Industry Awards >> UC Merced Earns LEED-Gold for Sustainable Design

The University of California, Merced, received a Gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program. UC Merced received the LEED-Gold certification for the Central Plant complex, the first completed facility complex on the new UC California campus, which opened in 2005 for the Fall Semester. The Gold certification is one step higher than the LEED Silver level, which is the target UC Merced has set for the entire campus. Only one other UC California campus, UC Santa Barbara, has attained a certification above the Silver level.

The four structures that make up the Central Plant complex are the hub of the utility infrastructure operations for the campus. These include the Central Plant building that houses the boilers and chillers, a telecommunications building, a 2-million-gallon thermal energy storage water tank, and an 800-foot-long utility tunnel. Buildings are ranked by USGBC based on factors such as energy efficiency, reduced water use, recycling, waste management, efficient lighting, materials selection, landscaping, and transportation.

Sustainability from the Ground Up

“The utility infrastructure plays an important role in the sustainable design of the UC Merced campus,” says Fred Neal, Kennedy/Jenks Consultants Project Manager. “Kennedy/Jenks, as a subconsultant to Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, developed the integrated utility master plan, which provides long-range planning for the potable and recycled water systems, sanitary sewer, gas, and electrical and communication duct bank systems.”

Kennedy/Jenks also designed, as a subconsultant to Arup, the underground utility systems for the Phase 1 campus. These systems included potable water, recycled water, sanitary sewer, natural gas, hot and chilled water, power and communication duct banks, and the utility tunnel. The utilities were sized to accommodate UC Merced’s phased development over the first 30-years of the campus. “Planning concepts that guided the campus design included the principles of sustainability, appropriate allocation of resources, indoor environmental quality, and LEED certification,” explains Neal. “LEED certification is proposed not only for the campus buildings, but for the entire campus site including the infrastructure. UC Merced is also the first campus to have approved prototype credits. There are ten campus-wide site development and infrastructure credits that automatically apply to all projects.

“Our goal was to support sustainability ‘from the ground up’,” Neal states. “We designed the backbone utility systems to accommodate potential future use of renewable and emerging technologies in the energy systems. The recycled water distribution system is an example of this future planning as there is no recycled water available today. Building the underground recycled water piping at the same time that other underground infrastructure systems are constructed saves the campus the future cost and inconvenience of installing these pipes when recycled water does become available in the future.”

Sustainable Features

“Other sustainable features included the chilled water cooling system that all buildings will rely on,” adds Neal. “The thermal energy storage tank stores the chilled water, which is chilled at night during off peak PG & E hours, and is distributed to all the buildings during the day for cooling. This greatly reduces each building’s daily demand for energy. The utility tunnel was another key piece of the energy strategy for the campus. The hot and chilled water piping in the utility tunnel is sized to meet the energy needs of the future buildings and the tunnel is designed so that it can be extended to serve the future campus growth areas. In addition, the utility systems are grouped within utility corridors that follow paved roadways and walkways. By using corridors, we avoided open spaces and allowed easy access to utility lines for maintenance and repairs without disturbing sensitive areas.

“We’re gratified to be a part of this sustainable, farsighted campus planning,” says Neal. “And we’re looking forward to the opportunity to continue to work with the campus on its future infrastructure planning and design needs.”

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