FORT RILEY, Kan. - Fort Riley is the first installation in the Kansas City District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to receive Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification under the U.S. Green Building Council's guidelines, said Jonathan Petry, senior architect with the Kansas City District U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
"This is due to rapid pace of construction at the installation over the past few years, which afforded an immense opportunity to deliver sustain-able projects," Perry said.
LEED is a third-party green building certification program which encourages and accelerates global adoption of sustainable green building and development practices through a rating system that recognize projects that implement strategies for better environmental and health performance.
There are currently 14 facilities in the Kansas City District to have achieved the LEED silver rating - all of which are at Fort Riley. These facilities include barracks on Custer Hill, Demon's Diner Dining Facility, Combat Aviation Brigade barracks, facilities on Marshall Army Airfield including the CAB's battalion headquarters, hangars, company operations facilities, runway and taxi ways, as well as an access control point.
During the Society of American Military Engineers Greater Kansas City Post Fort Riley Field Chapter meeting Dec. 9 at Riley's Conference Center, Col. John Dvoracek, deputy garrison commander for transformation, received the plaque signifying the certification for the Marshall Army Airfield facilities.
"LEED certification is earned after a project is constructed, so the recent achievements are due to continuous efforts of project team members over the past few years since the projects were originally conceived," Petry said. "The other installations that the Kansas City District covers are expecting to receive notifications of their first LEED silver certifications over the next few months, as formal reviews on recently completed facilities are concluded."
LEED is the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high-performance green buildings giving owners and operators the tools needed to have an immediate and measurable impact on their buildings' performance by promoting the five key areas of human and environmental health: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection and indoor environmental quality, according to the U.S. Green Building Council website.
Architects, facility managers, engineers and government officials are just some of the people who use LEED. State and local governments are adopting LEED for public-owned and public-funded buildings.
In January 2006, the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Installations and Environment announced the Army would begin using the LEED rating system effective with the Fiscal Year 2008 Military Construction Program, instead of the Sustainable Project Rating Tool.
"Constructing and operating sustainable, energy efficient, water-conserving, healthy buildings is what is important," Petry said. "LEED is simply a tool that the Army has chosen to enable teams to construct, operate and maintain facilities with those objectives."
Dating back to April 2000, Army policies from the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Installations and Environment have stressed the Army's policy of Sustainable Design and Development, but only in the last few years did it become a requirement to use the LEED rating tool to measure projects, Petry said.
Based on the LEED requirements, Fort Riley facilities earned the silver rating for various reasons.
The Custer Hill barracks received 34 out of 36 possible points because of a 42 percent reduction in water use. Demon's Diner received 33 out of 40 points because 62 percent of construction waste was diverted from landfills and 70 percent of wood materials were harvested from certified forests. The CAB barracks received 36 out of 37 possible points because 81 percent of the site was restored with native plant material, and 49 percent of the materials were manufactured within 500 miles of Fort Riley.
Because 72 percent of the hardscape was paved with highly reflective materials, and more than 98 percent of construction waste was diverted from landfills, the Marshall Army Airfield facilities received all 33 points possible. A total of 39 points is required for gold certification.
Other facilities in the Kansas City District expected to receive silver ratings include the Demon's Diner Dining Facility and barracks on Custer Hill including Building numbers 7884, 7874, 7882, 7872 and 7886.
Other installations will soon received silver ratings for facilities as well including the Permanent Party barracks, Prime Power School, Mine Detection Training facility and military working dogs kennel at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo.; and the chapel complex at Fort Leavenworth, Kan.
For more information on LEED visit www.usgbc.org.
Social Sharing