost — plus the extra costs of materials and dumping fees.
Terry Calhoun, a member of the Formal Education Committee at the U.S. Green Building Council, said the fees are even smaller when lifetime cost savings are taken into account.
Power hungry
Nyquist said that the University does not certify its buildings because "LEED does not give credit to our energy-efficient co-generation plant." Princeton generates most of its power on campus, with an efficient steam turbine that runs on natural gas.
But natural gas is a fossil fuel that produces carbon dioxide, the gas that causes global warming. Energy use is critical to green buildings, according to Dautremont-Smith, and universities could radically improve their ecological footprint by reducing their use of fossil fuels.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency's "Green Power Challenge," three universities in the Ivy League get their energy from renewable sources: Yale at 100 percent, the UPenn at 29 percent and Harvard at 7 percent. Princeton does not participate in the challenge.
Facilities department figures show that Princeton's energy use is rising every year as the campus grows. The University produced 138,000 tons of carbon dioxide in 2006.
A campus environmental group, Students United for a Responsible Global Environment, is working to persuade the University to set carbon emissions reduction targets as part of an effort to arrest the process of global warming.
Nyquist said that the University invests significantly in energy efficiency. "We have been making buildings more efficient for the past 20 years," he said. He described a new program to replace windows and add storm windows, along with efforts to install energy-efficient lighting and motion sensors. The University has also hired the engineering firm Dometech to overhaul sensors that regulate air temperature in buildings.
Who's better? Who's best?
Nonetheless, sustainability experts say that Princeton is languishing behind other American universities. "Princeton is slipping behind Harvard, Yale, Stanford and Columbia on green building standards," said Greg Kats, principal of Capital E, an environmental and energy consulting firm.
Some campus sustainability experts interviewed for this article were wary of making comparisons between schools, citing unwillingness to be perceived as being unfair and lack of data as reasons. "We don't make these comparisons," Carol Kaiser at the U.S. Green Building Council said.
Dautremont-Smith cautioned that "the greenest building is one you don't build," while ranking institutions by number of new green buildings tends to favor larger institutions or those with faster growth rates. But, he said, "I think it is fair to say that Harvard is generally regarded as a leader in campus sustainability and could reasonably be considered the leading institution within the Ivy League." He also cited Cornell as a leader due to its active green buildings program and energy efficiency program.
Phyllis Grummon of the Society for College and University Planning said in an email that "Cornell is certainly in the forefront ... Harvard also has a very active sustainability presence." Sharp pointed to Harvard's innovative $3 million revolving loan fund, which finances sustainability projects on campus and plows the savings back into the fund.
Calhoun put the University of California, which has had a green buildings and clean energy policy since 2003, at the top of his list. Other leading institutions are Emory, which has 11 LEED certified or registered buildings, including a gold for renovation of its Goizueta business school; Florida, which won the American Institute of Architects Top Ten Green Projects Award in 2005 for its gold-certified Rinker Hall classroom and laboratory facility; and Duke, which is one of a handful of colleges that mandates LEED certification for new buildings.
A similar commitment by Princeton would be a positive step, Robertson said. "It doesn't seem like Princeton should have anything to fear. If Princeton wants to be a leader, it should make the investment to show it is meeting standards without a doubt ... it would be symbolic," she said.
David Goldston, chief of staff on the House Committee on Science, agreed. "Universities are the obvious places where this should be tried out," he said. "They are public spaces, they are not-for-profit, they have the technology and the funds and they have public responsibilities. If universities won't do this, then who will?"
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