Home page: Executive Summary

What? Basics

• Building Impacts on the Natural Environment
• Characteristics of High Performance Buildings
• Trends in High Performance Building
• Brown's Planning Process
• Role of University in Society
• High Performance and Environmental Examples at Other Universities
• Brown's Environmental Progress and Opportunities for Improvement

Why? Benefits of High Performance Building Design

• Fulfills university's social and moral responsibility to lead society to better world
• Increases external respect
• Saves on Operations and Maintenance Costs
• Improves Occupant Health and Productivity
• Reduces Negative Impact on Natural Environment
• Attracts prospective students and donors concerned with the environment
• Comfortable and healthy working spaces attract and retain high quality staff
• Increases learning for all stakeholders
• Supports Rhode Island 's goal to meet greenhouse gas emissions reductions targets
• Helps cut pollution from fossil fuels
• Brown Receives Recognition for Responsible Building Design
• Reduces energy use, water consumption and material use
• Increases life span of building
• Exceeds Environmental Regulations, Reduces Liability

Why Not? Barriers to Overcome

• Lack of High Performance Buildings Design awareness
• Misperceptions that high performance buildings are cost-prohibitive
• Brown University 's Fiscal Policies Promote Inefficiency
• Lack of Environmental Leadership from Top-level Administration
• Lack of Institutional Planning Memory
• Steep Learning Curve and Lack of Unified Goal Communication

How: Plan for Success

• Recommendations: The Corporation and top-level administrators must explicitly support:

• Adopt High Performance Building Design Guidelines
• Consider Life Cycle Costs
• Include High Performance Experience Criteria in Design Team Selection
• Hire a Full time Energy Manager
• Implement Integrated Design Processes

When: Timeline

Vocabulary Terms

References

Acknowledgements

Additional pages:

• What are High Performance Buildings?
• Why are High Performance Buildings Better?
• Brown is Green Accomplisments 1991
• Brown is Green Policies 1991
• Campus Case Study: University of Wisconsin: Green Bay
• HPBD Sample Brown Document
• Sample Brown University Environmental Mission Statement
• Leith Sharp's Institutional Barriers to an Environmental Campus
• President Gregorian's Environmental Proclamation
• President Simmon's signing of New England Governer's Climate Change Statement
• Questions Decision makers can ask the design team
• UNC Chapel Hill's LEED chekclist