Green Building Guidelines Draft LEED v4

The University of Massachusetts is dedicated to sustainability in all aspects of Campus Systems. For the past year and a half the Green Building Subcommittee of the Chancellor’s Sustainability Committee has been working with Campus Planning to develop an updated version of our Green Building Guidelines for UMass. Since the University is committed to achieving or exceeding LEED Silver certification for all new construction and major renovation projects, we must continue to evolve and improve our approach to sustainable building to continue to provide innovative design solutions for the future of the flagship campus.

When the USGBC (U.S. Green Building Council) released the latest version of LEED (v4) in 2014, UMass took the initiative to update the existing campus Green Building Guidelines. The new iteration of the guidelines aims to clarify changes between the previous version (2009) and version 4, as well as provide context and recommendations specific to UMass for each LEED credit.

The Green Building Subcommittee  has released its Green Building Guidelines Draft LEED v4 for public comment until April 30, and is excited to invite the broader campus community to provide feedback.  The subcommittee took a credit-by-credit approach to analyzing campus infrastructure, policies and practices as they pertain to green building and LEED certification.  For this most recent iteration of the Green Building Guidelines, each credit has been revised and re-written to align with the most recent version of LEED v4.

If you are a UMass student, faculty or staff member, project manager or a consultant who works with Campus Planning and Design & Construction Management or other units within Facilities & Construction Services, please review the document and let us know what you think by April 30!  We value input from our community as we continue to build a beautiful and sustainable campus.