The New Place Riel: Building for the Environment

History of LEED

From the Canada Green Building Council Website:

"The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System™ encourages and accelerates global adoption of sustainable green building and development practices through the creation and implementation of universally understood and accepted tools and performance criteria.

LEED is a third-party certification program and an internationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings. It provides building owners and operators the tools they need to have an immediate and measurable impact on their buildings’ performance.

LEED promotes a whole-building approach to sustainability by recognizing performance in five key areas of human and environmental health:

- sustainable site development
- water efficiency
- energy efficiency
- materials selection
- indoor environmental quality

Further information on the LEED program and the certification process can be obtained at the Canada Green Building Council Website.

The New Place Riel: Embracing Green Solutions

After a variety of presentations, discussions and debate, University Students’ Council accepted the recommendation of the USSU’s Operations and Finance Board that for the Place Riel Project the USSU target LEED Silver Certification. USC Motion84: Ring/Steeves This motion was carried.

Subsequently the USSU’s architect, Brian Saunders and his team have explored sustainable design and will continue to do so as the project evolves. Although it is too early to make definitive statements, it seems likely that the USSU will have little difficulty reaching Silver in the new portions of the Student Centre. Currently we are too early in the process to determine if Silver is attainable within the space scheduled for renovation only.

Further information on the LEED program and the certification process can be obtained by clicking here.