USGBC presents OCC with LEED Gold plaques for Academic II, SRC Arena

ONONDAGA, N.Y. — The Washington, D.C.–based U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) on Tuesday presented Onondaga Community College (OCC) with LEED Gold plaques for its two newest buildings that earned the certification.

LEED is short for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. It’s a third-party certification system that ensures buildings are designed and constructed using green, or sustainable, building principles, OCC said in a news advisory about the event.

Academic II and SRC Arena and Events Center are the structures that have the certification.

Rick Fedrizzi, the Syracuse native who co-founded the USGBC, presented OCC officials with the plaques during a morning ceremony inside Academic II.

Academic II, which includes the school’s music program, spans the nearly 60-feet high Furnace Brook gorge on the OCC campus.

Noting the challenges that Grand Island, N.Y.–based CannonDesign faced in designing a structure to span a gorge, Fedrizzi said in his remarks that it would’ve been “very easy” for OCC to say the school is spending enough on the buildings and “let’s just get this project done.”

But someone at OCC made a different decision, he added.

“Somebody here made a decision that that wasn’t good enough. That they didn’t care who from the outside world saw this. This was something that was going to be meaningful for the students, for the community at large, and ultimately the faculty that bring this all together here,” said Fedrizzi.

Academic II, which opened for the Fall 2013 semester, uses 38 percent less water than a conventional building of this type due to different faucets, toilets, and urinals — saving about 50,000 gallons of water annually.

That’s according to a news release that OCC issued in conjunction with the ceremony.

The building also consumes 25 percent less energy than a conventional building of this type because the lighting and heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems use energy-efficient technologies, the school said.

The release also listed the characteristics that OCC said are the reasons the SRC Arena and Events Center earned the same certification.

The facility, which opened in December 2011, hosts sporting events, such as basketball, volleyball, and tennis, as well as trade shows.

The structure uses 39 percent less water than a conventional building due to “efficient” faucets, toilets, and urinals. The building also consumes 26 percent less energy than a traditional building of this type because the lighting and HVAC systems use “energy-efficient technologies,” according to OCC.

In addition, 33 percent of the building materials contain recycled content, and 93 percent of all waste was either reused or recycled during the construction process, the college said.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com