UC Merced Earns 15 LEED Certifications

MERCED, Calif. — Sustainable practices at the University of California, Merced (UC Merced), have earned the school its 15th LEED certification for new construction and its first LEED certification for building operations and maintenance.

The Half Dome student housing building, which opened two years ago, became the fifth UC Merced building to receive LEED Platinum certification from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), based in Washington D.C. UC Merced continues to be the only campus in the nation with LEED certification for all its facilities. The Classroom and Office Building 2, under construction, is also expected to achieve platinum status.

After an audit and survey process, the Leo and Dottie Kolligian Library earned a gold certificate in Existing Buildings: Operations and Maintenance (EBOM).

Some of Half Dome’s energy-efficient features include diverting 96 percent of construction waste from landfills; including recycled content for 48 percent of the building materials and 98 percent of wood coming from Forest Stewardship Council-certified forests; and including a rooftop solar-energy system.

“The EBOM certificate is a testimony to UC Merced’s sustainable operations and maintenance practices,” Director of Energy and Sustainability Zuhair Mased said in a statement. “It is a result of close collaboration between all departments, because we all have to meet high standards to earn this.”

The EBOM process takes more time (about a year) compared to other LEED auditing processes. Mased and campus Energy Manager Varick Erickson conducted the audit of the 178,000-square-foot library building, including staff surveys.The process examines a building’s physical systems — such as equipment, design and land use — and the way the building is occupied and operated by its managers, including waste management, temperature monitoring, commuting programs, recycling programs and other green activities. The goal of EBOM certification is to make sure a building operates in an environmentally friendly manner and to help campus leaders create a plan for ensuring that other school buildings a performing efficiently.
“It tells us we’re not only building in a sustainable manner, but operating the campus the same way,” Mased said in a statement. “Everybody here is a stakeholder in that.”
Half Dome’s platinum certificate is the first the campus has earned for a housing building. The dining expansion, the Social Science and Management Building, the Student Activities and Athletic Center and the Student Services Building all earned platinum status, too. The campus also has eight gold certificates and a silver certificate, and the Early Childhood Education Center is one of the first LEED gold modular buildings in the country.
Platinum certification is also pending on the Summits Housing 3 project and the Science & Engineering 2 Building, which opened last fall.
“The campus is close to having all of its occupied buildings certified,” LEED Coordinator Mark Maxwell said. “This is just more proof that our green practices are succeeding.”