School of Nursing building earns LEED Gold Certification

LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is a green-building certification program that recognizes facilities for being energy efficient and environmentally sustainable.

The School of Nursing building is located just north of the North Ingalls Building and was completed in 2015. The building’s design and systems include several energy-efficient features including an efficient heating and cooling system, additional roof insulation and lighting reduction through the use of occupancy sensors.

“This building is estimated to operate at 27 percent energy savings as compared to a new building that simply meets current energy code and this helps minimize our environmental impact,” says Hank Baier, associate vice president for facilities and operations. “U-M requires comprehensive evaluation of energy efficiency measures and modeling of energy usage for proposed projects at each phase of design.”

During construction, crews diverted 89 percent of the on-site generated construction waste from the landfill.

Natural daylight is maximized in interior spaces to reduce electric lighting needs and to provide a connection to the outdoors.

A green vegetated roof spans more than 2,300 square feet to reduce building energy use.

Native and adaptive vegetation and a high-efficiency irrigation system reduces water for landscape use by 67 percent.

Use of low-flow plumbing fixtures aims to reduce water consumption by 35 percent when compared to the 2009 Michigan Plumbing Code.

About a quarter of the building materials were manufactured and extracted within 500 miles of Ann Arbor. Additionally, 35 percent of the building materials were manufactured using recycled materials.

“Along with its state-of-the-art facilities for engaged clinical learning, the new School of Nursing building stands out for progressive features in areas such as sustainability, says Kathleen Potempa, dean and professor at the School of Nursing. “We planned for lots of natural light, plantings and welcoming spaces in our students’ home away from home. Nursing is a high-stress profession, so we wanted faculty, staff and students to both relax and be inspired here. We are proud to receive LEED Gold recognition for the balance we envisioned.”

The 78,000-square-foot building accommodates instructional space, including a clinical learning center and simulated patient suites as well as some faculty offices and administrative spaces.

The School of Nursing building is one of 12 LEED certified facilities on the Ann Arbor campus.

Other LEED Gold certified projects include the School of Music’s William K. and Delores S. Brehm Pavilion, the Munger Graduate Residences, the Institute for Social Research Expansion, the Dana Building and the Crisler Center Expansion.

U-M has a long history of environmental stewardship in its approach to facility design and construction which supports the university’s overall commitment to sustainability known as Planet Blue.