They have an excellent opportunity to build community support and rapport through purchasing locally as a part of the sustainability plan. Community Leadership

The campus library has many reasons to commit to sustainable building design. Aside from the apparent environmental reasons, the long-term benefits to their financial well-being and contribution to the community also make this an excellent project for the library. Sustainable building design demonstrates excellent community leadership for the library. People come to the library in search of knowledge and enlightenment. Responsible building design promotes the overall goals of the library as an example of what can be achieved and as a community resource.

Sustainable building creates sustainable communities. It only takes a single act to create the need for future buildings to follow sustainable principles. This will spread to other communities and eventually this will lead to a major environmental impact. LEEDs certification at the library is a local issue, but the overall effects of this action on the community and on its many branches into the community must be considered as well. The library project is only a small step that could lead to major changes in the region.

The actions taken by the library will also create the need for other libraries to take similar actions, particularly when it comes to building on or remodeling an existing building. The library will serve as an example and when other communities may have to follow suit in order to meet the minimal criteria for community acceptance. The library will set a standard for others to follow. This will be a key selling point for the campus.

The library has an obligation as an educational institution to make the world a better place through education. The nature of the library makes it a natural choice for the inclusion of a special section dedicated to sustainable practices. It can serve as a key community resource and collection of materials to help others understand the basics of sustainable development and education. There are many possibilities for educational opportunities and training within the context of the library setting. The library can become s key component of the ability to spread sustainable practices into the community at large.

Sustainable building design means treating the entire building and a whole unit. Each component has an effect on other components. For instance, energy consumption also has an impact on other elements, such as water usage and the carbon footprint. Sustainable design does not allow building components and elements to be treated as separate entities. They must be considered for their holistic affects on the entire building.

This concern for the impact on the whole also extends beyond the walls of the library and into the community. Sustainable designs must consider their impact on the community. For instance, runoff may affect local ground water or waste water treatment. Waste generated by the facility will have an impact on the local landfill and how much waste they can handle in the future. The library remodeling project will have an impact on the community, regardless of whether it is achieved in a sustainable fashion or not. However,...

Conducting the project in the most sustainable manner possible is expected to have a positive impact on the community perceptions about the library and about the campus in general.
The library could help the university to attract new students, thus improving the bottom lien of the campus. Building green is no longer a rarity. It is becoming the new norm. The community demands best technology and latest innovations. This is the opportunity to use the project as leverage to gain a greater market share of the potential student body by demonstrating their competence in environmentally relevant issues. They can demonstrate that they are leaders in their field, making them a more desirable institution of higher learning. This would enhance the image of the campus and make it more likely to attract students in the future.

Conclusion

Many reasons exist for undertaking the LEED certification for the university library. As this research demonstrated, LEEDS certification will make the library an even more valuable community resource than it already is today. "Sustainability" is a new buzz word, but there are few who truly understand all that this term encompasses. There are many aspects to the term "sustainability' that have an effect on the overall outcome of the project. Some of these are major building components and others appear to be minor details, but they all contribute to the value of the library and the value that it adds to the campus and surrounding community.

LEEDS certification will allow the library to take a leadership role in building a community that is sustainable and offers vision for the future. It is likely that the library will only be the first of many community projects to help build up the campus area into one of the most desirable sections of the region. It will play a key role in future building and development that focuses not only on the immediate needs, but on the future needs of the community. LEEDs certification in the library remodeling project demonstrates that it wishes to use state of the art techniques and theories. This will enhance the overall impression of the building and of the campus as a place of higher learning. The library will play a key role in establishing a community that focuses on sustainability and a vision for the future.

References

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Sierra Club (2005). Institutional Sustainability Audit. Sierra Club. January 1, 2005. Retrieved

April 13, 2010 from http://www.sierraclub.org/sustainable_consumption/downloads/institutional-audit.pdf

Steven Winter Associates, Inc. (2004). GSA LEED Cost Study. U.S. General Services

Administration . Order No. P -- 00 -- 02 -- CY -- 0065. Retrieved April 13, 2010 from http://www.wbdg.org/ccb/GSAMAN/gsaleed.pdf

US. Green Building Council (USGBC) (2010). Project Certification. Retrieved April 13, 2010

from http://www.usgbc.org/DisplayPage.aspx?CMSPageID=64