New Community College Building Wins LEED Certification

Bunker Hill Community College’s Health & Wellness Center, a 48,000-square-foot structure housing the College’s nursing and health professions programs, has received LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC).

The Gold-level certification indicates that the building meets stringent requirements of the internationally recognized rating system, and also exceeds standards set by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Executive Order #484 which mandates levels of efficiency requirements in the design and construction of new buildings.

The Health & Wellness Center includes classrooms, offices and state-of-the-art laboratories serving the College’s rapidly expanding healthcare programs, which train students for high-demand jobs in the regional economy. The facility also includes a gymnasium and a fitness center.

The new facility is one of just two LEED Gold buildings in the 15 -campus Massachusetts community college system. The building’s sustainability highlights include a variety of passive solar design strategies that maximize the use of the sun’s energy for heating and cooling needs. These include transom and clerestory windows, external louvers, occupancy sensors and roof overhangs.  The building’s design also reduces unnecessary runoff by diverting rain into two bio-retention ponds that irrigate native wetland plants. In addition, many materials used in the building reduce environmental impact because they are certified for low emissions and have been sourced within a 500 mile radius of the College.

LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is an internationally recognized green building certification system, providing third-party verification that a building was designed and built using strategies aimed at improving performance across all the metrics that matter most: energy savings, water efficiency, CO₂ emissions reduction, improved indoor environmental quality and stewardship of resources. 

Editor's Note: This information was submitted to Patch in a press release from Bunker Hill Community College.