The area of sustainable sites takes into consideration where a building should be placed and other aspects such as storm water runoff.

“Sites is how you place a building in a sustainable way, whether it’s close to alternative transportation, whether you’re redeveloping a ground field site and how you deal with storm water design,” Morton said.

Water efficiency is a measurement of how well a building uses water.

Morton said watering plants with rain water and using low-flush toilets helps to score points in this category.

Energy and atmosphere is the area that provides the most points toward certification. This area deals with saving energy in a building, Morton said.

“If you can conserve energy by using more insulation and better windows, that’s a good thing,” Morton said. “This is also the category where you get credits if you have green power like a wind generator or solar panels on the roof.”

Materials and resources looks at what kind of materials you use to build, he said.

“It’s always a good idea to use recycled products than to use new products, and reused products are actually better than recycled products,” Morton said. “Also, in this category you get points for using rapidly renewable products, such as plywood made out of wheat board, instead of chopping down trees.”

Indoor air quality deals with making the environment for people in the building as good as it can be, and in order to score points in the category you can ban smoking in buildings, increase ventilation and use low-emitting materials, he said.

The final category for accreditation is innovation, which deals with good ideas that save energy and make a building more comfortable for people to inhabit and use, Morton said.

Currently, Morrill Hall is in the process of becoming LEED-accredited and, Morton said he hopes it will achieve a silver level – somewhere between 33 and 38 points.

The design pavilion will hopefully be at a gold level, and all new buildings must be LEED-accredited, he said.

“That’s where the whole idea of LEED is different from what you might think of as just purely energy savings,” Morton said. “The idea is not to have people sit around with their overcoats on in a cold office. The idea is to have the place comfortable and save energy. Our policy is that every major building that’s starting design will at least be at a silver level.”

At this time there aren’t changes being made to older buildings on campus, but Morton said they hope to bring those up to LEED-certification level in the future.

“Some of the state-deferred maintenance money that we received this year will be going to replacing windows in Marston Hall and Science Hall, and there will be some other things that will increase energy efficiency of those buildings and others on campus,” Morton said.

Jason Grimm said the Emerging Green Builders has helped promote sustainability in existing buildings by recycling.

“We’re trying to design more recycling containers. It’s a new thing we’ve started this semester,” Grimm said. “We’re trying to design new containers that attract people to put something into.”

Nelson said continuing to work with campus officials is the best way Emerging Green Builders can help make a difference.

“We are a pretty young club, and we’d like to get some more active projects,” Nelson said. “On campus, it’s the old buildings that have the biggest footprint, so I think continuing that link with the campus planning and figuring out how we can help them and encourage them to do as much as they can is the key.”

Morton said green building is essential for the future.

“I think this is the way of the future,” Morton said.