"Change is the law of life and those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future." -John F. Kennedy

In 1990, Brown established its leadership in the environmental campus movement. It hired an environmental coordinator who was responsible for promoting campus environmental responsibility and resource conservation. To read about Brown's Environmental Achievements in 1991, read Brown Is Green first year accomplishments. Brown University also signed the Talloires Declaration in the early 1990s. By signing, Brown committed to "set an example of environmental responsibility by establishing. practices of resource conservation, recycling, waste reduction, and environmentally sound operations." [1]

Currently, Brown participates in Design 2000, involves the input of multiple stakeholders in the design process, and includes commissioning provisions for recent campus projects to ensure systems were operating as intended. When it comes to environmentally better buildings, energy conservation and superior indoor air quality constitute most of Brown's achievements because the Department of Facilities Management has paid the most attention to these building issues. With increased top-level administration support, Facilities Management would be able to significantly enhance the performance of Brown buildings.

The Urban Environmental Lab, renovated in 1981, is still the most energy efficient campus department building. One of Brown University 's other highest performing buildings is actually not its most recent project. MacMillan Hall, an interdisciplinary sciences teaching facility completed in 1998 conserves 30% more energy than baseline modeling predictions. With ample daylighting and demand controlled ventilation, it is among the most comfortable buildings on campus. MacMillan Hall was the first campus project to explicitly include limited commissioning and a more comprehensive design team. However, due to the laboratory needs of the building, it still required much energy to operate. An improvement on the design would have been possible if the occupants were more flexible with their program demands by not over designing for any possible use. This is a direct and inefficient result of Brown building occupants separation from the operating costs of their offices, classrooms, and laboratories. There is room for improvement in Brown University buildings. For more information about environmental achievements at Brown, please visit Brown is Green.

In September 2003, Ruth Simmons, Brown's President, signaled concern about climate change and agreed to help Brown work to meet the goals of the NEG/ECP Climate Change Action Plan. Please view the document President Simmons signed. The recent Environmental Change Initiative (ECI) at Brown University aspires to "tackle significant problems in Environmental Change through an interdisciplinary approach that will build on relationships among already-strong academic units." High Performance Building Design (HPBD) corresponds with the ECI and should be explicitly supported.

Although some campus buildings exceed minimum building codes, some recent building designs seem to ignore lessons learned from past project experiences. Brown University 's leadership in responsible building design must be revived with the implementation of HPBD guidelines. A progressively superior performance level should be required of every new campus building or major renovation.

HPBD is one opportunity for Brown to resume its leadership position in environmental campus design. Barriers such as misperceptions about the high cost of HPBD, the increased complexity of an integrated design process, and competing priorities have impeded complete HPBD implementation at Brown. Once top-level administrators are aware of the benefits of HPBD, they should communicate its importance to Brown throughout the Planning Office and Facilities Management Department. Leaders in these departments should then insist on HPBD for every new campus building. In April 2001, the Chronicle of Higher Education noted that national rankings of colleges and universities say little "about the degree to which a college or university attempts to behave sustainability-that is, to manage its campus and activities in ways that promote the long-term health of the planet." National rankings, the Chronicle continues, are silent as to which colleges and universities "can serve as models to society in a threatened world." The role of the university in our culture is, at least in part, to serve as a model through research, teaching, engagement in the world, and demonstration of its built environment. Investigating the manifold ways in which Brown can serve as such an environmental model and committing to HPBD will advance Brown University on the leadership track.

Related Brown University websites:

• Brown University Homepage
• Brown is Green (BIG)
• Center for Environmental Studies (CES)
• Environmental Change Initiative (ECI)
• Brown Environmental Action Network (BEAN)
• Department of Facilities Management
• Office of the Provost: Space Committee

The next section on this website explains the many Benefits associated with HPBD.

[1] Composed in 1990 at an international conference in Talloires , France , this is the first official statement made by university administrators of a commitment to environmental sustainability in higher education. The Talloires Declaration is a ten-point action plan for incorporating sustainability and environmental literacy in teaching, research, operations and outreach at colleges and universities. It has been signed by over 275 university presidents and chancellors in over 40 countries. (from www.ulsf.org, website of University Leaders for a Sustainable Future )